{"id":25293,"date":"2020-02-08T16:03:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-08T16:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=25293"},"modified":"2020-02-07T16:50:35","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T16:50:35","slug":"natural-capital-tool-to-help-protect-the-environment-at-defra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=25293","title":{"rendered":"Natural capital tool to help protect the environment, at Defra"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fieldsA new online resource for measuring natural capital is now available through England\u2019s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).<\/h3>\n

image: Open Government Licence v3.0<\/em><\/h6>\n

<\/p>\n

GOV.UK writes:<\/p>\n

An ambitious new online resource has been launched on 22 January by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to help ensure better environmental decision-making by valuing our \u2018natural capital\u2019.<\/p>\n

For the first time, a comprehensive and integrated set of evidence and guidance about UK natural capital is now accessible from one place. It is intended to help policy makers, businesses, landowners and public sector organisations make better planning decisions in order to protect and to boost natural capital.<\/p>\n

\u2018Natural capital\u2019 is the sum of our ecosystems, providing us with food, clean air and water, wildlife, energy, wood, recreation and protection from hazards. The natural capital approach will make it easier for public and private organisations to better assess and value the environment. This will help deliver benefits including long-term flood risk reduction, boosts to wildlife, improvements to water and air quality, and opportunities for biodiversity net gain.<\/p>\n

The value of the environment and natural capital is routinely understated. For example, the Office for National Statistics estimate that England\u2019s woods and forests deliver a value of services estimated at \u00a32.3 billion annually. Of this figure, only a small proportion \u2013 10% \u2013 is in timber values. The rest of the value derives from other more \u2018hidden\u2019 benefits to society, such as human recreation and air pollution removal, which improve health, and carbon sequestration which can help combat climate change.<\/p>\n

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said:<\/p>\n

“Today\u2019s publication helps to put the natural environment at the heart of decision-making. It meets a commitment from our 25 Year Environment Plan to better incorporate the value of nature \u2013 known as natural capital \u2013 and the benefits the environment provides to us all.<\/p>\n

This comes at a critical time where the protection of our environment is ever-more important in combatting climate change and reversing habitat loss.”<\/p>\n

The \u2018Enabling a Natural Capital Approach\u2019 (ENCA) project delivers on a commitment in\u00a0the government\u2019s 25 Year Environment Plan<\/a>. The resource was developed in collaboration with experts from across Defra and its agencies and informed by the work of academic, professional and voluntary bodies such as the Valuing Nature Network, to ensure the best available evidence is included in a user-friendly way. Today\u2019s move will also help support the delivery of\u00a0Nature Recovery Networks – part of the government\u2019s landmark Environment Bill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Matthew Farrow, Executive Director of the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) said:<\/p>\n

“Business has a vital role in delivering natural capital improvements across our communities and countryside. To do so it needs to adopt best practice and make decisions based on a consistent understanding of the available tools, resources and datasets.<\/p>\n

“In bringing together all the relevant resources in one place, ENCA will make a huge difference to the ability of businesses and their advisers to<\/p>\n

assess how their actions and investment decisions can be aligned with protecting and enhancing the natural environment on which we all rely. EIC is delighted to have provided member cases studies for ENCA and looks forward to promoting it.”<\/p>\n

Professor Ian J. Bateman, Director of Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP) University of Exeter said:<\/p>\n

“Ensuring that natural capital is embedded at the core of policy and decision-making is now key to government policy as seen with the HM Treasury Green Book guidelines for appraising public spending, the Government\u2019s 25 Year Environment Plan and as recently as the Green Finance Strategy.<\/p>\n

“Yet information and guidance on how to implement the natural capital approach to decision making at the practical level is at best fragmented. There is a clear need for central government leadership on this. I and other academic colleagues believe Defra\u2019s ENCA will provide what is needed and we look forward to its arrival.”<\/p>\n

ENCA builds directly on HM Treasury\u2019s \u2018Green Book\u2019 guidance – a standard to which government policies and projects must be measured against, so that government departments fully take account of the natural environment in policy design and publically funded projects.<\/p>\n

This meets the recommendation of the\u00a0Natural Capital Committee\u2019s Annual Report (2019)<\/a>\u00a0to have robust values and resources when assessing environmental impacts.<\/p>\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new online resource for measuring natural capital is now available through England\u2019s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). image: Open Government Licence v3.0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25294,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25293\/revisions\/25294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}