Government Dialogue on Natural Capital: Counting on Nature

This report brings together sustainability transitions research and natural capital approaches to offer a strategic perspective and concrete policy menu for governments to navigate and accelerate this desired great transformation.

Key messages are:
1. Natural capital (‘NC’) approaches show great promise for governments, businesses, and other organizations to start considering natural capital when making decisions, but need to be understood and implemented in the broader context of wider societal transitions occurring in national economies.
2. Natural capital approaches need to be used instrumentally to contribute to the desired transitions to economic systems that take natural capital into account (positive natural capital) and institutionalized within a longer-term strategic perspective.
3. The transition governance framework and the developed policy menu provide concrete and practical guidelines for governments to deal with natural capital approaches in a systematic manner.

The report is developed by the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) van of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, to prepare the Government Dialogue on Natural Capital that the governments of Scotland and the Netherlands hosted at the 3rd World Forum on Natural Capital (Edinburgh, 27 November 2017).