Events and Blogs

On the 23rd November 2017, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Forum on Natural Capital convened a high-level roundtable in Edinburgh to determine how to take forward the Scottish Government's commitments of protecting and rebuilding natural capital. Bringing together 18 public sector bodies in Scotland, including NHS – Health Scotland, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Water, the discussion was the first…

Crown Estate Scotland, SEPA, Farm Advisory Service and SAC Consulting are currently working toward finalising the scope of a project on Natural Capital and Integrated Land Management Plans. This project will explore the most effective way to include Natural Capital element in Integrated Land Management Plans (ILMP). The aim is not to make substantive changes to the normal ILMP format…

An analysis of the economic and social benefits of investing in the natural environment of Stirling has been carried out and will soon be available here.  If you urgently require a copy of the full report, please contact Punit Desai, Project Officer, by email at pdesai@naturalcapitalforum.com.

On the 27th November 2017, Edinburgh hosted the world's first Government Dialogue on Natural Capital. Representatives from 16 countries, the European Commission and a range of non-governmental organisations met to discuss governments’ role in creating an enabling environment for the natural capital agenda. Roseanna Cunningham MSP, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, opened the Dialogue with an…

What is biodiversity? Whilst often perceived as simply representing exotic and endangered species, biodiversity includes all of the life on Earth, in all of its forms – from bluebells to redwoods, molluscs to whales – and all its interactions. It is the interactions between biodiversity and non-living resources that generate most of the benefits that flow from natural capital. In…

The existing Natural Capital Asset Index (NCAI) helps us track broad-scale changes in the quantity and quality of habitats and has been adopted as an indicator within the National Performance Framework. It includes terrestrial and (some) coastal habitats, but the index development did not include marine assets (largely due to data limitations). Advances in marine data and health indicators for…

Today, the Scottish Government released the first set of Ecosystem Service Accounts for Scotland. These accounts, produced by the Office for National Statistics, provide the first comprehensive assessment of Scotland’s natural capital and includes information on 10 ecosystem services: Agricultural biomass  Fish capture Timber Water abstraction Mineral production Oil and gas production Renewable energy generation Carbon sequestration Air pollutant removal Recreation…

In March the first set of Scottish Natural Capital accounts was launched by SG. The accounts provide information on the physical flows and asset value for ten ecosystem services, outlined on the website. The accounts also contain estimates of the total asset value of the stock. This showed that the partial asset value of Scottish natural capital was £273 billion…

The Natural Capital Asset Index (NCAI) was updated in April with the most recent results showing that overall the potential of Scotland’s environment to improve wellbeing is increasing. Heath and peatland habitats continue to show signs of recovery since lows in 2012. This year a Story Map was launched that presents the latest results in a more user-friendly and accessible…

The Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park Authority are looking to build on previous activities that have supported community-led action planning and stakeholder engagement on land use within the Strathard area of the National Park. Later on this year, they are looking to engage a range of stakeholders to produce a shared vision and consensus, forming a masterplan and…