We are now in the business of restoring nature

By Henri Brocklebank

Head of Conservation

Natural Capital. Do you even know what it is? More eco-babble?... Actually it’s all pretty obvious stuff to the ecologically minded. I was lucky to go to a national conference on Natural Capital so I can paraphrase from one of the speakers, (also a president of the Wildlife Trusts), Tony Juniper:

“We now realise that healthy natural systems are essential to our wellbeing and existence and we now have the evidence to prove it.”

We have arrived.! This very straightforward concept is no longer totally theoretically and only coming out of the mouths of the deep green lobby. There is a strong movement from environmental NGOs and now from government to take Natural Capital as well as Financial Capital into account in decision making. It is happening, businsses and financiers are getting involved and we are working hard to get the frameworks in place both locally and nationally to become what Michael Gove aspires to as the “gold standard’ in protecting and enhancing Natural Capital’.

Here in Sussex, the Wildlife Trust is working closely with the Sussex Local Nature Partnership to promote what we call ‘the Natural Capital agenda’. As I arrived at yesterday’s conference I was joined by five other members of the Sussex Local Nature Partnership. We were surely the best represented County there. From a Wildlife Trust perspective we are deeply committed to the supporting the work of the UK Natural Capital Committee at a local level and ensuring that the intrinsic value of nature (the bit you cannot put a price on) is always embedded into all natural capital discussions. The picture above shows just some of the people we are lucky enough to work alongside.

Left to Right, Chris Fairbrother and Adam Brown (both South Downs National Park), Laura Newland (Natural England), Kate Cole (East Sussex County Council), Henri Brocklebank (Sussex Wildlife Trust) and Sean Ashworth (Sussex Inshore Fisheries Authority).

We have a Climate Change act and soon we will have an Environment Act. However both these Acts are sending a signal economy wide that we are now in the business of restoring nature. Low carbon and environmental enhancement are here to stay. We got a clear message at the conference that NGOs, government and businesses all have a role to play to make things happen, the journey is far from over but we are certainly heading in the right direction.