Hannah Rudman appointed co-chair of the Scottish Forum on Natural Capital to drive nature-positive solutions

By Dr Hannah Rudman, Senior Research Fellow

Dr Hannah Rudman, a Senior Research Fellow at The James Hutton Institute, has been appointed co-chair of the Scottish Forum on Natural Capital. She joined the Forum in 2020, and turned her professional focus to finding nature positive solutions to the climate and biodiversity crisis. Hannah has co-led the Forum’s Nature Finance Pioneers Hub since its early days, when it was a network of 80 people from 30 organisations. Now it has grown to over 775 people from c.230 organisations. 

The Hutton has a long involvement with the Forum. Dr Kerry Waylen leads another of the Forum’s action Hubs, the Sustainable Land Management Connectors. James Hutton Limited’s Antonia Boyce is the new lead of the Digital Enablers for Natural Capital Hub. Deputy Chief Executive Professor Deb Roberts has been a long-standing steering group member of the 150+ member strong national Forum.

The Forum started in 2014, after Scotland hosted the Inaugural World Forum on Natural Capital, take a look at its timeline. Way back in the early days, Hannah was the “young SME representative” in the Scottish Government’s 2020 Climate Group convened by Ian Marchant and Dame Susan Rice, which was the Forum’s precursor. 

In 2023, the membership collective agreed that the Forum’s focus would be identifying and showcasing natural capital solutions. Supporting collaboration across business, finance, government and society. Fostering shared understanding of natural capital mechanisms and the financial, policy, scientific and social evidence. The Hubs are doing that brilliantly, consistently growing and actively leading the forum’s outputs and impacts.

Dr Hannah Rudman
The Forum and its Hubs logo

In 2024, we all feel the pressure of restoring 30% of land and marine habitat by 2030. Also the pressure to stop harmful activities that damage our ecosystems, reducing risk from pesticides by 50% and reducing nutrients lost to the environment by 50%, both by 2030. Talking about their vision, Hannah and Colin noted that now is the time to move from a Forum focussed on steering policy development and ideological debate, which has been appropriate for the last 10 years. Towards a Forum which is actively leading the things we need to do to achieve 30 x 30, finding the finance for nature ideas appropriate for our nation and encouraging stronger policy signals to support that. Its time to support high integrity natural capital markets to emerge in Scotland locally and at landscape scale. Whilst also encouraging the best standards for assuring quality and transparency nationally and globally. To do that, the Forum needs more sectors and disciplines represented. All the professions involved, and local communities and society given agency to understand the importance of nature, and financing it to ensure ongoing healthy life, economies and society. Developing a nature-positive transition the co-chairs also stressed that now is the time to develop the nature-positive transition (especially the “demand side” of natural capital markets).

They want to increase:

  • Local & regional Payments for Ecosystem Services and Nature-based Solutions,
  • Get institutional investors comfortable dealing with the environmental sector and vice versa, and
  • Develop and enable a more joined-up approach to the environmental, social and economic opportunities which emerge from thinking about them holistically.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog post are the views of the author, and not an official position of the institute or funder.