Time to take stock of how we relate to nature

By Dr Kerry Waylen, Social Researcher at the Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Dept at the James Hutton Institute

The 45^th MDT Lecture by Professor Gretchen Daily is an important spur to reflect on how we protect and relate to Scotland’s natural environment.

Professor Daily is renowned globally for pioneering the idea of ‘natural capital’. Natural capital is a way of representing nature, drawing attention to the many social and economic benefits they yield to people.  We are all deeply dependent and interconnected with natural systems; finding ways to safeguard these systems is therefore of vital importance.

Nearly two decades ago, Professor Daily co-founded the Natural Capital Project to integrate the values of nature into planning, policy, finance, and management. Its tools and approaches have been influential in many countries across the world.

Here in Scotland we have also been pioneering in trying to work with natural capital.  The public sector has strongly endorsed the concept. For example, Natural Capital is an indicator within our National Performance Framework, by which the Scottish Government holds itself to account.  It is part of the vision shaping the Agricultural Reform Programme.

If Natural Capital sounds ‘business-like’, then that is deliberate: talking about nature in terms of capital, stocks, assets and flows of benefits is intended to make decision-makers in all sectors take account of the environment in their decisions.  Therefore, Natural Capital is also associated with more private sector involvement in ‘green’ activities, ranging from companies reconsidering their environmental impacts and dependencies, through to buying carbon credits for offsetting.  All these activities have been influenced or informed by activities elsewhere, including the UK level and international examples.

However, we certainly haven’t achieved perfection in Scotland. For example, the most recent State of Nature Report shows alarming declines in biodiversity sustained over the last decades. So clearly, something else needs to be done.  

NatureScot recently commissioned us to understand the reasons why our natural systems continue to be degraded. The report, published last year, indicated that many parts of our society, culture, economics and technological systems are driving this problem. Therefore, fixing the problem is going to require us to make extensive changes likely to affect all of us. The pace of, scale and scope of changes is referred to by many as ‘transformative’.

This is not easy of course. The challenge is especially apparent in the face of the constraints on government spending. Just last week it was announced that Local Authorities must reallocate this year’s funding for Nature Restoration, to settle pay deals.  We need to find ways to change that are fair and feasible. But we cannot avoid the challenge, as our air, food and water all depend on safeguarding irreplaceable natural systems.

Therefore, the talk from Professor Daily is going to be essential and comes at just the right time. We need reminder of our interconnections with natural systems – and we need ideas and inspiration for ways to protect and enhance that relationship.  The question is not can Scotland do more, but how?