Valuing Nature
Overview
As economies around the world boom, a key question is how to balance conservation with growth. Without balance, the natural resources—forests, oceans, wildlife and more—we rely on for such things as food and jobs can suffer.
How, for example, can we guide decisions about where to build new roads so they don’t cut through forests that are prime tiger habitat? How can we convince developers not to cut down mangroves when they build a seaside resort—as doing so will make people along the coast highly vulnerable to storms and will damage fish nurseries?
And how can these questions be answered now so that the continued overexploitation of nature is lessened?
One way is to take stock of the natural resources in a country or region, as well as the benefits (or “ecosystem services”) they provide to people before decisions are made about their fate. Doing so uncovers ways to restore and protect nature more effectively and at a larger scale than ever before—even while allowing economies to grow.
Stock-taking can include assessing and mapping the contribution—under different development and climate change scenarios—rivers and forests play in providing clean water for drinking, bathing, farming, and other household needs. Or asking where mangroves provide vital natural barriers that help buffer coastal communities when major storms hit.
These are important concerns for developing world countries and even for the developed world, as Californians stressed by a cycle of drought, fires, and floods know all too well. They are also important to address because natural resources, when managed to accommodate change and not just for persistence, help build a country’s resilience to the disruptive impacts of climate change. As more intense heat waves, droughts, and storms affect forests, rivers, and streams, the way we manage these resources must change if we are to continue to benefit from the services they provide to people, wildlife, and businesses.
How to standup paddle board—and help wildlife at the same time

Why It Matters
What WWF Is Doing

Over the last 10 years, WWF has been a leader in educating people about why nature matters, creating tools and approaches for them to take stock of their natural resources, and helping them use information generated through this process to grow their economies responsibly. We are now shifting to using the tools and approaches to make the biggest changes possible. We are doing so with a variety of partners, including The Natural Capital Project—which includes WWF, The Nature Conservancy, Stanford University and the University of Minnesota.
Read reports and peer-reviewed publications about Valuing Nature.
Spatial and Development Planning
WWF helps countries and regions take stock of their natural resources, then use this information to inform and inspire better decisions on how to grow. For example, in Indonesia, Belize, and Myanmar we have worked with our Natural Capital Project partners and others to assess the benefits nature provides under different development and climate change scenarios. This is moving development planning toward a green economy approach—one in which the sustainable use of natural resources is integrated into a country or region’s plans and policies for the economy, energy, agriculture, land use, foreign investment, and more. The assessments are also used to conduct environmental impact studies for proposed projects; decide where and how much to invest in protecting a country’s natural resources or building new roads and dams; create plans to make coastal communities more resilient to climate change; and more.
Business Supply Chains

WWF works with companies to raise awareness about why and how to factor the value of nature into business planning and investments. WWF participates in the Natural Capital Coalition, a group of more than 200 entities motivated by the notion that investing in nature can help reduce risks to their business models and supply chains.
Commodity Standards

Through comprehensive research, WWF works to ensure that commodity standards help the public and private sectors reduce risks, meet environmental and development targets, and protect valuable natural resources. For example, WWF works with Bonsucro and a wide range of stakeholders to model how the sugarcane certification advances conservation goals, as well as what can be done to strengthen the standard for more sustainable sugarcane cultivation and processing. As one of the world’s thirstiest crops, sugarcane has a significant environmental impact on many critical regions, from Southeast Asia’s Mekong River Delta to Central America’s Mesoamerican Reef.
Funding for Protected Areas

WWF and its partners use an innovative funding approach—called Project Finance for Permanence (PFP)—that ensures the long-term financial stability of protected areas or networks of protected areas. It is a means for permanent and full funding for protected areas. The results from natural resource assessments are used to inspire government leaders to support the creation of this type of fund and public and private sector donors to contribute to the fund. For example, a WWF-led assessment of natural resources in the Brazilian Amazon showed that maintaining and adding protected areas across that region could result in a 12 percent increase in water volume available for hydropower production by 2050. This information helped build support for creating a $215 million fund to properly manage forests in the Brazilian Amazon.
Projects
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Mozambique’s Lifeline: Nature
Mozambique is instituting a five-year strategy that makes the sustainable management of natural resources and the environment a priority, and to the creation of a program that will focus on protecting the country’s natural capital.
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The Natural Capital Project
The Natural Capital Project—a partnership among WWF, The Nature Conservancy, University of Minnesota and Stanford University—works to provide decision makers with reliable ways to assess the true value of the services that ecosystems provide.
Experts
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Robin Naidoo Senior Conservation Scientist and Lead Wildlife Scientist
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Nirmal Bhagabati Lead Natural Capital Scientist, Forest Team, Natural Capital
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Ryan Bartlett Lead, Climate Risk Management
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Kate Newman Vice President, Forest and Freshwater Public Sector Initiatives
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Michele Thieme Lead Conservation Scientist, Fresh Water
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Brad Ack Senior Vice President, Oceans
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Lloyd Gamble Director, Forests and Climate
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Shaun Martin Senior Director, Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience