Module 2
Why it is needed now (IPBES and natural capital)
The causes of loss, and the structure of the economy’s dependence on nature
Learning objectives
- Can list IPBES’s five direct drivers
- Can explain the relationship between natural capital and ecosystem services
- Can apply the duality of dependencies and impacts to a business
The “direct drivers” IPBES showed
The IPBES Global Assessment (2019) organised the direct drivers of nature change, in descending order of impact, as (1) land- and sea-use change, (2) direct exploitation of organisms, (3) climate change, (4) pollution and (5) invasive alien species. Indirect drivers include production and consumption patterns, population, trade and governance. Site officers make progress by asking “through which direct drivers does our value chain act on nature?”
Natural capital is a stock; services are a flow
Natural capital is the stock of forests, soils, water, the atmosphere, communities of organisms and so on. Ecosystem services are the flows that arise from that stock. The MEA divides them into provisioning (food, water, timber), regulating (pollination, climate, floods), cultural (landscape, spiritual value, recreation) and supporting (soil formation, primary production). If the stock is eaten away, the flow thins. That is the basic structure of “nature loss = medium- to long-term business risk.”
Dependencies and impacts come as a set
A food manufacturer depends on pollination and freshwater and, at the same time, affects nature through agricultural conversion and fertiliser runoff. Construction depends on gravel, timber and land, and affects habitat through conversion. Financial institutions are indirectly exposed to both through the portfolio. Both TNFD and SBTN look at this pair of dependencies and impacts. Either side alone leaks.
Climate and nature are not separate problems
Intersections are everyday: renewable-energy siting that is a climate measure destroying important habitat; conversely, ecosystem recovery generating carbon uptake and disaster risk reduction at the same time. Nature Positive is not a substitute for climate goals; it is a pillar of the Earth system alongside climate. Talk about nature only in carbon tonnes and you enter failure modes such as large-scale monoculture plantations.
Takeaways
- Memorise the five direct drivers, and imagine which pathway your organisation acts through.
- Do not confuse natural capital (stock) with ecosystem services (flow).
- Always look at dependencies and impacts as a set.