Understanding Environmental Assets: Evaluating Conservation and Reforestation Frameworks
Environmental assets refer to the natural resources and ecosystems that provide benefits to society, such as clean air and water, biodiversity, and climate regulation. As concerns over climate change and environmental degradation continue to grow, there has been increasing interest in using frameworks to evaluate the value of environmental assets and the impact of conservation and reforestation efforts.
One of the most widely used frameworks for evaluating environmental assets is the Natural Capital Protocol. This framework provides a standardized approach to assessing the value of natural capital, including the benefits provided by ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, and grasslands. The Protocol can be used by companies, governments, and other organizations to evaluate the environmental impacts of their operations and to identify opportunities to improve their sustainability performance.
The Natural Capital Protocol Framework covers 4 stages centred around the questions: Why? What? How? and What Next?
Frame (Why?)
Identify risks and opportunities for your business and stakeholders resulting from your relationships with natural capital and explore how an assessment would be relevant to your decision making.
Scope (What?)
Identify the objective of your assessment and conduct a materiality process to select the most relevant impacts and dependencies from the perspective of both your business and stakeholders.
Measure & Value (How?)
Use relevant approaches to measure and value the costs and benefits resulting from your material impacts and dependencies on natural capital.
Apply (What Next?)
Interpret, validate and verify your assessment process and results and integrate them into existing business processes to inform decision-making.
Another commonly used framework for evaluating environmental assets is the REDD+ program.
REDD+ stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, and it is a global program aimed at incentivizing forest conservation and reforestation efforts. The program provides financial incentives to countries and communities that are able to reduce their carbon emissions through forest conservation and reforestation projects.
To evaluate the impact of conservation and reforestation efforts, a number of metrics can be used, including carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and ecosystem services.
Carbon sequestration refers to the ability of forests and other ecosystems to absorb and store carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
Biodiversity refers to the variety of plant and animal species that are present in an ecosystem, and it is important for maintaining ecosystem health and resilience.
Ecosystem services refer to the benefits that ecosystems provide to humans, such as clean air and water, food and fiber production, and climate regulation.
By using frameworks to evaluate environmental assets and the impact of conservation and reforestation efforts, we can better understand the value of these resources and the importance of protecting them.
Whether through the Natural Capital Protocol, the REDD+ program, or other frameworks, there are many tools available to help us evaluate and protect the environmental assets that are essential for our health and well-being.
