Maintaining Natural Capital Stocks: An Insight into Traditional and Modern Approaches

Subhasree Sen Gupta

doi:10.12944/cwe.15.2.21

Abstract

Natural capital refers to the natural environment around us that provides the goods and services to sustain life on this globe and includes soil, air, water, plant and animal biomass, forests, fish populations and mineral deposits. Sustainability could be defined as the level of consumption that satisfies the demand of the present without compromising the need of the future generations and not demeaning natural capital stocks. A serious threat to the current framing of natural capital is its apparent seclusion from financial capital and mainstream economic and social activity. This seclusion leads to indiscriminate use of nitrogen fertiliser to increase productivity per unit area in crop fields or decreased protein returns in aquatic habitats ultimately leading to ecological mayhem. However, indigenous people living in traditional societies are found to have strong conservation ethics arising out of their age-old ecological knowledge, protecting natural capital in their native homeland. The sacred groves in India, Tukano Indians in North West Brazil, tribesmen in TransFly region in Papua New Guinea, Masai in African Savanna are some of the examples. This article highlights some of the novel approaches adapted to protect natural capital and includes Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and natural capital accounting. PES are evolving as a creative and motivational strategy for natural capital conservation in many parts of the world, especially in Latin America. The natural capital accounting assign monetary value to natural capital and could bridge the apparent seclusion of natural capital from financial capital. The national Governments and world leaders are taking a broader perspective to look into the options of sustainable development to maintain natural capital stocks and many such projects are put forth in different countries. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and Sustainable Development Goals lead to a system of largescale management called the Ecosystem Approach involving multiple stakeholders. The primary goal is protecting ecosystem components and processes for the long term, keeping an eye to the present needs also. The PES and natural capital accounting are two important gauge of sustainability protecting mother nature from indiscriminate handling by its most rational offspring.

Highlights

Natural capital embraces the living and nonliving components of ecosystems that contribute to the generation of goods and services for people but excludes human beings and articles made by them
Timber harvesting in a forest depends on a coordinated effort of different types of capitals like, availability of mature timber, skill, identification and experience of logging, machines and logistic support
National Governments through out the world formulate effective legislation to protect species and habitats and at the same time allow development for the continued need of the society. Such efforts sometimes out corner the indigenous inhabitants of the land, like the case of Masais35 who have traditionally protected the habitat and natural capital available there

Summary

Introduction

Natural capital embraces the living and nonliving components of ecosystems that contribute to the generation of goods and services for people but excludes human beings and articles made by them. The flipside of the coin of the green revolution, is the fact that less than half (47%) of the nitrogen added globally through synthetic fertilizer onto the cropland is being accommodated into harvested crops today and rest being lost into the environment (Table 2) deteriorating natural capital resources This leads to air pollution, leaching of nutrients, eutrophication in adjacent water bodies, algal bloom killing aquatic biota.21&22 Scientists are repeatedly pointing to the underexploited potential of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in the soil since most of the countries have only a few percent of arable land cultivating leguminous crops. They set up a water user association that established a series of initiatives targeting upland landowners, including social programmes involving education and training, a reforestation programme and intensive agriculture to improve water quality and reduce erosion This water fund was being developed by the water users downstream to improve watershed management with an aim to regulate water flow, protect biodiversity, provide natural filtration and ground water recharge..

Conclusion

Findings

25. FAO 2006 Fertilizer and Plant nutrition Bulletin estudio