The hidden economic and environmental value in a farm

Minister of State Pippa Hackett has welcomed the release of a new animated video, produced by Natural Capital Ireland in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to introduce the concept of Natural Capital Accounting to the farming community and agri-food industry.

Economic and environmental value in a farm

This lively animated video shows how the Natural Capital approach – a standardised method to assess nature’s stocks and flows – can help us all to consider the hidden economic and environmental value in a farm. This can include soil health, biodiversity, carbon storage, water quality and flood mitigation, as well as cultural and heritage value, mental health and wellbeing.

Referring to the approach, Minister Hackett said: “I look forward to a time when we all speak easily about Natural Capital. The services nature provides are so widespread and so important that we should be recognising them almost without thinking. And we must start accounting for them too. There is quite a distance to go, of course, before we get to that stage, which is why videos like this one, which help us get comfortable with the concept, are so valuable.”

The farming families of Ireland can be powerful allies for nature conservation. Responsible for so much of Ireland’s land management, farmers are on the frontline when it comes to tackling the biodiversity crisis, especially armed with the right knowledge and support.

The European Green Deal states that “all EU policies should contribute to preserving and restoring Europe’s natural capital” and the new EU Biodiversity Strategy states that by 2050, “the EU’s natural capital will be protected, valued and appropriately restored”.

As this approach becomes more integrated into national policy, it will allow farmers, policymakers, ecologists, and the wider community to work together to make more sustainable practices the norm and will illustrate how often simple measures and adjustments regarding land use, pesticide use, hedge-cutting practices etc can be of enormous short-term and long-term benefit for the planet, with the potential for economic advantages for the farmer too.

Chair of the Board of Natural Capital Ireland, Professor Jane Stout from Trinity College Dublin, said: “There’s lots of unrecognised and overlooked value in Irish farmland. Both in terms of the natural capital it supports, and the ecosystem services and benefits that flow from it. Quantifying that natural capital, including biodiversity of habitats and species, and the service flows from them, and tracking it over time in Natural Capital Accounts, can be a useful tool for farmers and policymakers. These accounts can help inform decision-making and planning, as well as developing incentives to protect and restore nature on farmland.”

About Natural Capital Ireland:

Natural Capital Ireland is a non-profit membership organisation made up of over 850 members from the academic, public, private and NGO sectors. Natural Capital Ireland advocates for the development and application of the natural capital approach in environmental and economic issues in Ireland.

NCI co-delivered the sold-out National Biodiversity Conference at Dublin Castle in 2019 and participates in original research such as the pioneering INCASE project, testing natural capital accounting at catchment scale in Ireland for the first time.

Our Steering Committee has representatives from across the island of Ireland, and from government departments, NGOs, and semi-state corporations, including the Departments of Agriculture and Climate Action, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Business in the Community, Bord naMóna, Coillte, Irish Water, Ulster Wildlife Trust, and Northern Ireland Environment Link.

Natural capital is a concept that frames the world’s renewable and non-renewable resources, like plants, animals, air, water, minerals and soils as assets or stocks that combine to yield a flow of benefits to all of us. The UN has a standard for this type of accounting, called the SEEA, the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts. The aim of organising this information is to help us understand how the environment interacts with the economy, making environmental risk and opportunity visible in economic systems.

See also: https://www.naturalcapitalireland.com/about

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