The Natural Capital (NatCap) collaborative attracts new and established researchers who are dedicated and passionate about the field of environmental economics and are focused on effecting change. This will have been done through dedicated research on water systems, ecosystem services & biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, and forestry, in collaboration with researchers throughout the global EfD network. Though NatCaps research targets are challenges in the environmental sector, NatCap’s overarching social ambitions are the reduction of poverty and gender equality.

Vision

It is our objective to improve the knowledge and empirical experience of valuing ecosystem services and biodiversity, water systems, sustainable agriculture, and forestry in order to better account for these services throughout the Global South.

Research under this program includes:

• To promote the management of natural resources through nature based solutions based on the principles of natural accounting practices.

• Stimulate the increased development of ecological infrastructure.

• Investigate and advocate for equitable burden sharing arrangements concerning water scarcity through behavioral economics principles and tariff structures.

• Develop novel strategies that strengthen urban and rural water systems' resilience to climate change and human activity.

• Conduct and disseminate rigorous research on the inter-linkages between sustainable agriculture and food systems.

• Boost novel agricultural risk mitigation policies for climate variability to improve access to safe and nutritious food and reduce poverty.

Key projects

Active projects

• The Towards Equitable & Sustainable Nature-Based Soluitions (TES NbS) project explores the role of NbS in reducing risk and vulnerability to climate change in developing regions, focusing on Southern African Water Towers, which are mountainous areas important for water supply to lowland areas. Read more
• The Burden sharing and fairness principles in Water Management for the Global South project investigates what the preferences are for rules around sharing the burden of paying for water services in different supply scenarios, including what constitutes as "reasonable" or "fair" water bills. There is focus on four urban water observatories, Santiago, San José, Nairobi and Durban. Read more
• The Climate Change Feedback Effects on Payments for Ecosystem Service Contract Adherence project seeks to understand how participants in Payments for Ecosystem Service (PES) programs respond  when faced with climate shocks that impact income and if there are policy mechanisms that can be additionally leveraged to increase PES contract adherence. Read more

Completed projects

• The ESAforD project is an unprecedented seven-country ecosystem service valuation project developed in collaboration with EfD centers located in: Costa Rica, China, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Sweden, together with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
• The Park Pricing project has involved collaboration across the EfD’s centers in Eastern and Southern Africa