Science-Policy Interface
Policies to harmonize people & nature
NatCap connects natural capital assessments and accounting to policy and finance decisions and pathways to on-the-ground impact. We are constantly innovating in science-policy approaches for working with real-world decision-makers in key parts of government and finance: designing, testing, implementing, and scaling nature-based approaches to drive systems change. We carefully evaluate, document, and share these successes and lessons learned through our publications and other fora.
Nature’s Frontiers: Achieving Sustainability, Efficiency, and Prosperity with Natural Capital. World Bank Group. (2023).
Evidence-based target setting informs blue carbon strategies for nationally determined contributions. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 7 1045–1059. (2023).
Gross ecosystem product (GEP): Quantifying nature for environmental and economic policy innovation. Ambio, 52 1952–1967. (2023).
Theories of transformation
NatCap contributes to interdisciplinary work on effective ways to support systems change.
NatCap contributes to interdisciplinary work on effective ways to support systems change, drawing on resilience thinking, adaptive governance, and pathways for sustainability transformations. This includes understanding how crises and uncertainty can serve as catalysts for change, the role of networks and agency in enabling transformative shifts, and the mechanisms that drive tipping points toward more sustainable futures. Insights from social-ecological research help identify strategies for navigating complex transitions and fostering long-term resilience.
Sustainability transformations: A resilience perspective. Ecology and Society 19(4) 1. (2014).
Tipping Toward Sustainability: Emerging Pathways of Transformation . Ambio 40(7) 762–780. (2011).
Shooting the rapids: navigating transitions to adaptive governance of social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society, 11(1) 18. (2006).
Adaptive governance of social-ecological knowledge. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 30 441-473. (2005).
Disrupting the opportunity narrative: navigating transformation in times of uncertainty and crisis. Sustainability Science, 18, 1649–1665. (2005).
Climate resilience & security
Much of NatCap’s work is focused on delivering climate change mitigation (through blue and green carbon sequestration) and climate adaptation and security, integrating nature into urban, rural, and coastal areas to maximize the resilience of our interconnected human and natural systems.
Social–ecological benefits of land–sea planning at multiple scales in Mesoamerica Nature Sustainability, 7 545–557. (2024).
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR). World Bank Group. 2023.
Synthetic vulnerability assessment to inform climate-change adaptation along an urbanized coast of Shenzhen, China. Journal of Environmental Management, 255 109915. (2020).