Natural capital approaches to decision-making for collaborative landscape governance

This study explores if and how natural capital approaches can support collaborative landscape governance. We selected six initiatives across the UK that have taken varied approaches to working with natural capital. We assessed how they have articulated, described and valued their landscapes and natural systems, and the consequences of doing so. We found that processes of systematically describing natural assets and their benefits can stimulate local investment in ecosystem markets and bring people together to co-produce plans. However, efforts to monetarily value natural capital assets were not always necessary: in some cases, new partners and resources were enroled without monetary valuations. These findings challenge the current emphasis on valuation framings in natural capital approaches. They show how natural capital approaches can help address the simultaneous challenges of connecting disparate priorities and securing new funding sources. This offers insights for international efforts to support collaborative landscape governance that delivers multiple benefits for people and nature. • We examined how natural capital approaches can inform and support collaborative landscape governance. • We studied six landscape initiatives that use a range of natural capital approaches to assist planning and decision-making. • The approaches helped the initiatives to identify intervention ‘hotspots’ and prioritise management actions. • We found that natural capital approaches are also helpful for co-producing plans and enroling new collaboration partners. • The approaches can stimulate local investment in ecosystem markets but monetary valuation is not always necessary.