Can natural capital help national-level policy-makers to embed sustainability considerations? Insights from Scotland

Natural Capital is a concept expected to help tackle the perennial challenge of ‘mainstreaming’ nature, so that all sectors' decisions reflect nature's importance. This includes the public sector, as Natural Capital is affected by and relevant to a variety of policy goals. This study presents the first survey of policy-makers views of Natural Capital in Scotland. We received responses from 50 policy-makers from a range of departments and roles in Scotland's civil service. We found there was generally familiarity with Natural Capital but a lack of familiarity or confidence in working with it, even though some data and policy-oriented tools are available. Our respondents generally agreed more needed to be done to embed sustainability considerations in policy development: indicating that more tools and data could be relevant, but also other institutional changes. This study suggests we cannot rely on solely on the provision of Natural Capital tools or data to embed sustainability issues in policy development. Initiatives such as training and providing case studies can help complement tools: there is also a need to consider institutional capacity and appetite to adapt working processes. Transdisciplinary appraisal of a mixture of interventions will help future efforts to embed sustainability considerations in policy-making. • We surveyed 50 Scottish policy-makers' views on Natural Capital (NC) & sustainability • They are familiar with NC but so far rarely work with related data or tools • They supported doing more to embed sustainability considerations in policy • Data and tools were desired; but also other changes such as leadership & capacity • Future efforts to work with NC should be supported by transdisciplinary appraisal