Written by NBN Trust CEO, Lisa Chilton
What do you get when you mix 400 financial experts and a large ball of elephant poo? As it turned out: an inspiring, uplifting and thought-provoking day of presentations and conversations about the importance of nature, and the vital role that finance can play in restoring it.
This was a conference on Natural Capital, convened by Rebalance Earth, an organisation with the mission to “create high-integrity nature credits that protect and grow biodiversity, capture carbon and generate prosperity for the communities that preserve nature.” The event brought together experts from across the financial services and investment worlds, from big names such as PwC and Federated Hermes, to more specialist companies such as NatureAlpha. What they all have in common is an interest in the value of biodiversity as a natural asset, and how their industries can leverage investment in protecting and restoring it.
The elephant poo in question belonged to none other than the eminent zoologist and explorer Ian Redmond, who co-founded Rebalance Earth. Holding the dung aloft (it was 30 years old, and reassuringly desiccated), he spoke passionately about the connectedness of nature, including the critical role of species such as elephants and gorillas as ‘natural gardeners’. Their droppings disperse and fertilise tree seeds, providing very effective reforestation and recycling nutrients. It’s been estimated that the lifetime value of an elephant, based solely on the market value of the carbon she sequesters, is US$2.7 million. If we were to pay her a salary, she’d be earning around $50,000 a year for her contribution to Net Zero!
That’s interesting in an academic sense, but at the same time it’s deeply uncomfortable to reduce nature, wildlife – even individual elephants – to a number on a balance sheet. How can we possibly do nature justice? There was even talk of creating a new cryptocurrency, ‘naturecoin’, based on natural assets, and a somewhat tongue-in-cheek conversation about calculating the natural capital value of Sir David Attenborough.
Crude and risky though natural capital accounting can seem, it’s clear to me that, as conservationists, we have to engage. This is happening, and it’s happening soon, whether you’re at peace with it or not. Global and national conventions, laws and policies are increasingly requiring businesses to measure and report on their impact on nature and on the risks that biodiversity loss presents to their economic activity. The Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures is working hard to provide a consistent framework and principles to enable businesses to report and act upon on nature-related financial risk. And the world is inevitably moving in the direction of creating tradeable ‘nature credits’, akin to the carbon credits that are already well established (though not without controversy).
It’s not going to be easy, but it’s arguably our best hope. The shortfall in funding for global nature conservation and recovery has been estimated at US$700 billion a year. Government funding and philanthropy are vital, but they can’t plug that enormous gap. So the proposed solution is the creation of a trillion dollar business with a transformative impact on global biodiversity. As conservationists, it’s essential that we’re at the table, to ensure that the outcome is based on the best available data and is robust, effective and transparent.
To my surprise, I left the conference elated. Despite all my rational (and probably a few irrational) concerns about natural capital, it was astounding and heartening to be in a roomful of people working in such a different arena to mine, but all thinking hard about nature. It was joyous to hear the word ‘biodiversity’ in almost every sentence, to witness the exchange of new ideas designed to help nature and, yes, to see elephant poo hailed as the natural wonder it surely is.
You can view videos and presentations from Rebalance Earth on the Conference pages of the website.
