Demonstrating the Benefits of Investing in Nature

During 2019 Marco Franzoi, one of our graduate placements, under took a series of studies to demonstrate the economic benefits of investing in nature capital. His work is summarised in the reports listed below.  The work examines and evaluates the case for investing in nature across a wide range of urban, rural and coastal settings, and is succinctly summarised in a series of value flow diagrams.  A constant theme is the need to demonstrate the specific impacts arising from specific interventions.  The study necessarily focuses on those benefits that could be monetised, recognising that this undervalues the full range of benefits that nature-based solutions provide, including their numerous less-quantifiable benefits.  There are links to numerous research papers and case studies. The papers present practical examples of tools and techniques that can be used to demonstrate, including where and when to apply them.

In carrying out his work, Marco worked with a number of colleagues in NatureScot as well as elsewhere in the public sector, universities, the private sector and voluntary bodies. We are very grateful for those contributions and time.

The current state of the world’s climate and nature and the scale and pace of effort required to address them makes the case for investing in nature more urgent and more important than ever. Within these 9 reports, Marco has produced a fantastic resource to that end which we share here for use across the public, private and voluntary sectors.