Sowing the seeds of tomorrow

Did you know that Biodiversity Net Gain and potentially Environmental Net Gain can go a long way in ensuring we can play a part in the required global recovery?

Humanity has prospered immensely in recent decades. However, this prosperity has come at a devastating cost to Nature. We are destroying biodiversity – the very characteristic that, until recently, enabled the natural world to flourish so abundantly.

At the heart of the problem lies a deep-rooted and widespread institutional failure.

Nature’s worth to society, the true value of the various goods and services it provides, is not reflected in market prices because much of it is open to all at no monetary charge. These pricing distortions have led us to invest relatively more in other assets, such as produced capital. This often means that our natural assets lose out and lack investment.

Humanity faces an urgent choice. Continuing down our current path, where our demands on Nature far exceed its capacity to supply us, presents extreme risks and uncertainty for our economies.

Sustainable economic growth and development require us to take a different path. Our engagements with Nature must go beyond sustainability… they must enhance our collective wealth and wellbeing and preserve the beauty of our incredible world for our descendants.

The change required should be geared towards three broad transitions:

• Ensure that our demands on Nature do not exceed its supply and that we increase Nature’s supply relative to its current level;
• Change our measures of economic success to help guide us on a more sustainable path;
• Transform our institutions and systems – in particular, our finance and education systems – to enable these changes and sustain them for future generations.