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Natural capital, as described in the book Natural Capitalism, is a metaphor for the mineral, plant, and animal formations of the Earth's biosphere when viewed as a means of production of oxygen, water filter, erosion preventer, or provider of other ecosystem services. It is one approach to ecosystem valuation, an alternative to the traditional view of all non-human life as passive natural resources, and to the idea of ecological health. However, human knowledge and understanding of the natural environment is never complete, and therefore the boundaries of natural capital expand or contract as knowledge is gained or lost. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Natural capitalism is a set of trends and economic reforms to reward energy and material efficiency - and remove professional standards and accounting conventions that prevent such efficiencies. ... This article is about metaphor in literature and rhetoric. ... For other uses, see Mineral (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Plant (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Biosphere (disambiguation). ... Means of production (abbreviated MoP; German: Produktionsmittel), also called means of labour are the materials, tools and other instruments used by workers to make products. ... General Name, symbol, number oxygen, O, 8 Chemical series nonmetals, chalcogens Group, period, block 16, 2, p Appearance colorless (gas) pale blue (liquid) Standard atomic weight 15. ... Impact from a water drop causes an upward rebound jet surrounded by circular capillary waves. ... For morphological image processing operations, see Erosion (morphology). ... Humankind benefits from a multitude of resources and processes that are supplied by natural ecosystems. ... Ecosystem valuation is the pricing or assessment of economic capital asset value to a living ecosystem. ... Ecological health or ecological integrity or ecological damage is used to refer to symptoms of an ecosystems pending loss of carrying capacity, ability to perform natures services, or pending ecocide due to cumulative causes such as pollution. ...

In a traditional economic analysis of the factors of production, natural capital would usually be classified as "land" distinct from "capital" in its original sense. The historical distinction between "land" and "capital" was that land is naturally occurring and its supply is assumed to be fixed, whereas capital as originally defined referred only to man-made goods. It has been argued that it's useful to view many natural systems as capital because they can be improved or degraded by the actions of man over time (see Tragedy of the commons), so that to view them as if their productive capacity is fixed by nature alone is misleading. Moreover, they yield benefits naturally which are harvested by humans, those being nature's services, 17 of which were closely analyzed by Robert Costanza. These benefits are in some ways similar to those realized by owners of infrastructural capital which yields more goods, e.g. a factory which produces automobiles just as an apple tree produces apples. Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... In economics, factors of production are resources used in the production of goods and services, including land, labor, and capital. ... Land in economics comprises all naturally occurring resources whose supply is inherently fixed (i. ... Capital has a number of related meanings in economics, finance and accounting. ... Infrastructural capital refers to any physical means of production or means of protection beyond that which can be gathered or found directly in nature, i. ... The Tragedy of the Commons is a type of social trap, often economic, that involves a conflict over resources between individual interests and the common good. ... Natures services is an umbrella term for the ways in which nature benefits humans, particularly those benefits that can be measured in economic terms. ... Dr. Robert Costanza(-[?]born Sept. ... Infrastructural capital refers to any physical means of production or means of protection beyond that which can be gathered or found directly in nature, i. ...

The term was most closely identified with Herman Daly, Robert Costanza, the Biosphere 2 project, and the Natural Capitalism economic model of Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and Hunter Lovins until recently, when it began to be used by politicians, notably Ralph Nader, Paul Martin Jr., and agencies of the UK government including the London Health Observatory. Herman Daly is an ecological economist and professor at the School of Public Policy of University of Maryland, College Park in the United States. ... Biosphere 2 Biosphere 2 is a 3. ... Natural capitalism is a set of trends and economic reforms to reward energy and material efficiency - and remove professional standards and accounting conventions that prevent such efficiencies. ... Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and best-selling author. ... Amory Lovins Amory Bloch Lovins (born November 13, 1947 in Washington, DC) was trained in physics and has worked professionally as an environmentalist. ... Hunter Lovins 2007 L. Hunter Lovins, renowned author and champion of sustainable development for over 30 years, is the founder and President of Natural Capitalism, Inc. ... Ralph Nader (born February 27, 1934) is an American attorney and political activist in the areas of consumer rights, humanitarianism, environmentalism and democratic government. ... The Right Honourable Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, (born August 28, 1938 in Windsor, Ontario) is the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, succeeding Jean Chrétien on December 12, 2003. ...

Some economists and politicians, including Martin, believe natural capital measures play a key role in money supply and inflation measurements in a modern economy. They point to uneconomic growth and a lack of any direct connection between measuring well-being and such indicators as GDP. In macroeconomics, money supply (monetary aggregates, money stock) is the quantity of currency and money in bank accounts in the hands of the non-bank public available within the economy to purchase goods, services, and securities. ... Uneconomic growth, in welfare economics, human development theory and some forms of ecological economics, is economic growth which reflects or creates a decline in human well-being. ... The well-being or quality of life of a population is an important concern in economics and political science. ...

Indicators adopted by UNEP, WCMC and the OECD to measure natural biodiversity use the term in a slightly more specific way. However, all users of the term differentiate natural from man-made manufactured capital or infrastructural capital in some way. It does not appear that the basic principle is controversial, although there is much controversy on ecological health indicators, value of nature's services and Earth itself, consistent methods of ecosystem valuation, biodiversity metrics and methods of audit that might apply to these services, systems and biomes. Klaus Töpfer, UNEP Exec. ... The Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College is the medical school and biomedical research unit of Cornell University. ... The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. ... Rainforests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth Biodiversity is the variation of taxonomic life forms within a given ecosystem, biome or for the entire Earth. ... Infrastructural capital refers to any physical means of production or means of protection beyond that which can be gathered or found directly in nature, i. ... Infrastructural capital refers to any physical means of production or means of protection beyond that which can be gathered or found directly in nature, i. ... Ecological health or ecological integrity or ecological damage is used to refer to symptoms of an ecosystems pending loss of carrying capacity, ability to perform natures services, or pending ecocide due to cumulative causes such as pollution. ... Natures services is an umbrella term for the ways in which nature benefits humans, particularly those benefits that can be measured in economic terms. ... In economics, value of Earth is the ultimate in ecosystem valuation, and important to value of life calculations. ... Ecosystem valuation is the pricing or assessment of economic capital asset value to a living ecosystem. ... For other uses, see Audit (disambiguation). ... A biome is a climate and geographical area of ecologically similar communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, often referred to as ecosystems. ...

Full cost accounting, triple bottom line, measuring well-being and other proposals for accounting reform often include proposals to measure an ecological deficit or natural deficit alongside a social deficit and the well-known financial deficit. It would be hard to measure such a deficit without some agreement on methods of valuating and auditing at least the global forms of natural capital, e.g. value of air, water, soil. Full cost accounting (FCA) generally refers to the process of collecting and presenting information (costs as well as advantages) for each proposed alternative when a decision is necessary. ... The triple bottom line, measuring organizational (and societal) success; economic, environmental and social. ... The well-being or quality of life of a population is an important concern in economics and political science. ... Accounting reform is an expansion to accounting rules that goes beyond the realm of financial measures for both individual economic entities and national economies. ...

The concept of natural capital implies that the savings rate of an economy is an imperfect measure of what the country is actually saving, because it measures only investment in man-made capital. The World Bank now calculates the genuine savings rate of a country, taking into account the extraction of natural resources and the ecological damage caused by CO₂ emissions. The World Bank logo The World Bank (the Bank) is a part of the World Bank Group (WBG), is a bank that makes loans to developing countries for development programs with the stated goal of reducing poverty. ...

See also

• Ecosystem services
• Five Capitals Model

Humankind benefits from a multitude of resources and processes that are supplied by natural ecosystems. ... The Five Capitals Model of sustainable development groups together Natural capital Social capital Human capital Manufactured capital Financial capital The model is used to show stocks and flows of resources as they relate to a sustainable society and economy. ...

External links

• Natural Capital indicators for OECD countries
• Natural Capitalism
• Ecosystem Valuation - US DA
• Earth Dividend