Welcome to the Implementation Toolkit for Scaling Natural Capital Approaches
Implementation Toolkit for Scaling Natural Capital Approaches
This collection of resources is designed for practitioners, government professionals, academics, and consultants who want to apply natural capital approaches in their own work. Natural capital approaches make nature’s benefits to people explicit so they can be incorporated into decisions and can motivate greater investment in ecosystems, improving the well-being of both people and nature. Whether you are exploring these methods for the first time, trying to identify opportunities to integrate nature’s benefits into policy, or looking to implement a natural capital assessment that will inform a policy, finance mechanism, or natural capital accounting program, these resources provide the guidance, tools, and examples you need to get started.
What is this toolkit?
Natural capital approaches provide a structured way to understand and demonstrate the value of nature — making ecosystems and the services they provide visible in the policies, investments, and decisions that shape development outcomes. When done well, they bridge science, economics, and policy to generate evidence that can transform how governments and other institutions manage natural resources.
The materials in this Implementation Toolkit distill lessons from the People, Planet, Prosperity (3Ps) project, a collaboration between the Natural Capital Alliance at Stanford University, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank. This project applied natural capital approaches across 16 pilot countries to directly inform policy and investment decisions. The resources provided here translate the experience and methods from those pilots into practical materials that any team can adapt and apply. The toolkit was funded specifically through a Regional Technical Cooperation funded by the Global Environment Facility, implemented by IDB, and executed by Stanford University.
These resources are built around a core insight from that experience: natural capital approaches that have been successful in motivating policy and behavior change are not just technical exercises. They require clear policy objectives, inclusive stakeholder engagement, strong institutional partnerships, and deliberate strategies for turning evidence into action.
How to use this toolkit
There is no single right entry point. If you are new to natural capital approaches, we recommend starting with our introductory materials before exploring the online course. If you are already familiar with the concepts and ready to plan your own initiative, go directly to the How-to Guide and Implementation Tools. If you are looking for inspiration or want to understand what impact looks like in practice, the Case Studies are a good place to start.
Explore all the tools or choose your learning journey:
| If you are a… | ||
| Policymaker, Leader | Technical Team Lead, Consultant | Researcher, NGO Professional |
| and your goal is to… | ||
| Understand and communicate how and when natural capital valuation, assessment, and policy can be useful tools to unlock financial and political support. | Understand how natural capital approaches have been applied in practice, undertake a natural capital assessment or accounting analysis, and build capacity to use the results. | Understand the theory and approaches of natural capital, undertake a natural capital assessment or accounting analysis, teach natural capital concepts and methodologies. |
| Your learning journey: | ||
| Learn about natural capital approaches with the introductory materials | Explore case studies, example approaches, and applications | Learn about natural capital approaches with our introductory videos |
| Explore case studies with real-world impact | Get step-by-step guidance and implementation tools to get you started | Explore case studies with real-world impact |
| Go deeper into applications of natural capital and learn how to integrate into policy and/or practice with the Massive Open Online Course | Find support for applying natural capital assessment and accounting tools | Get step-by-step guidance and implementation tools to get you started |
| Build awareness and capacity with example training materials | Find support for applying natural capital assessment and accounting tools | |
| Go deeper into applications, tools, and communicating results with the Massive Open Online Course | Learn and teach key concepts and approaches with example training materials | |
| Go deeper into applications, tools, and communicating results with the Massive Open Online Course |
These resources are designed to be used together and adapted to your context. Natural capital approaches are not one-size-fits-all — the most effective initiatives are those that are grounded in local priorities, built on genuine partnerships, and connected to the decisions that matter most in a given place and time.
Toolkit Resources
The toolkit’s resources are organized into six categories, designed to support you at every stage of your journey — from building foundational understanding to engaging decision-makers, designing and implementing your own assessment, and sharing and iterating on the results.
What are natural capital approaches?
Discover how natural capital approaches help make nature’s benefits visible in policy, planning, and investment decisions. Explore the concepts, tools, and real-world applications shaping more sustainable and resilient futures.
What can natural capital approaches achieve?
Case studies from across Latin America and Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, and Sub-Saharan Africa demonstrate how natural capital approaches have been applied to inform a range of policy and investment decisions.
How do I implement a natural capital approach?
Ready to apply natural capital approaches in practice? Access step-by-step guidance, implementation tools, and practical templates to design assessments, identify potential finance solutions, and support real-world decision-making.
What resources can I use to develop trainings?
Materials to support capacity development, including example workshop and training agendas, slide decks, and video lectures for building expertise among key actors – whether they are high-level policymakers, mid-level project managers, civil society actors, or technical staff interested in applying natural capital approaches.
Where can I learn more about tools used for assessment?
Practical guidance and software resources to help you map, model, and value ecosystem services, including InVEST, economic valuation methods, and natural capital accounting frameworks.
Massive Open Online Course
Natural Capital for Development: Valuation, Investment and Policy is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) geared toward public officials and practitioners seeking practical skills to integrate nature into policy, planning, and investment decisions. The course features step-by-step examples and how to apply natural capital assessments and accounting.
Self-paced | 20 hours | Introductory level
This MOOC was developed by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Stanford Natural Capital Alliance, with funding from the Global Environment Facility.
Preparation of this Implementation Toolkit was led by Adrian L. Vogl (Natural Capital Insights), Kim Bonine and Elana Kimbrell (Natural Capital Alliance-Stanford University).
This toolkit was jointly developed by Natural Capital Insights and the Stanford Natural Capital Alliance as part of the Regional Technical Cooperation, “Transforming Policy and Investment Through Mainstreaming Rapid Approaches for Natural Capital Assessment and Accounting,” which was funded by the Global Environment Facility, implemented by the Inter-American Development Bank, and executed by Stanford University.