Nature Positive, People Positive: Scaling Natural Capital Approaches for Impact (Global)

NatCap is coordinating an effort across 4+ international financial institutions and 6 countries to accelerate and mainstream financing of natural capital-based policies and plans, to improve outcomes for nature and people. Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

The Challenge

Natural capital approaches – which quantify nature’s benefits to people and integrate their value in policy and finance decisions – are spreading around the world. Yet this integration must be accelerated to match the scale of the problem. The rapid loss of natural ecosystems and biodiversity, along with the threats of climate change, undermine the ecological foundations of human societies, economies, and well-being.  

To address this challenge, in 2023 NatCap and its collaborators began shifting from individual projects in different countries to a more coordinated approach. The People, Planet, Prosperity initiative for the first time brought 16 different countries and 3 development banks (the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank) to learn across the country-based pilot projects as they were being implemented. This supported the mainstreaming of these approaches in both the governments and the development banks. 

Our Solution

To carry this work forward, NatCap and its collaborators are working to deepen the mainstreaming of these approaches, with 6 countries and 4+ banks. These projects will make use of well-established natural capital-based mechanisms, and inspire the integration of natural capital approaches into country planning as well as into standard financing offerings among international financial institutions (IFIs). Ultimately, this work aims to drive growth in investments and decisions that create net-positive outcomes (i.e., nature- and people-positive), and increase demand for these approaches.

More specifically this work will:

• Help countries move from national-scale planning and policy design to fully consolidated economy-wide planning, the implementation of cross-sectoral development strategies, and greater financial investments that deliver nature-positive outcomes.
• Develop capacity and internal processes at the IFIs to enable lending programs in support of national-level action on nature-positive development strategies in client countries.
• Increase global capacity and leadership for implementing and scaling development strategies that center nature’s benefits to people.

Read more about each component below. NatCap’s work on these projects is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. 

Focal countries

Belize
Building on the 3Ps Belize pilot project, with the Belizean government and the Inter-American Development Bank, the team is developing a cross-sectoral Monitoring, Reporting and Verification system to track progress toward both people- and nature-focused targets, supporting results-based financing of the country’s sustainable development.

Brazil
Project is in scoping phase.

Chile
Following on the 3Ps Chile pilot project and in collaboration with Chile’s Natural Capital Committee and the Inter-American Development Bank, this new phase of work will expand the approach, identifying where the most important ecosystem services are located in three different key macro-zones in Chile. The team will also inform the design of economic and financing instruments, and develop local communities of practice to increase long-term capacity around natural capital approaches. | More about this project.

Madagascar
Project is in scoping phase.

People’s Republic of China
China is an ongoing learning partner in this work. As a global leader in the development and application of Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP), China’s participation supports learning across the countries and the IFIs on the implementation of natural capital approaches and the mainstreaming of natural capital into policy and finance mechanisms at local, regional, and national scales.

Philippines
The work will build on lessons from the 3Ps pilot project. In partnership with the Asian Development Bank and the Philippines DENR and DPWH, this next phase will focus on incorporating nature-based solutions into integrated flood risk management, focusing initially on one pilot watershed, with the goal to scale nationally. This project will seek to demonstrate how natural capital approaches and nature-based solutions can strengthen flood management, enhance watershed resilience, and guide investments in sustainable livelihoods. The team will also continue to work with DENR-ERDB to develop capacity for applying natural capital approaches in a second watershed and in their watershed management planning processes more broadly. 

Work with International Financial Institutions

Beyond country-level applications, this project works with international financial institutions (IFIs), particularly multilateral development banks (MDBs), to strengthen the integration of natural capital approaches into upstream policy, planning, investment, and financing processes. This includes supporting the use of natural capital evidence in IFI country strategies, investment pipelines, infrastructure planning, and finance-related applications, while helping embed these approaches within institutional decision-making workflows. Through collaboration across IFIs and countries, the project also supports shared approaches and learning for mainstreaming natural capital into development finance and investment decisions.

Banner image photo credit: Omri D. Cohen (@omridcohen)