Maintaining Natural Capital Stocks: An Insight into Traditional and Modern Approaches

Abstract

Natural capital refers to the natural environment around us that provides the goods and services to sustain life on this globe and includes soil, air, water, plant and animal biomass, forests, fish populations and mineral deposits. Sustainability could be defined as the level of consumption that satisfies the demand of the present without compromising the need of the future generations and not demeaning natural capital stocks. A serious threat to the current framing of natural capital is its apparent seclusion from financial capital and mainstream economic and social activity. This seclusion leads to indiscriminate use of nitrogen fertiliser to increase productivity per unit area in crop fields or decreased protein returns in aquatic habitats ultimately leading to ecological mayhem. However, indigenous people living in traditional societies are found to have strong conservation ethics arising out of their age-old ecological knowledge, protecting natural capital in their native homeland. The sacred groves in India, Tukano Indians in North West Brazil, tribesmen in TransFly region in Papua New Guinea, Masai in African Savanna are some of the examples. This article highlights some of the novel approaches adapted to protect natural capital and includes Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and natural capital accounting. PES are evolving as a creative and motivational strategy for natural capital conservation in many parts of the world, especially in Latin America. The natural capital accounting assign monetary value to natural capital and could bridge the apparent seclusion of natural capital from financial capital. The national Governments and world leaders are taking a broader perspective to look into the options of sustainable development to maintain natural capital stocks and many such projects are put forth in different countries. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and Sustainable Development Goals lead to a system of largescale management called the Ecosystem Approach involving multiple stakeholders. The primary goal is protecting ecosystem components and processes for the long term, keeping an eye to the present needs also. The PES and natural capital accounting are two important gauge of sustainability protecting mother nature from indiscriminate handling by its most rational offspring.