The Natural Capital Initiative (NCI) is a partnership between three leading scientific organisations in the UK: the Royal Society of Biology, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the James Hutton Institute

NCI's mission is to support decision-making that results in the sustainable management of our natural capital. NCI facilitates dialogue between people from academia, policy, business and the civil society. It also communicates independent and authoritative scientific evidence for natural capital decision making across the UK.

NCI’s aim is to be an independent and trusted forum through which decision-makers from academia, business, policy and the civil society can engage in meaningful cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral dialogue. The goal is to embed natural capital thinking in policy and practice based on the best available evidence from across the natural and social sciences.

Our events

Since 2009, the NCI has organised numerous workshops, seminars and dialogue sessions to discuss the value of nature and its services to people. NCI’s “Valuing our life support systems” conferences have brought together influencers across academia, policy, business and the civil society to shape the conversation around natural capital. In May 2019, we celebrated our 10th anniversary by organising the third “Valuing our life support systems” conference.

You can watch a YouTube recording of the latest NCI event here.

At this event, Amy Wright, principle ecologist at Native Ecology, discussed the biodiversity net gain framework developed in England. Following this, Simon Brooks, strategic planning manager at NatureScot, introduced the approach set out in the Scottish Government policy. This was followed by an audience Q&A.

Further details

For more information about the work of the Natural Capital Initiative please visit www.naturalcapitalinitiative.org.uk or follow us on Twitter @NCI_NatCap.