Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda item

Agenda item

The Ecosystem Approach and Natural Capital checklist

To receive a report from Paul Esrich, AONB Partnership Manager.

 

Minutes:

AONB Partnerships were centrally funded from Defra and there was an expectation that the AONB Units would assist in the delivery of the Government’s environment plan – A Green Future: our 25 year plan to improve the environment. Natural Capital was a key part of the plan. Natural Capital can be defined as ‘the stock or elements of nature that directly or indirectly produce value for people’.

 

Malvern Hills AONB was one of twelve AONBs to get support from a company being funded by Natural England to help with Natural Capital Planning. A Natural Capital checklist had been completed which looked at what the Partnership knows about its Natural Capital and what it was doing to improve it.  Within the checklist it was noted that a Natural Capital Scoping Study had been produced in 2017; that the new Management Plan was not based on Natural Capital but it did refer to it and that the Management Plan did prioritise actions to ‘enhance and improve the resilience of local Natural Capital’. Paul Esrich stressed that there was a need now to talk to and engage with partners in relation to the work of improving Natural Capital.

 

The following comments were made:

·       It was felt that a lot of work was already taking place to improve or maintain Natural Capital, even if it was not described as such

·       Landowners were grateful that the Unit was continuing with its monitoring work as the evidence could be used to justify what had been improved with funding already received. It could perhaps be used to attract money in the future. New funding mechanisms such as a New Environmental Land Management (NELM) scheme were not quick to become established but this work helped to quantify the value that nature provided so may be helpful to gain and direct funds

·       Natural England had launched a system of Natural Capital Accounting for all of its National Nature Reserves (NNRs). This was worth exploring

·       The completed checklist could be used as a basis for annual monitoring

·       The idea of apportioning funding to landowners in response to monetising various benefits provided by different parcels of land was likely to be very difficult. Such government support had long been predicated on helping to grow cheap food, which people valued.

·       It was suggested that funding for improving Natural Capital could be justified by opening footpaths

·       Reverse incentives could be employed whereby more money was given to help landowners in areas where Natural Capital was declining, rather than rewarding those whose Natural Capital was in good condition

·       It was suggested that most members of the public would feel that the concept of Natural Capital was too academic and would be of little interest to them.

 

RESOLVED: that the Committee

 

a)     Noted the Government’s expectations with regard to Natural Capital and the work of AONB Partnerships;

b)    Considered the contents of the checklist completed in draft at Appendix A of the Agenda; and

c)     Considered how the organisations they represented, as key members of the AONB Partnership could best be engaged to participate in and contribute to this process.

Supporting documents: