RESTORING & GROWING NATURAL AREAS
Natural Asset Companies (NACs) based on natural areas focus on protecting, expanding and restoring natural terrestrial and marine ecosystems — for example, forests, grasslands, wetlands, coral reefs. Protecting these areas will enhance biodiversity and ecosystem service production.
Creating a financial mechanism to protect, restore and grow natural areas, is at the core of what IEG is designed to do. Natural areas, underpinned by biodiversity, are inherently valuable in and of themselves. They also contribute life supporting services upon which humanity and the global economy depend. These include provisioning services such as food, water, timber, and genetic resources; regulating services that affect climate, floods, disease, and water quality; cultural services that provide recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefits; and supporting services such as soil formation, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling.
Despite the critical role it plays, nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) recently warned we are exploiting nature far more rapidly than it can renew itself. Human activities have already severely altered 75% of land and 66% of marine environments. Ecosystems have declined in size and condition by 47% globally compared to estimated baselines. Up to one million known species could disappear by 2050. Land degradation has reduced the productivity of 23% of the global land surface, up to US$577 billion in annual global crops are at risk from pollinator loss and 100-300 million people are at increased risk of floods and hurricanes because of loss of coastal habitats and protection.
Protecting, expanding and restoring large scale intact natural areas, are critical natural solutions to combat climate change, stem biodiversity loss and slow the depletion of essential resources such as freshwater and soil. Healthy natural systems are also at the heart of human development and underpin the achievement of all Sustainable Development Goals.
The financial resources needed to protect natural ecosystems face a dramatic shortfall. Some estimates indicate that $300 billion to $400 billion is needed each year to preserve and restore ecosystems but that conservation projects receive just $52 billion, mainly from public and philanthropic sources. IEG is proposing a transformational solution whereby natural ecosystems are not simply a cost to manage, but rather, an investible productive asset which provides financial capital and a source of wealth for governments and its citizens.
