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Proponents of natural capital expect the concept to improve the decisions of many sectors, including public policy. However, it is unclear if natural capital data and tools are being used in policymaking especially beyond environmental planning and regulations. We therefore searched for case studies of policy development being used or influenced by working with natural capital and ecosystem services anywhere in the world. We found 168 case studies that reported some type of policy influence resulting from working with natural capital or ecosysterm services. These were distributed in 52 countries: many countries implemented more than one initiative. Initiatives framed in terms of natural capital and environmental accounting were dominant in the Global South, whilst those using framed in terms of ecosystem services assessment and valuation were more common in the Global North. Tangible changes to environmental policy refer to the formulation of guidelines, strategies and sectoral plans for natural resources such as forest, water, minerals and biodiversity. The design of economic plans and programmes included proposals for resource use permits, fiscal regimes, or adjusting conservation easements. Some cases reported more diffuse or vague changes. These results suggest that natural capital has the potential to influence policy-making. However, although some efforts have been made to track the influence or use of natural capital initiatives – mostly were linked to cross-national programmes – details of use remain limited and challenging to understand. Where sources did report on challenges to embedding natural capital in policy-making, these resonate with the literatures on mainstreaming or environmental policy integration. Working with natural capital may help to influence policymaking, but influence cannot always be assumed. Future efforts to work with natural capital must be matched by appraisal and analysis of when and how natural capital data and tools are – or are not – used.
Martino et al. (Wed,) studied this question.