Applying the natural capital approach to farm-scale land management decision-making and evaluation: Exploring the impacts of management intensity and organic agriculture on natural capital and ecosystem services

Abstract

The natural capital (NC) approach presents a structured framework for sustainable decision-making and evaluation, requiring an understanding of how different decisions impact NC and the flow of multiple ecosystem services (ES). The approach has been placed at the heart of delivering the UK Government’s 25 year Environment Plan, which states their intention to “set gold standards in protecting and growing natural capital – leading the world in using this approach as a tool in decision-making”.

There is now growing advocacy for its incorporation into local-scale land management decision-making (e.g. individual farm or estate businesses). Despite this growing interest, evidence of its application at the farm scale is limited. Existing studies have often only partially applied the approach and nearly always rely on existing data (irrespective of its suitability at local scales), modelled data or data from other studies. Previous research has suggested that failing to underpin the approach with site-specific, fit-for-purpose, data brings into question its usefulness in decision-making and evaluation at the local scale.

The research in this PhD represents one of the first attempts to implement a complete application of the NC approach, including detailed measurement of NC condition, ecosystem function (EF) and ES value at the farm scale. The study focuses on four ES pathways – climate regulation, food production, drinking water provision and pollinator services – in the context of land management decisions on the Clinton Devon Estate in Devon. Its core contributions are both methodological and empirical; it explores how the NC approach can be applied robustly at the farm scale and how the adoption of different land management practices, including organic agriculture and intensive farm management, impact NC and ES. The key findings are that: 1.) there are a number of significant challenges that need to be addressed before the NC approach will be practical in routine farm-management decision-making (e.g. availability of suitable data, access to expertise), 2.) land management intensity can degrade soil NC presenting on-going risks to future soil condition in the UK and 3.) organic farming has the capacity to increase soil carbon storage, enhance pollinator stocks and improve the supply of clean drinking water whilst delivering similar producer welfare compared to conventional farming.