Natural capital assessments in the UK: facilitating Defra Pioneer Projects with NERC-funded research

认识到英国从自然环境中获得的好处，政府承诺成为自工业革命以来第一代使我们的环境处于比我们发现的更好状态的人。为了达到这个目标，他们将制定一个25年的环境计划。Defra已经建立了四个“先锋”项目，以帮助制定25年计划：坎布里亚郡的集水区先锋；大曼彻斯特地区的城市先锋；北德文郡的景观先锋；在两个地点，一个在东安格利亚，另一个在德文郡。这些项目的目的是作为试验台，发展自然资本评估方法，这些方法可以扩大规模并在国家一级应用。然而，在这个发展的初级阶段，关于先锋项目正在试验的方法，公共领域的信息还很少，nerc资助的研究有机会在这些方法的发展中发挥关键作用。这一知识交流奖学金将扩大和传播由nerc资助的世界领先的自然资本研究，以促进四个先锋项目。该奖学金将交流由英国私营部门和非政府组织推动的当前项目的经验教训，通过尽可能多地受益于专业知识来源，并与全国各地的研究人员和从业人员广泛接触，使先行者能够迅速发展到可扩展和可转让的自然资本（NC）评估方法。申请人（BW）具有生态系统服务和自然资本建模的背景。BW将兼职（60%）作为牛津大学长期生态实验室的一部分，该实验室是开发生物多样性和自然资本决策支持工具领域的领导者，通过LEFT和NaturEtrade项目，并有能力支持该奖学金的工作。在剩下的40%时间里，该研究员将继续在邱园皇家植物园担任研究员。该奖学金的工作计划有三个目标：(1)绘制三个小组的现有知识和研究差距：先锋项目、nerc资助的研究科学家和已经开发和测试自然资本评估方法的英国从业者；(2)成立先锋工作小组，并促进三个小组之间的知识转移，以协助先锋项目的发展；(3)与广泛的受益者接触，分享奖学金的发现。该奖学金的主要受益者是先锋项目本身、Defra及其下属机构林业委员会、自然英格兰和环境署以及自然资本委员会。这项奖学金的工作将随著先驱者计划的发展而量身订造。其他受益者包括当地自然伙伴关系、集水区伙伴关系等从业人员、水务公司等私营企业、特许机构和土地所有者。nerc资助的研究界也将受益于研究金研究结果的传播。该奖学金的成果将通过一系列方式传播，包括向个人或项目作个人简报、公开发布报告以及研究员在会议、讲习班和会议上的介绍。将利用包括生态系统知识网络在内的现有网络广泛传播公开报告。这项奖学金的成功将取决于先锋项目是否提高了透明度，以及他们是否与英国各地的研究人员和从业人员进行了接触。在“先驱者”项目中开发的方法将成为全国范围内的模板，通过资助该奖学金，NERC将确保英国对自然资本的世界级研究产生更大的影响。

Recognizing the benefits that are generated in the UK from the natural environment, the government has pledged to be the the first generation since the industrial revolution to leave our environment in a better state than we found it. To meet this target they will produce a 25 year Plan for the Environment. Defra have established four "Pioneer" projects to aid in the development of the 25 year Plan: a catchment Pioneer in Cumbria; an urban Pioneer in the Greater Manchester area; a landscape Pioneer in North Devon; and a marine Pioneer across two sites, one in East Anglia and another component in Devon. These projects are intended to act as test-beds to develop methods for natural capital assessments that could be scaled up and applied at the national level. However, at this nascent stage of development, there is yet little information in the public domain on the methods being trialed by the Pioneer projects, and there is an opportunity for NERC-funded research to play a pivotal role in the development of these approaches. This Knowledge Exchange (KE) fellowship will amplify and communicate world-leading NERC-funded research on natural capital to facilitate the four Pioneer Projects. The fellowship will communicate lessons learned from current projects driven by the private-sector and NGOs in the UK, allowing the Pioneers to progress rapidly to scalable and transferrable methods in Natural Capital (NC) assessment by benefitting from as many sources of expertise as possible, and engaging widely with researchers and practitioners across the country. The applicant (BW) has a background in modelling of ecosystem services and natural capital. BW will work part time (60%) as part of the Long Term Ecology Lab in Oxford University, which is a leader in the field of developing decision support tools for biodiversity and natural capital, through the projects LEFT and NaturEtrade, and is well-placed to support the work of this fellowship. For the remaining 40% of time, the Fellow will continue to be employed as a researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.The work programme of the fellowship has three objectives: (1) To map the existing knowledge and research gaps of three groups: the Pioneer projects, NERC-funded research scientists, and practitioners in the UK who are already developing and testing approaches to natural capital assessment; (2) To establish Pioneer Working Groups, and facilitate knowledge transfer between the three groups to aid the development of the Pioneer projects; (3) engage with a broad range of beneficiaries, sharing the findings of the fellowship. The key beneficiaries of this fellowship are the Pioneer projects themselves, Defra and its agencies the Forestry Commission, Natural England and the Environment Agency, and the the Natural Capital Committee. The work in this fellowship will be tailored to the needs of the Pioneer projects as they develop. Additional beneficiaries include practitioners such as Local Nature Partnerships, Catchment Partnerships, private businesses such as water companies, chartered institutes and land owners. The NERC-funded research community will also benefit from the dissemination of the fellowship findings. The results of this fellowship will be disseminated through a range of means, including personal briefings to individuals or projects, publicly released reports, and presentations by the fellow at meetings, workshops and conferences. Public reports will be disseminated widely by making use of existing networks including the Ecosystems Knowledge Network.The measure of success of this fellowship will be if there is improved transparency in the Pioneer projects and if they engage with researchers and practitioners across the UK. Approaches developed in the Pioneers will act as templates for the national scale, and by funding this fellowship NERC will ensure that the world-class research on natural capital in the UK has greater impact.