RESTAURANDO EL CAPITAL NATURAL

The report argues that humanity has depleted natural capital to achieve short-term gains, leading to a decline in 15 of 24 evaluated ecosystem services. It proposes a five-part action agenda: developing ecosystem service information, strengthening local community rights, managing across multiple scales, improving accountability, and aligning economic incentives. To implement this, the authors suggest creating new institutions such as Ecosystem Service Districts, Biome Stewardship Councils, a Commission on Macroeconomics and Ecosystem Services for Poverty Reduction, and a global Leaders' Forum.

• The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment found that 15 of the 24 evaluated ecosystem services are in serious decline, while only four have shown improvement over the last 50 years.
• Human activities have caused significant loss of coastal protection; 20% of coral reefs and 35% of mangroves have been lost since approximately 1980.
• Agricultural expansion accelerated between 1950 and 1980, with more land converted to agriculture in those 30 years than in the 150 years between 1700 and 1850.
• The use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers has increased rapidly, with over half applied in the last two decades, contributing to 'dead zones' in areas like the Gulf of Mexico and the Baltic Sea.
• The amount of water held in dams has quadrupled since 1960, resulting in reservoirs containing three to six times more water than natural rivers.
• The report identifies five primary barriers to sustainable ecosystem governance: lack of information, lack of local rights, fragmented institutional management, weak accountability, and misaligned economic incentives.
• The authors propose 'Ecosystem Service Districts' to protect local natural capital by identifying services, mapping them, and comparing the costs of natural versus infrastructure-based solutions.
• The report suggests establishing 'Biome Stewardship Councils' as regional bodies to coordinate the protection of large ecosystems (biomes) and integrate local voices into policy.
• A proposed 'Commission on Macroeconomics and Ecosystem Services for Poverty Reduction' would aim to integrate ecosystem investments into national development budgets and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
• The report advocates for a 'Leaders' Forum' involving a broader group than the G8, potentially based on the G20, to provide global political direction on intersecting environmental and economic issues.
• Economic incentives are often misaligned; for example, in Argentina, fuel tax benefits for fishers have contributed to the biological collapse of fish stocks in the Argentine Sea.
• The report highlights that natural assets are more critical to the total wealth of low-income countries (26%) than to industrialized countries (2%).

APA

IRWIN, F., RANGANATHAN, J., Bateman, M., Cho, A., Correa, H. D., Goodland, R., Janetos, A., Jhirad, D., Krchnak, K., La Viña, A., Li, L., Lucas, N., Munasinghe, M., Norgaard, R., Rajan, S. C., Rodríguez, I., Schmidt-Traub, G., & Seymour, F. (2008). RESTAURANDO EL CAPITAL NATURAL. World Resources Institute. http://pdf.wri.org/restoring_natures_capital_es.pdf

Chicago

IRWIN, FRANCES, JANET RANGANATHAN, Mark Bateman, Albert Cho, Hernan Dario Correa, Robert Goodland, Anthony Janetos, et al. RESTAURANDO EL CAPITAL NATURAL. World Resources Institute, 2008. http://pdf.wri.org/restoring_natures_capital_es.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{irwin2008restaurando, author = {IRWIN, FRANCES and RANGANATHAN, JANET and Bateman, Mark and Cho, Albert and Correa, Hernan Dario and Goodland, Robert and Janetos, Anthony and Jhirad, David and Krchnak, Karin and La Viña, Antonio and Li, Lailai and Lucas, Nicolás and Munasinghe, Mohan and Norgaard, Richard and Rajan, Sudhir Chella and Rodríguez, Iokiñe and Schmidt-Traub, Guido and Seymour, Frances}, title = {{RESTAURANDO EL CAPITAL NATURAL}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2008}, url = {http://pdf.wri.org/restoring_natures_capital_es.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }