Identifying critical natural capital: Conclusions about critical natural capital

doi:10.1016/S0921-8009(02)00278-1

Ecological Economics

Volume 44, Issues 2–3, March 2003, Pages 277-292

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(02)00278-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper summarises the main results of the CRITINC project and briefly describes the case studies in which the CRITINC methodology was applied. These related to air quality, river systems, forests, urban areas, coastal wetlands and agricultural and water resources. The paper concludes that the methodology provides a way of systematically considering different uses of and impacts on the environment, with a view to evaluating whether environmental functions are being used sustainably and the extent of any sustainability gap, identifying the source of environmental pressures, and monitoring whether policies aimed at environmental improvement are being effective.

Section snippets

Theoretical insights from the CRITINC project

The common theoretical approach underpinning the CRITINC papers is that the environment as natural capital may be conceptualised as contributing to human life and activity through the performance of environmental functions (Hueting, 1980). As human populations and activities have increased, so have the demands on these functions, such that the demands on them cannot now all be fulfilled; there is competition between functions. The continuing over-use of some functions may result in other

Application of the CRITINC framework

As noted in the Introduction to this special issue, each institute participating in the CRITINC project undertook a case study of a particular environmental issue in the context of the analytical framework that had been developed (see Figure 2 in Ekins et al. this issue). The major insights from the case studies now briefly follow. They are presented more extensively on the CRITINC website¹.

Summary conclusions

The CRITINC project made a number of theoretical and practical advances.

On the theoretical side, it deepened the understanding of critical natural capital and environmental sustainability in several ways:

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It emphasised the joint importance of the elements of natural capital, the interactions between those elements and the processes to which these interactions give rise. It is this complexity which enables natural capital to perform its functions, and which must remain the focus of analysis if

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