Natural capital is the extension of the economic notion of capital (manufactured means of production) to goods and services relating to the natural environment. Natural capital is thus the stock of natural ecosystems that yields a flow of valuable ecosystem goods or services into the future. For example, a stock of trees or fish provides a flow of new trees or fish, a flow which can be indefinitely sustainable. Natural capital may also provide services like recycling wastes or water catchment and erosion control. Since the flow of services from ecosystems requires that they function as whole systems, the structure and diversity of the system are important components of natural capital.
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Other articles related to "natural capital, natural, capital":
... In Natural Capitalism Creating the Next Industrial Revolution the authors see the world's economy as being within the larger economy of natural resources and ecosystem services that sustain us ... the reuse of materials as found in natural systems, a change in values from quantity to quality, and investing in natural capital, or restoring and sustaining natural resources ... the traditional view of all non-human life as passive natural resources, and to the idea of ecological health ...
... The sustainable yield of natural capital is the ecological yield that can be extracted without reducing the base of capital itself, i.e ... In fisheries, the basic natural capital, or virgin population, must decrease with extraction ... yield would be within the range in which the natural capital together with its production are able to provide satisfactory yield ...
... This system of accounting is called natural capital and would, for example, register the value of an ecosystem before it is cleared to make way for development ... of trading stocks for much of the planet's living natural capital stored in ecosystems ... There is no natural stock market with investment portfolios into sea horses, amphibians, insects, and other creatures that provide a sustainable supply of ecosystem services that are valuable to society ...
... economy, were reduced and heavily affected by the natural disaster ... There have been some suggestions concerning the usage of natural capital in order to further aid New Orleans’ economy ... Furthermore, by increasing the wetlands, it would help create a natural barrier that could aid New Orleans in future storms ...
... The sustainable yield of natural capital is the ecological yield that can be extracted without reducing the base of capital itself, i.e ... For example in fisheries, the basic natural capital or virgin population, must decrease with extraction ... yield would be within the range in which the natural capital together with its production are able to provide satisfactory yield ...
Famous quotes containing the words capital and/or natural:
“The capital is become an overgrown monster; which like a dropsical head, will in time leave the body and extremities without nourishment and support.”
—Tobias Smollett (1721–1771)
“All the moral laws are readily translated into natural philosophy, for often we have only to restore the primitive meaning of the words by which they are expressed, or to attend to their literal instead of their metaphorical sense. They are already supernatural philosophy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)