"As fires raged across moorland in the Peak District, representatives from the Environment Agency’s Cumbria pioneer project discussed their experience of applying a natural capital approach within a river catchment.
The project aims to test new tools and methods to document natural capital assets, map ecosystem services and design plans for investing and intervening in three Cumbrian sub-catchments covering 170 square kilometres.
Jeremy Westgarth, the EA’s catchment approach manager for the project, spoke about how natural capital could lead to a “more integrated approach” to water management in the catchment.
But this approach would be driven by the requirements and knowledge of local stakeholders, rather than from above. “We realised we needed to talk to different people,” Westgarth observed, including the local community and businesses. It is part of what he described as a “place-based” model for decision-making that connects natural capital with discussions happening within the community.
That means asking members of the community what they want and developing methods to achieve those goals. “There’s a real partnership dialogue going on,” he said, particularly with farmers. “They are such an important partner in managing our natural capital.”"
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