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Combining data to provide a
detailed visualisation of areas of
risk and opportunity can help
to direct investment in wealth-
creating natural capital: ecological
opportunity mapping. Ecological
opportunity mapping has already
been undertaken for some natural
assets at different scales, including
Forestry Commission tree-planting
maps; the Severn Vision; and the
London Green Grid. This needs
to be done systematically, across
catchments, across habitat types
to give a full picture of the most
cost-effective interventions.
Of course, an open data
approach should not mean that
the Government abdicates its own
responsibility for data collection.
The decision to cut funding for Local
Environment Record Centres in the
name of open data risks dismantling
a critical network of environmental
information across the country. In
other areas, the Government could
play a more direct role in collecting
environmentally and commercially
important data.
For example, there has been no
comprehensive analysis of the
status of priority species since
2008, when an analysis of progress
in England suggested that 11%
of species were increasing, 32%
were stable, but 22% were still in
decline. Survey work in the offshore
environment has been even more
sparse. Resuming monitoring
exercises like the UK seabird
breeding census, last conducted in
2000, would help to guide ecological
action, as well as avoiding costly
planning delays for infrastructure
like offshore wind farms.
The Government should draw on
the combined ecological opportunity
maps at the catchment level to
produce a strategic plan for national
natural capital investment,
identifying major projects with
national and international benefits
worthy of additional support.
This kind of strategic level natural
capital investment could be
added to the remit of the National
Infrastructure Commission.
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