{"id":53163,"date":"2020-11-18T15:31:40","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T15:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/?post_type=publication&p=53163"},"modified":"2024-09-19T11:54:18","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T10:54:18","slug":"distributional-issues-in-natural-capital-accounting-an-application-to-land-ownership-and-ecosystem-services-in-scotland","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/publication\/distributional-issues-in-natural-capital-accounting-an-application-to-land-ownership-and-ecosystem-services-in-scotland\/","title":{"rendered":"Distributional issues in natural capital accounting: An application to land ownership and ecosystem services in Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Accounting for ecosystems is increasingly central to natural capital accounting. What is missing from this is an answer to questions about how natural capital is distributed: that is, who consumes ecosystem services and who owns the underlying assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this paper, the authors examine the significance of the ownership of natural capital – specifically, land which provides ecosystem services – in the context of natural capital accounting. They illustrate this with regard to two ecosystem services – carbon sequestration and air pollution removal, and a range of ecosystem types and land ownership in Scotland, a context in which land reform debates are longstanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings indicate the relative importance of private land in ecosystem service supply, rather than publically-held land. The authors find relative concentration of ownership for land providing comparatively high amounts of carbon sequestration. For air pollution removal, however, the role of smaller to medium sized land holdings closer to urban settlements becomes more prominent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings have implications for evolving debates about agricultural and environmental policy in the UK. More generally, the authors argue that the paper’s contributions represent important first steps in connecting natural capital accounting to broader concerns about disparities of income and wealth across and within countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key points for decision-makers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n