The dulcet voice of the Runkeeper App interrupted the pounding sound of my feet as I ran through the woods, informing me in five-minute intervals of the distance travelled and average speed. It was my first run since England’s strict stay-at-home orders were eased. The new regulations allowed people as much outdoor exercise as they like provided they observed social-distancing rules. That was not a problem. I was not only alone, but likely the first to have entered these woods in the eight weeks of lockdown. The pathway looked and felt different, the greenery more vibrant, the bird song boisterous. Moles clambered across the forest floor. At the river several fish with funnel-like mouths and sharp teeth swam along the bank. Later I learned that they were possibly endangered lamprey fish in our long-polluted river! After a mere eight weeks of reduced human intrusion, birds, small mammals, and fish were tentatively reclaiming their space in nature. But this year, as human life slowly returns to ‘normal,’ we risk losing these sights along with the benefits of nature to human beings. As governments rebuild economies from the impacts of coronavirus lockdowns, development could proceed as before—destroying nature as we convert wildlands to human habitation and farming—or we could seize the opportunity to approach development with a fresh perspective, starting with accounting for the values of nature in our economies. The shutdown of modern life as we know it liberated wildlife to enjoy newly depopulated landscapes. There were dolphin sightings in the Venice canal, a humpback whale in New York’s Hudson River and coyotes down the streets of San Francisco. Beyond these anecdotes, new data is emerging on environmental recovery from our reduced carbon footprint. China is registering 17% less urban air pollution. In India, river waters and river life gained the most, with dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen and pH of river waters improving by 79%, 30% and 7.9% respectively. Although we are yet to comprehend the full impact of this unnatural experiment, nature has demonstrated its tenacity. Given a break, it can recover. However, all this can unravel, limiting our options and exposing us to increased health and economic risks day-by-day. Our ways of gauging the economic health of nations don’t account for the benefits that people derive from nature, such as clean water and climate security. The shortcomings of Gross domestic product (GDP) as the standard metric for measuring national economies are increasingly apparent . It fails to reflect environmental degradation in the pricing of goods and services. The production of more goods simply adds to an economy’s GDP, irrespective of the environmental damage suffered. For example, GDP grows as a result of the production of cars but does not account for the emissions they generate or the increase in respiratory diseases resulting from air pollution. Similarly, we can empty rivers and lakes of fish and achieve a positive GDP but risk famine thereafter. We are drawing down natural resources without accounting for the impacts on human society and economies. Intact ecosystems have traditionally been our insurance policy against diseases and a reservoir for medicines and other life-sustaining resources such as water, clean air, rich soils. To protect ecosystems, we need to measure our economic vitality with a broader compass of progress—one that expands beyond the value of products and services exchanged on markets to include the natural and human resources that enable these products. We can start with our most threatened form of capital: nature. A recent report by the UN Environment Program shows that before the pandemic, countries like Rwanda, South Korea, Spain and Austria were on a positive trajectory, ‘growing’ their natural capital by investing in protected areas, forests and in so called ‘high-value low-impact’ tourism. However, the Covid-19 crisis threatens to roll back those gains, shrinking the funds available to protect forests and natural resources. Adopting a new way of accounting now will not only reveal the value of nature to current and future generations but will enable better allocation of costs and benefits directly to users. Governments have a valuable tool to aid them in this accounting. The United Nation’s Experimental Ecosystem Accounting framework integrates ‘a statistical framework for organizing biophysical data, measuring ecosystem services, tracking changes in ecosystem assets and linking this information to economic and other human activity.’ To date, about 50 countries are experimenting with this system. Given the challenges to international collaboration as many countries look inward, some might argue that a global system of accounts will fail from lack of universal support. Of course, such a dramatic change will take time. But 2021 offers world leaders at least three important meetings on environment where they can unite, as they have in the fight against coronavirus, behind making accounting for nature mandatory for all economies. They will meet for the World Conservation Congress to agree collective action for nature. Then for the Convention on Biological Diversity to embrace nature based solutions, and for the Climate Summit to agree on national contributions to the Paris climate targets. Historically, rivers and forests like those in my home-away-from home village in England have been life-givers. Over time, they have lost their function, beauty, and generosity. Human activities are hurting an already hurt world. That must change; while 2020 goes down as the year of the pandemic, 2021 can go down as the year of accounting for nature. Maxwell Gomera is the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program in Rwanda and a Senior Fellow of Aspen New Voices. He has worked extensively on nature and biodiversity. twitter: @GomeraM
