Historic England                            CAP0026

Evidence on the role of natural capital in the green economy by Historic England

 

About Historic England

 

  1. Historic England is the Government’s adviser on all aspects of the historic environment in England including historic buildings and areas, archaeology and historic landscapes with a duty to promote public understanding and enjoyment. Our sponsor department is the Department for Culture Media and Sport, but we work closely with Defra and its ALBs on environmental matters as the natural and historic environment are interdependent. We welcome the opportunity to provide evidence in relation to the Committee’s inquiry on the Role of Natural Capital in the Green Economy.

 

Question 2. How can investment best be aligned with environmental benefits, so as to achieve or surpass the Government’s targets for nature recovery?

 

  1. Heritage provides ecosystems services and natural capital outputs because nature and heritage are intrinsically linked. Recognising this fundamental principle is crucial to ensuring that the environmental benefits derived from green capital are greater than supporting nature recovery, and are more sustainable. While prioritising some environmental outcomes – such as nature recovery goals – may be appropriate, concentrating solely on them without consideration of others (such as heritage and climate change) can lead to detrimental impacts, poorer environmental outcomes and poorer public value.

 

  1. The need for a more expansive, inclusive approach to recognising these wider environmental goals has been recognised by government within the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Environmental Improvement Plan and the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023. Historic England has undertaken Natural Capital and ecosystem assessment work in support of the development of outcomes and indicators for Defra’s Farming and Countryside Programme, in addition to thematic assessments that it has commissioned (see links in Appendix). It is also clearly stated in Natural England’s Nature Recovery and the Historic Environment (2023, page 1) guidance:

 

“Human activity has shaped our nature and landscapes for millennia. From woodlands to the sea, and chalk grassland to river valleys, each landscape and habitat has been influenced and shaped by human activity. Conserving and enhancing the historic environment is an integral part of protecting, managing and planning for nature and landscapes in order to deliver sustainable nature recovery. This document is designed to help you fully integrate the historic environment into your plans and projects.

 

The Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 commits us to being the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we found it. This ambition recognises the importance of long-term protection and enhancement of our historic environment, as set out in the Beauty, Heritage and Engagement objective. The Nature Recovery Network is a major commitment of the plan and Government is clear that establishing the NRN will reinforce the natural, geological and cultural diversity of our landscapes, and protect our historic natural environment. Natural England has a statutory duty to conserve and enhance the landscape, which includes conserving monuments, buildings and sub-surface archaeological features that contribute to the landscape, and undertaking landscape conservation for aesthetic, cultural and historic purposes.”

 

  1. While there is a good deal of crossover, Natural Capital and ecosystems services assessments only capture some of the values of the historic environment. For this reason Historic England has been working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and other Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs) to establish an agreed approach to valuing our cultural heritage assets and the benefits they provide to people and businesses (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/culture-and-heritage-capital-portal).

 

  1. Like other forms of capital, culture and heritage capital stocks give rise to a flow of services. These flows can be projected over the asset's life to give the asset value. In classical economics, the value equates to or revolves around market prices. However, heritage is not fully traded in markets, so market prices do not reflect all the services that the historic environment provides. Market prices are not good indicators of the value of heritage. Alternative approaches to valuing heritage are required. A “culture and heritage capital approach” therefore aims to create publicly available statistics and guidance that will allow for improved articulation of the value of the culture and heritage sectors in decision making. The benefits of this approach are that it will allow decision-makers to monitor and evaluate losses and gains in culture and heritage over time, assess the value of future services provided by an asset, identify priority areas for investment and inform resourcing and management decisions, significantly reduce the risk of the value of culture and heritage (whether monetised or not) being ignored in decision-making and understand the links between different types of capital.

 

  1. In the same way that the green economy should not be predicated solely upon nature recovery outcomes, we believe that defining and monitoring progress against outcomes should not be tied exclusively to a natural capital approach, but should also reflect wider environmental outcomes and models for assessment, such as Culture and Heritage Capital (CHC).

 

Question 4. What contribution will data from the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme make to the objective measurement of changes in environmental outcomes?

 

  1. Historic England has indirectly participated in and contributed to the Defra-sponsored NCEA programme, ensuring that where possible the projects and the programme include historic environment components. While the programme recognises in principle the need to include the historic environment, further to our points above, we feel it important that both it and the objective measurement of changes give greater weighting to heritage considerations. As above, we also consider that parallel models such as CHC would be valuable in underpinning and supporting the development of high-integrity environmental markets.

 

Question 6. How can the operation of natural capital markets ensure genuine net gains for nature? How do such markets address the risk of ‘greenwashing’ of investments and the offsetting of natural recovery in the UK against environmental degradation elsewhere?

 

  1. The heritage that is such a cornerstone of the character of our rural and urban places is a finite, non-renewable resource. Once lost, it cannot be recreated. In addition to our fundamental concerns around concentrating upon one environmental goal to the exclusion of others, in recognition of the finite nature of the historic environment, we are concerned that offsetting to achieve nature recovery may lead to the degradation or outright loss of heritage within other areas.

 

Appendix

Example thematic Natural Capital and Ecosystem assessments commissioned by Historic England.

 

  1. Powell, J., Berry, R., Courtney, P., Gaskell, P., Lake, J., Powell, J. & Smith, K., 2019, Developing an Ecosystems Approach: Dry Stone Walls (https://research.historicengland.org.uk/Report.aspx?i=16095).

 

  1. Fenn, T., Daly, E., Cary, E. & Orr S., 2019, Heritage, natural capital and ecosystem services – Trent Valley case study, Historic England Research Report Series 82/2019 (https://research.historicengland.org.uk/Report.aspx?i=16416&ru=%2fResults.aspx%3fp%3d1%26n%3d10%26t%3decosystem%2bservices%26ns%3d1).

 

  1. Firth, A. 2020, Heritage, Natural Capital & Ecosystem Services Case Studies on the Dorset Stour and Tyne to Tees Marine Area. A report for Historic England (http://www.fjordr.com/uploads/3/4/3/0/34300844/hnces_-_dorset_stour_and_tyne_to_tees_marine_area_-_fjordr_240120b_with_covers.pdf).

 

  1. Medlycott, M., 2019, Heritage, natural capital and ecosystem services – Coastal Grazing Marshes, Historic England Research Report Series 70/2019 (https://research.historicengland.org.uk/Report.aspx?i=16403&ru=%2fResults.aspx%3fp%3d1%26n%3d10%26t%3decosystem%2bservices%26ns%3d1).

 

  1. Powell, J., Lake, J., Berry, R., Gaskell, P. & Courtney, P., 2019, Heritage, natural capital and ecosystem services – Boundaries and Linear Landscape Features in the Lower Severn Vale, Historic England Research Report Series 8/2019 (https://research.historicengland.org.uk/Report.aspx?i=16225&ru=%2fResults.aspx%3fp%3d1%26n%3d10%26t%3decosystem%2bservices%26ns%3d1).

 

  1. Powell, J., Lake, J., Berry, R., Gaskell, P., Courtney, P., & Smith, K., 2019, Heritage, natural capital and ecosystem services – Historic buildings and boundaries, Historic England Research Report Series 9/2019 (https://research.historicengland.org.uk/Report.aspx?i=16226&ru=%2fResults.aspx%3fp%3d1%26n%3d10%26t%3decosystem%2bservices%26ns%3d1).

 

  1. Youngs, T. 2019, The Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Case Study: An integrated approach to valuing environmental capital and services (boundaries and linear landscape features) (https://blackdownhillsaonb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/historic-england-field-boundary-project-report.pdf).

 

  1. Evans, S. and Davison, M. 2019, Wrecks in Coastal and Marine Ecosystems: The Goodwin Sands and Kent Coast (https://research.historicengland.org.uk/Report.aspx?i=16332&ru=%2FResults.aspx%3Fp%3D1%26n%3D10%26t%3Decosystems%26ns%3D1).

 

September 2023