The Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation has awarded 2.5 million euros to a University of Helsinki research project aimed at bringing natural capital into decision-making. The interdisciplinary project develops new ways to make the impacts of biodiversity visible in the economy and society.
The funded project brings together internationally recognized ecological research at the University of Helsinki, unique long-term biodiversity and environmental datasets, economical expertise, and new statistical methods for assessing the benefits of biodiversity in societal decision-making.
While people have long estimated the value of individual species such as game animals and berry crops, assigning a value to biodiversity has so far been uncommon. This is also where the project's central scientific challenge lies.
Biodiversity and ecosystem services cannot be examined merely as separate benefits, because together they form an interconnected whole. One of the project's key goals is to develop methods that allow the benefits provided by nature to be taken into account in decision-making in a more comprehensive way," says Professor Anna-Liisa Laine from the University of Helsinki.
The impacts of biodiversity are wide-ranging
While people have long estimated the value of individual species, such as game animals and berry crops, estimating the value of broad ecological systems, such as biodiversity, has been uncommon.
The project aims to produce new cost-effective and reliable tools to support decision-making, while also viewing conservation, restoration, and the sustainable use of nature as investments in society's natural capital rather than merely as expenses.
The project combines ecological datasets with novel economic analyses in a way that has not been done before. It builds on pioneering work in environmental and natural resource economics carried out at the University of Helsinki by Professors Lassi Ahlvik and Kari Hyytiäinen.
Biodiversity affects human well-being, health, and the economy in many ways, but these benefits are often not incorporated into decision-making. The project aims to develop tools that enable natural capital to be better reflected in societal decisions, says Professor Lassi Ahlvik.
The novel statistical and computational methods developed in the project will allow ecological monitoring data to be incorporated into societal registries and future scenarios.
"One of the project's key challenges is to combine complex ecological datasets with economic and societal models in a way that enables reliable predictions of environmental change and its impacts on people," states Professor Jarno Vanhatalo.
According to the researchers, incorporating biodiversity into decision-making will become one of the central societal issues of the coming decades.
This year, the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation awarded grants to a total of five research projects at the University of Helsinki. Grants were also awarded to research projects led by Adjunct Professor Kirmo Wartiovaara, Professor Sanna Lehtonen, Professor Mikko Airavaara, and Professor Nina Kaminen-Ahola.
