Welcome & The Natural Capital Alliance: Past, Present, and Future | NatCap 2026

Hello everybody. Welcome. We're so glad to open up the 2026 Natural Capital Symposium for this amazing community of people from all over the world. Um in it's channel one [laughter] and English channel 2. Um we are so thrilled to open up here and um in thinking about heading over I was remembering a time when I was so nervous coming into a big conference like this and what calmed me down just in case anybody else is nervous about all the excitement for this week all the opportunity all the high hopes we bring all the fears of not succeeding ing for people in nature. One time I was invited to Latvia to meet with European central bankers and I got kind of into a panic before that meeting thinking I needed to be able to talk like a European central banker and I read and I tried to learn the lingo. And when I got there on a rainy dark afternoon, um, this guy welcomed me at the door and I was I told him I was in a panic and he said, "If you speak like a central banker, I will personally kill you." [laughter] He said, "We did not invite you here to be just like [laughter] us. We invited you here to talk about nature, to talk about the values that that we all hold and help us all remember and appreciate why we're coming together. And he opened up this evening that was all about what Latafians most wanted to swim in a clean sea to show their kids where they played when they were little out in nature and to sing and dance the traditional songs of the country that were all about love and nature. And that's what a lot of this meeting is about. just bringing who you are. Don't worry about everybody's different lingo and um bringing what's in your heart and soul as much as all the technical expertise that we depend on to knit together and help transform the systems that we're operating under. But just bring the heart and soul and we're going to have a fantastic time together this week. Thanks, Gretchen. I'm Ann Gary. I'm the co-executive director of the Natural Capital Alliance at Stanford with Lisa. And Gretchen didn't need an introduction. Sorry, [laughter] I forgot about that part. >> In case you didn't know, that was Gretchen Dailyaly. Um, so I'm really excited to welcome all of you to Stanford. There are about 350 of you from 32 different countries, I think, was the last count. And I just wanted to say that this convening really brings me hope. It brings me hope that you've all traveled this far to be part of this community. That we actually can make a difference. We can use natural capital information to inform decisions that have better outcomes for people in nature. It gives me hope that we can mainstream alternative ways to measure wealth. It gives me hope and actually empirical data that we are building a community who can share stories of success, troubleshoot challenges, we can share data, we can share approaches, we can advance science together. And it's it's all possible because of this community that is represented in all of you. Um, I also want to mention that you all hail from so many different geographies and also so many different perspectives. And this group is sort of like a physical manifestation of the diversity of perspectives of types of expertise and of lived experience that we need to make the changes that we're trying to make in the world. I just want to share a couple of things that I'm particularly excited about for this particular convening where we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the natural capital project which is now the natural capital alliance. So we're also launching the we're celebrating the launch of the natural capital alliance. Also I want to talk about how this convening provides food. Yes, we have meals which I think is a great way of building our community but we provide food for the left brains which is the technical expertise. You can learn about invest models. You can go to sessions about how um human health is linked to contact to nature. Um, but also we've got food for your right brains where we have, for example, the winners of the photography contest from the Door School of Sustainability that are out in the Fiser Conference Center. And in the closing plenary, we'll be sharing some of the submissions from the uh when you registered, you were given a chance to share an art, a piece of art or photograph or a poem or music that meant something to you. And we'll share some of those at the closing plenary. And if I'm brave tomorrow, I might read a poem to you. Um and then so that that's the left side and the right side. And then there's the putting things together. So from left to right, from head to heart and from ideas to implementation. So this meeting is all about community and it's about connection. So um make some connections and make some friends. We're all in this together. Lisa. So yes, I am Lisa Mandal, other co-executive director of the Natural Capital Alliance here at Stanford. Um I wanted to start off by acknowledging that a large portion of our gathering here this year's symposium is supported by a regional technical cooperation funded by the global environment facility implemented by the interamerican development bank and executed by Stanford University. So we're really grateful for that support that helps make it possible for all of us um to be here together this week. This um these next three days also I'm one of the things I'm very excited about is these next three days represent the culmination of what we've called the people planet prosperity project or three Ps you may you'll hear that term again uh I'm sure which has brought together 16 different countries from around the world and three different development banks to advance natural capital approaches and mainstream that into policy and into finance. So we're excited to share that some of the outcomes of that project. um and some of the lessons learned and how we can keep um you know growing that cohort of countries from 16 to to more and more. Um as part of that supported by the global environment facility and and in collaboration with IDB we are today marks the launch of a free massive open online course on mainstreaming nature into policy of finance and an implementation toolkit um that provides all sorts of resources to be able to replicate these approaches and adapt them for different contexts. So you can you'll hear more about that later today. You can find those on our website. Um, and we'll share QR codes so you can go find those. I'm also particularly excited um, that this is the first time that we're offering what we're calling a contributor track. So for folks here who are interested particularly in our software and the community around the software, this is a chance to come together. The software is more than just the code. It's really about the people and using the software to solve the problems that we see in the world and bring the science into those decisions. So check out the contributor track. It starts tomorrow morning and goes through Wednesday. You don't have to if you don't consider yourself a software developer or a software engineer, no worries. Um it's for all sorts of people. So those are some highlights. And before we get into some more fun, I have a few um logistical notes to share. First, if you haven't found the agenda yet, you can find it in the attendee hub app or on the event website at the address here. If you haven't figured out how to connect to web Wi-Fi, you can use the Stanford visitor or ediome if you have that access through your institution. Bathrooms are located in the hallway on the way to the Fischer Conference Center. So, keep walking out that door. You'll see signs. If there's an emergency or you need help with anything, please talk to the the front desk and they can help you. Few other highlights for the for the next few days. We have a happy hour and poster session tomorrow, Tuesday, in Macall Plaza um at the end of the day and we're really grateful for ecosystem investment partners for their sponsorship of this. On Wednesday, we have um the learning lounge. So if you're interested in getting one-on-one help with our soft with software or under better understanding economic valuation or ecosystem service modeling, you can go and talk one-on-one um with experts from our team. Following up on what Ann said, if check out the winners of a photo contest from the School of Sustainability, those are showcased um in the Fiser Conference Center. So, go go go past the bathrooms and you'll see um an awesome array of photos. Please help us by um composting materials and sorting um into recycling compost or landfill only. Um and you'll see those bins labeled for that. We have tables outside. So, we'll have our meals outside and at lunchtime, if you're interested in having conversations, we have a number of tables that have been marked with different themes. So, there's a particular theme that speaks to you, go pick a table and meet some other other folks who are interested in that topic. And finally, we'll be having a group photo today just before lunch out out front um at 12:30. So, please join us there. And if you're in the plenary, we'll help direct you there as well. >> Back to you, Ann. >> Okay, so we just want to close out this opening plenary by getting a little bit of a getting a shared sense of who's in the room. So I would like for you to stand up or wave your hands if you have been to a netcap symposium before. Okay, thank you. And if this is your first Snack App Symposium, we already got everybody participating. [laughter] Okay. Now, how about if you're going to be sneaking out of the festivities to watch some World Cup? [laughter] >> You have some honest people. >> Okay. All right. Looking good. [laughter] We don't want any fights. We don't want any fights, but but Wednesday will be a big evening [laughter] for some of us. Okay, Lisa. >> All right, let's let's see where we hail from. You if you can stand up or raise your hand if you're from or working in Latin America and the Caribbean. All right, stand up or raise your hand if you're working in Asia, Pacific, or Oceanania. How about folks from or working in Africa? Oh, better this year. Yeah. Uh, folks who are from or working in Europe. All right. [clears throat] And then stand up or raise your hand if you are wear sporting a nature inspired print or accessory. [laughter] All right. This half of the room doing better on that. [clears throat] Okay. And how about if you're in government? Fantastic. How [clears throat] about if you're in an IFI? International Financial Institution. Great. An NGO. How many from an NGO? Fantastic. Private sector. Great. and academics. [laughter] Thanks all of you for joining us. And how many of you are feeling hopeful? [laughter] Okay, [clears throat] excellent. Okay, great. Thank you, Lisa. you can uh head that way while we start the natural capital alliance panel. Gretchen, you get to stay up here. [laughter] Okay. So, um I just want to give a quick introduction to this next session. Sorry, there's no break between that one and this next one. So, this was a really big year for NACAP. We celebrated our 20th anniversary. Um, and we transitioned from the natural capital project to the natural capital alliance. Project always seemed so small and temporary. So, we figured at 20 years it was time to graduate to something a little bit bigger. To mark the anniversary and the transition to the alliance, we've put together this special session that includes two out of three co-founders of NATCAP and luminaries from some alliance institutions, both old and new. In fact, we're particularly excited to welcome three new institutions today. Interamerican Development Bank and Asian Development Bank as international finance institution collaborators and the Gund Institute as a research member. >> [applause] >> We're building the alliance as we go with the aim of building a bigger tent. So we need a big bold broad community to affect the transformation that we are seeking of global economic systems in the big picture and people's hearts, minds and behavior in the small. So stay tuned in coming months as we share more information about how you can get involved. So what I'd like to do now is to introduce all of the speakers on the panel and if you could come up um then uh we'll get started with opening remarks from each of you. So Gretchen Daly is the co-founder and faculty director of the Stant Stanford Natural Capital Alliance. June O Yang. I never say his his um family name, but June O Yang, professor at the research center for eco environmental sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Steve Pilaski, the region's professor and professor Lamper, professor of ecological and environmental economics at the University of Minnesota. Juan Pablo Bonia, manager of the Interamerican Development Bank's climate change and sustainable development sector. Jingfong Zong, senior director, agriculture, food, nature, and rural sector office of the Asian Development Bank. >> Sure. >> Okay. and uh Lucas Black, vice president of climate finance at World Wildlife Fund, and Taylor Rickettts, director of the Gun Institute, University of Vermont and co-founder of NACAP. So, I've asked each of the panelists to address these two things in their opening remarks. First is to tell us one thing that your institution is doing that's moving the needle on mainstreaming natural capital approaches. And the second is to share your ideas for what this community both the alliance and the broader assembled community here can and must do to bring about system transformation. And we're going to start with Gretchen who gets an extra two minutes because I don't know. I've just given you an extra two minutes. I think she was worried I was going [laughter] to take four more. Um so it's so fun diving into all this together. I'll just um reflect back a little bit um on the 20 years and um I guess I would say that on the one hand we were really focused on what to try and build and um very much thinking about working in partnership co-designing um something that would enable a big diverse group of all the different types of People needed to advance a systematic approach that would help us transform transform all kinds of systems to bring the values of nature into the heart of operations and thinking in so many arenas all over the world. And um so in thinking about what to build um we thought very pragmatically um about the partnership engagements in places all the things that we're all involved in here and I I won't even go through them because in reflecting on this I felt actually what was most important was thinking about how to build and how to establish a culture that would continue building and continue, you know, learning and changing. And that culture, I felt really came from the many, many people who jumped in with both feet to become a part of this, involving an open mind, open to all kinds of ideas. We went around begging for ideas more than generating our own ideas. Um we asked everybody and we had and still have you know the idea of learning by doing. We also opened with an open hand. Really high hopes we had for helping around the world but also just a lot of humility and realizing we needed enormous help to get the thing of of any ambition off the ground. and we had an open hand um reaching out for help from all kinds of people, introductions, funding, ideas, and much more. We had an open door and the idea there was just to make it ncap accessible. We're not as accessible as we'd like to be. It's um a a work in progress still, but we'd like NACAP, all of the approaches that we're co-developing to be out there available within reach for everyone along all parts of the system all the way into ecosystem stewards, the communities we ultimately all depend on, to learn from, and to help enable in stewardship. ship. Um, [clears throat] next to last is an open heart. The the beautiful um and deep friendships that have uh were seated and have evolved over all these years are really what hold us together and bring us together and bring so much energy into the work. I think we all work like mad to to drive the change we're seeking. And finally, so we don't sound too serious or sanctimonious, I have to say there were a lot of open beer bottles, and open maai bottles and plenty of other um fun going on in all of this. So, um, thank you for being here, and I'm turning over now to >> to O Yang. >> O Yang. Great. Thank you. [applause] Okay, thank you. I was heard I was the only one people have nice because I needed to test. Okay, how do that work? >> Oh, this one. Okay. Yeah, because I have another photos. In 2007, I met a Ging in Beijing. Since then we couple together with le capital to work together and show here just some picture I just show some important events we have together. Yeah this is training courses for national capital in China and more than 300 young people there. So all together over the last 20 more than 20 years we have more than 10,000 young people involved for the trading courses and we have more than hund of the papers use in west model in China in English or in Chinese but Chinese scholars here we have some important people here to in Stanford we work hard the Chinese government and DRC together to push capital in pos making China so his training courses is for national asm survey and assessment guing and steel together give the language to China so all the people all is full the young people cannot find the city even stand okay I want to go very detailed but you can see in the capital here yeah we go not only in the meeting we also go to field build field survey both in China and in America you can say in the big tree is tropical area in highland island yeah this is also in the America Capacity field here is San Francisco also in very beautiful places and here grain build like in the DA Chinese highlight area for how to recognize the natural capital value to economic benefit but that's why in China yeah here some in the different places in China here that one usually chai you calc president said lucid the water and mountain is something is very important for people. So yeah here was some of the trading eological mainstreaming value in poly making and also trading in China at US model and also and also we had the courses in America together Olympic game some Olympic I'm not the game okay yeah here some different places in China and in America in Sanford yeah this the per like very like very I to I get very I have very fresh honor actually reading right and also in the graing together at water bank people in the chai lake. Yeah. So they will build the national park and how big government conference meeting to push GDP and large capital in policy that's not only scholars most of them is a decision maker in different from national level to provincial to level together that's why also we climate the great war in in the night. So it looks very grateful. Yeah. Yes. How to say e how to use the GP and into ecological composition in China. We push it continuously. Okay. That not we all corporation not only go around how to meeting not good good outcomes. For example, building framework to bridge nature with the policy making how to n capital for generally framework to implement approaches in China and second mapping exam services identifies a crucial area for conservation based on exam services and actually this idea as forum gradient paper in the general floor something like that but it's very important this in 1997 but I read the book read the paper I Every has gave a fresh idea to that and that and then in integrated national capital into governness. This is most important work. For example, national park planning where to build national park we use national capital and basis analysis and we have the government adapt the the planning also ecological red lining is how to manage the land use. We use N cover to figure out where is the most important area for provide services and we must protect strictly. So now about 30% more than 30% of land protect other ecological red lining red line based on ex services also we have initiated the program ecological financial transfer yeah based on the net capital XM services ident where is multiple area need to protect so the s government gives financial support to this country last year about 100 uh 110 billion give this country eologic very important and remote area for for conservation. Also we developed the GP for training natural capital to the people work together and here we work together we have the policy and also we have a good people in the science in penas in nature series and so on this some of them not all of them so just show we are very beautiful corporation also we have the national stand and the national guideline for China use in China all together I'm happy in The nature nature 2000 something 2024 something like that the the nature attitud research in China states and Europe are covered extensively to studying the role of a human uh proactivity thising bodies of work is a fundamental to ongoing efforts to incorporate nature into how economic are valued I have just This mission that work at the side of the paper is all people together. I just mentioned it. Okay. Thank you. The N capital and the N capital. [applause] >> We're playing musical chairs here. Steve, you're next. And I'm going to take your seat. [laughter] >> Great. Good morning. Sorry I don't have any uh wedding pictures uh like like u but uh um actually I want to spend my five minutes talking about uh a very powerful idea which has motivated um natural capital project and now natural capital alliance um and in particular um my portion of the natural capital alliance and then also the the part that the University of Minnesota plays um in the alliance. So I really want to talk about going back to the concept of natural capital and ecosystem services and sustainable development which I think are really a fundamental importance in an era where humans are driving changes uh on the planet and by the very construction of these terms natural capital nature and capital ecosystem services ecosystems with goods and services and sustainable development. So environmental sustainability and economic development um these are highlighting the necessary integration if we're going to have a sustainable future of integrating earth systems the environment uh with our economic system. But in order to make progress we need to be able to do we need to be able to measure and make actionable the values of of nature. And that's been at the very core of the natural capital project and now the natural capital alliance. So 20 years ago when we started a a really central challenge that we were facing was to be able to improve our measurement so quantification and valuation of ecosystem services and further to show if you did things if you managed systems in particular ways or changed land use how would that change the provision of ecosystem services and that was really the fundamental drive behind developing the invest software right um So I want to focus on a challenge that I think we face now which is to bring ecosystem services and natural capital into the core of economic and financial decision-making that affects the environment that really drives environmental change. So um I was fortunate to participate uh in the ITB best business and biodiversity assessment along with several others including Lisa Mandal. Um I just wanted to quote uh one sentence from that uh assessment which came out in February. Um the failure to account for nature and integrate its values into economic and financial systems has led to environmental degradation and unprecedented rates of biodiversity loss. So to transform this system so that we take we go from an economy which destroys the natural capital in which it depends to one that promotes uh natural capital and the flow of ecosystem services. We need fundamental changes not only in economic and financial accounting and incentives but in policy legal regulatory frameworks, social values, technology capacity and knowledge. Now obviously these are enormous challenges but I do feel you know somebody said are you hopeful and I am hopeful especially looking out at the talent in this room and the talent of people that you all work with that we can make rapid progress on at least some of these on some of these dimensions of the challenge. So I'll just mention three things that we're doing right now um at University of Minnesota in in uh in alliance with uh others from the alliance and beyond um to integrate environment and economy. So with colleagues at Purdue University we have um integrated invest software with GTAP. GTAP is a computable general equilibrium model um of the economy. And with this cleverly named GTAP invest model um we uh are able to do such things as to think about changes in policy or market conditions. What effect does that have then on ecosystems, the provision of ecosystem services? And then back to the economy, how does that change GDP, employment, trade flows and so on. Um and we're using this in a number of of uh venues. Uh so um one is uh thinking about working with uh for example the the network for greening the financial services the the network of banks that is interested in expanding beyond just climate to thinking about nature and climate scenarios. What threats do changes in nature have for financial stability. A second area and this is uh working very closely uh with our colleagues uh from China is growth ecosystem product. Uh uh Oang mentioned that on his slides. Um so we are working right now to uh evaluate or to be able to calculate uh gross ecosystem product for 37 ecosystem services for 250 countries and territories. This is forcing us to think about what uh data we actually have, the quality of the data and and forcing us to think about um the methods for quantification and valuation especially of those ecosystem services that don't have market values. And then finally I'll mention um work that we have done with a number of partners um across uh the alliance um to work on what we call landscape efficiency frontiers. So think thinking about how would you organize landscapes in order to promote both um outcomes such as biodiversity conservation um and and climate um so uh storage of greenhouse gases um as well as the economic returns uh from grazing and crop growing and and timber production. And we are able to show this is a paper that was recently published in science that there are large gains that are possible both on the environment side and the economic side without causing losses um in in other objectives. So I want to close just by saying there's a real pressing need for this integration of uh ecosystem science and ecosystem services and natural capital with economic and financial modeling and accounting. We see a huge demand for this not only from our typical uh partners but from finance ministries, from central banks, uh from private sector and if we as as community can supply and get into practice, I see an ability to fundamentally change how ecosystems uh excuse me, how economic systems and financial systems operate so that they operate as if nature mattered. I'm really looking forward to talking with many of you this week uh and pushing this work forward. Onward we go. Thanks very much. [applause] >> Next up we have Juan Pablo Bonia. >> Thank you. >> If you want. Good morning to everybody and uh you mentioned financing, ministries of finance and government. So I think it's my turn to talk about that but uh Gretchen uh it's really an honor to be here at Stanford all the work that we've done with the NCAA with you with an with Lisa with Mary. So it's really a pleasure being here and I was remembering uh listening to Gretchen the first time that we engaged with an ICAP it was 2011 it was about 15 years ago uh with BISE and Bahamas and uh we it was the first time that I recall an MDB a multilateral development bank brought the NAP the scientific the community engagement to develop a plan for Andros in the Caribbean. And for the first time, the ADB then was able to finance that. It was a loan to the Ministry of Public Works to finance everything that we did together. Now, 15 years later, it sounds great. We're incorporating nature in, you know, public works. 15 years ago, it was kind of a not an innovation. It was kind of a dreaming. Okay, let's see innovate in that way. But uh the way we have learned in that in these 15 years to incorporate all the scientific and technical expertise of Stanford with the dialogue with or the NCAAP with the dialogue that the ADB brings to the region with ministries of finance with ministries of environment, ministries of planning and sector ministries that has been very very valuable and I would like to emphasize that the in addition to bise that I saw the government here really a pleasure having you here with your team and Bahamas. We were able then to expand this work to different countries and I would like to mention Chile uh Colombia, Ecuador and UI and thank all the representatives from those governments here today at Stanford and it's been a journey for the ADB to put together ministries of finance with ministries of environment and have a common language on how to incorporate nature into valuation into natural I would say accounting and into financing. And that's why a concrete example, thank you for mentioning the GF at the beginning, is what we have done with the GF to incorporate natural capital into national accounting. And I think we're going to learn a lot from that today and how we can replicate that in different sectors. But it is very clear in these examples that you're going to see in these countries how natural capital become influential in the decision making in biz. The work is helping connect blue economy priorities with indicators monitoring and financing approaches. And by the way the multilaterial development banks like us we develop what we call the country strategies every time we have a new government and is really seeing the evolution in bise and seeing how nature and blue economy is the center part of the country strategy of the IDB with bise is amazing so it's an evolution that's why I started mentioning what we did 15 years ago to see how the government is right now in Chile it has supported the natural capital committee of nature led by minister of finance with all the different actors. The central bank of Chile is an amazing actor also in nature and is helped create a basis for expansion to additional macro regions in Colombia, Ecuador and EU. The work is helping to connect ecosystem evidence into planning conservation finance and biodiversity strategies. Um and I would like also to mention here uh the importance of escalation um in the question about what to do next. First turn pilots into share methods. You mentioned the the MOO already and I think that's a and I know Lisa will be very soon working with different parts of the bank also related to that. The second is make knowledge easier to use. Sometimes we're learning Gretchen that a government call us and now that we're bringing the nap also to work with bit invest with the private sector part of IDB a private sector also transaction can have that kind of advisory fast so we need to make knowledge easier to use not only for governments but in a practical way for private sector the third one is skill building these bridges between science policy and operations and working more as a system this is Easy easy to say but in practice when you go and sit down with a ministry of finance with a ministry of environment with a sectoral ministry like energy or or water or even roads to mainstream nature into that seeing that how that ecosystem works how you say listen we can bring the nap and we have a solution technical solution to do this is what we need to do more and not only to governments but also to private sector. Mariana is here from Terrasos. She can bring you an excellent example with Greg about Puerto Durava in Colombia. I think it's a very pragmatic way of how we need to bring more solutions in a faster way. The final thing that I wanted to say is the question of management. When we first talk and Mary uh we didn't have a natural capital or biodiversity unit at the bank. We had a climate change team. We were evolving. Now we have a sustainable development department in which we have climate. Last year for the first time we had an action plan for biodiversity. We created the unit for biodiversity. Greg Wson is the chief of that unit. We have now developed the disaster risk management unit at the bank the Amazon unit. Uh I have also cities and uh regional development in my department. But the little by little way we're mainstreaming nature inside sustainability first making that connection of climate with nature of nature with resiliency when we talk about natural disasters on nature with the development of territorial development in cities and rural development in the Amazon linking that with bio economy but then with infrastructure we had an amazing example Gretchen this year in a road in Guatemala bringing nature-based solutions into the development of that road for for the first time and now we're talking with the department of health about the linkages of nature and environment with health. It's not only local pollution but is nature as a key actor for the department of health of the bank. So you see infrastructure, you have social, you have territorial development and finally financial innovations. I I think the ADB has been pioneer the for nature swaps blue bonds but also different innovations of payment for results. We have a program called Bid Klema that pays for results in our lending not only for nature but environment but also disaster risk management. Some of these countries that are here are piloting that with us. So at the end bringing the team that produces the innovation the financial innovation at the bank with us has been key and we're replicating that at the countries. So we have talked together in the bank the ones that lead the instruments with our technical team. We're saying to our country, listen, we have to do the same. We have to set down the ministries of finance with the ministries of environment and the sectoral ministries to do the ministry the numbers and with this I will end of the bank. Uh last year we u we lend about 1.8 8 billion in nature in the whole pot for of the bank for the first time in the in the history of the ADB that was more than 10% of our approvals and I hope to continue that growing and now the next step is also to bring invest the private sector part of the bank to be part of this agenda direction and use every day more now the alliance to work in the public sector but also in the private sector of daily group. Thank you. It's an honor being here and be with all of you, all of you learning and sharing. [applause] Thank you. Thank you so much. greeting and uh and again I this my pleasure to join this very important event uh time 10 flies today is we are celebrate the treaties anniversary of natural capital project Stanford and also launch of the uh natural capital alliance um we witness uh over the last two decades uh This lecture capital project was fundamentally change how the world understands the lecture. Not just simply is a something to protect but you know the lectural character is support the uh economic uh prosperity resence and also the food security and also human well-being. So ADB H&D bank has been very proud to be a uh as a key partner on this journey uh for the last two decade. Uh together of course with the support from the Stanford and also community we have break bridge uh cutting edge science with the practical development solutions across the Asia Pacific. You know with a question from an uh what the most important things ADB will move the leaders mainstream the electro capital. One thing I want to mention uh ADB formulate the uh uh capital operational guidance note is is the government is a adb is a corporate guidance know uh provide the u practical method knowledge tools and financing approach integrated electro capital through the entire investment cycle uh including a country diagnostics uh and also policy dialogue to the project preparation economic analysis and also the financing decision. This is one of the such kind operational guidance in the uh one of the develop banks. This includes four key pills. The number one is the lecture capital light. This developed together with the Stanford University. >> [snorts] >> Uh we uh translated the uh uh world class science into the uh investment decisions um through the ecosystem accounting and more important of course is the go ecosystem product. We helped the government make led visible in the economic planning. Uh this include like a eco compensation in China in Janu River, river basin planning and mania uh and also le capital accounting act in a Philippines and also ecosystem management uh in Sri Lanka and also the kuk island. Se uh is a lecture capital fund. Uh we are introduced lecture capital fund to mobilize the brand finance to restore ecosystem strengthen biodiversity and also the green the fuel system. IDB will also the launch uh the first bodiversity lecture fund to finance a part of the eligible projects uh across Asia Pacific. And third uh is a digital natural assets platform. We are apply artificial intelligence and also digital technology to enable the carbon credit uh by diversity credit and also payment for ecological services creating new economical opportunities for farmers and also the local communities. The lastly I causes Asia Pacific. We also apply this tools through the landscape approach including like the G to farm in central Asia uh from the rivers to data in Southeast Asia and from the ridge to leaf uh in South Asia and also the from the way lines to sustainable food system in East Asia. This is a demonstrate how we scale up the lateral capital through this river system and also landscape deliver environmental and also economic return. So look ahead uh the second question raised by an is how we can build the alliance uh in the next two decades if the last three decades right so the first I I think we we we we need to continue strengthening the bridge between the science and the implementation. Uh, of course in the last two decade we already uh finally we introduced nature capital accounting but next challenge is how to make the standard practice uh within governments and also multi develop bank like the IDB inter so that the letter capital routinely inform policies public investment and al also the financing decisions not just as exception but as a business as usual as a part of the law of the all the MTBs and also the government. Second, the alliance should become a true global community of the parties. In this room, of course, we have the scientists, governments, different banks, private sector, civil society, all of us have the different competitive advantage through the alliance and also the next two decades. We share knowledge build the capacity scanning you know the successful innovation together I think we can accelerate systemic uh transformation of course the success for the lex do take it uh we come when the lecture capital no longer just as a sort of the environment cific issues is should be as a part of a productive capital very financed and managed alongside with the physical capital, financial capital, human capital in all the development uh dissension ADB. Uh we look forward of course to of course continue this journey with Stanford Lee Capital Alliance with all of you. Together we can ensure nature becomes a not just a frontier of a crisis by the foundation of the resigning economy and also the sheer prosperity. So thank you so much. Look forward to work with all of you. Thank you. [applause] Thank you Lucas. Um, thanks so much. Um, on behalf of WWF, we're really pleased to be here. I'm going to just I'm going to say a quick story. Um, I I happen to be an undergrad here at Stanford in the early 1990s. And so, as we celebrate 20 years of NATCAP, I I remember a time before NATCAP. I think this was um and it's just interesting for me to think, you know, when I was here in the 1990s as a kind of young undergrad um the silos of kind of economics and natur and and earth systems and and natural resource management were just I was I was lost. I remember taking John Taylor's macroeconomics class and you know there was no mention whatsoever of natural capital. It was an idea that I never really thought ever existed. Um there was so many silos. I was not smart enough. I always joke to study biology at Stanford. So I studied the dismal science economics or international relations. And um you know today when I come back and we have Stanford students, we have Chris Field on our board, we have Stanford students we get every every year um in in my in my team. um the the mix of now people that speak about natural capital with fluency can talk the world of of of both nature and of both finance is just exponentially has changed so much and it's really um inspiring and it's it's um it's really because of of the last 20 years of NATCAP. So I think we need to kind of celebrate that and realize that for a lot of us you the older people in the room that kind of came up before things like NATCAP to really realize that um you know we didn't have that and so the younger people really inspire me that really um and I think it's it's because of NATCAP so kudos to NATCAP and and 20 years um on WWF's behalf I would just say a few things about kind of we've had a long history with NATCAP. We have a lot of people that work at WWF that love NATCAP. two things that we're doing the last couple years that I think um changing the equation. One is we have a new nature finance and investment team that we launched last year at WWF um headed by a guy named John Morton that was the climate um ZAR for Janet Yellen and came from a large from pollination. We really we launched that that team at at the climate week and and the nature hub. But I mean there's a lot more work going on at WWF on really nature and finance trying to bring larger landscape level deals um to the table much more private sector involvement. We also have a I'll do a little plug with my colleague Becky for convey which is a new collaboration we have with NASA WWF um and USGS that's looking at ecosystem um services um that I think she's going to talk about on Wednesday. Um, so a lot of progress. I think I'll I'll I'll I will I will wrap up with more talking about the challenges um in the next 20 years. And I'd say there's a few things and maybe the Ann will this will resonate with an I think the thing I think about is is that Eio Wilson quote that says, you know, we're drowning um in information but starved for wisdom. I think the paradox of our work is that we have so many good tools, better data every year, more and more information, more and more technology, more and more ways to quantify and understand the natural world. But I, as somebody who's worked in this for so long and who really considers myself, I'm an ecologist by vocation, I'm an economist by profession, you know, um, we still struggle with the other side, the mind shift. We don't have the wisdom. um we really struggle as a community to discuss what I think are the deeper underlying problems and paradoxes that inform this this this field things like intrinsic value which are the non-financial parts of of the natural world the people like um the natural um in in knacks um we we struggle to really understand um we're price makers I mean we're we're essentially price takers not price makers when I speak to a finance ministry or investor I'm always into the the defensive position of not only having to show the value, but then when you get to the price, we're forever having to justify that. Um, and and that's something we need to, you know, we need to get a grips on. There's a famous quote, I think by R. David Simpson about ecosystem services. Kind of the famous quote is that there's two things that we all know about ecosystem services. One is that they're systematically underappreciated, which we all know. And the second one is that if we just keep looking, we're going to find something on nature that's around the corner that we're going to use to, you know, to convince the finance minister it's important. But I think that's the paradox is that if we're just forever searching for that, whether or not it's, you know, um it was, you know, early on 20 years ago, it was kind of its contribution with, you know, pharmaceuticals to then being climate to then being, you know, biodiversity. We need to basically make the shift. We need to make the mind shift. That is the hardest thing to do and that really requires us to use both parts of the brain. It's kind of my abiding passion to really because I know as an economist we're never going to get it done. We're never going to move if we just continue to just value and be a price price taker, not a price maker. So that's the challenge we face in the next 20 years. WWF's kind of um you know is very very grateful to NATCAP. Um I I think we we we have a lot of learning to do but also a lot of celebrating to do. So, um, thank you very much and, um, look forward to interacting with you. Thanks. [applause] >> Thank you, Lucas. Last but not least, we have Taylor Rickettts. I I got to stick with my system of going all the way. >> Hi, everybody. >> So, yeah, I'm Taylor Rickettts. I was a grad student here and a posttock with Paul Erlick and Gretchen Dailyaly. uh and then went to work at WWF. And while I was there is when the Natural Capital Project was founded here. And when I sort of come to events like this that have grown over time, it always completely blows me away, overwhelms me about how big and how international and how energetic this uh project now alliance has become. And it really I want to echo something uh that was said earlier is it's it's actually really easy to forget sitting in a room like this that when the natural capital project was founded mapping ecosystem services was not a thing. Uh there was exactly what sorry one paper that had ever done that when we started thinking about the natural capital project. And looking at a room like this I think about the very first meeting here at Stanford when [clears throat] we were all done with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in the early 2000s and ecosystem services was now on the table. [clears throat and cough] It was a thing sort of politically and in the public mind but we were worried that we didn't know how to do this. We didn't know how to quantify ecosystem services and map them. And two of us, Peter and I worked at NOS's where mapping was sort of the coin of the realm. Conservation is a spatial thing to do. Where to invest, where to do what, where was really important. So we thought maybe we could map ecosystem services and get them mainstreamed into conservation. And we really didn't know if we could do that. And for this workshop, we commissioned two postocs to spend six months ahead of the workshop trying it. Go somewhere, get the data you need, come with your best attempt to map an ecosystem service or preferably lots of them. [clears throat] And I will never forget the feeling of being in this group of maybe 25 people when these two posttos presented their work and they had pulled it off. This thing seemed doable. It seemed useful. It seemed possible and it was clear we should scale that up. And so those two people by the way are Robin Naidu and Kai Chan. Both still leaders in ecosystem services. Both still can both Canadian now that I think about it. So [clears throat] not sure why that's relevant. Excuse me. But that I think really was sort of the crystallizing moment for me that uh there was this idea now that was interesting and doable which I had doubted and scalable and I think the scalability is like evident if you just look around the room right now. Uh so thinking about that um kind of origin moment at least as I remember it and I'm realizing that we all remember it differently so that's mine. uh uh it's amazing to see it here. So that's my kind of look back which I was asked to do. [cough and clears throat] Now for the sort of what can the Gund Institute do which I'm going to merge with what I think is promising for the future. So yeah I work now at the University of Vermont. I direct the Gund Institute for Environment and its mission is essentially identical to that of NAP. It is trying to connect disciplines around problems and connect academia to real world policy and decisions. There's about 200 scholars, faculty, postocs, grad students there and about 50 people at 40 other organizations around the world that are our partners. Many of you in this room are among that second set. And one of the things we are really working on is connecting ecosystems with human health, which has been mentioned a couple of times here. and I really think is to my mind the next really exciting opportunity for science and also for mainstreaming of this whole thinking. We do things at the Gund Institute like estimate the impact of deforestation on kids around the world for risk of malaria or stunting or diarrheal disease. We're estimating the risk of asthma from forest fires that are thousands of miles away. The northeast of the US is experiencing that problem for the very first time in the last two years. It's old hat here in California, I'm sad to say, but new there. And also clinical trials of exposure to nature and uh stress reduction in young adults. So these are all ways in which we're quantifying the benefits of nature, not in financial terms, but in terms of of health outcomes. And I think that's really important for three big reasons. one is it's another way of expressing the importance of nature that isn't money and some uh kind of recoil at the idea of quantifying nature in monetary terms. So it helps with that. It also is a very deeply personal held value. Your health and the health of your family is much more important than your financial situation for a lot of us. Anybody who's had someone sick in their family, which has been true for me for recently, you know, you'd do anything to solve that problem at any cost. Even my Uber driver, I did not prompt this, came up with this little line that I will use, which is, "Wealth is not wealth. Your health is your wealth." That was this morning. So, I really think it's a powerful way to express the importance of nature to people's lives. And then it's a second thing. It brings in a whole set of new partners. We've heard a lot from finance ministers and development banks. I really think we have a another whole set of partners in health agencies uh health nos um uh foundations that are out for um children's health and so forth. So there's another big mainstreaming opportunity and another really interesting intellectual handshake this time between biohysical sciences and medical sciences where we've gotten really good for 20 years on the handshake between economists and ecologists and really succeeded again look around the room I think in the future there's another handshake to be done successfully bringing nature really mainstreamed into the world of how we care for our Okay, so I'll stop there again. Overwhelmed by how many people are now part of this effort and uh really grateful to be here. Thanks. [applause] Thank you everyone. That was really fabulous to start this morning off with all of those perspectives. I would like to start by asking each panel member one question and then we'll open it up to the audience with a few special people that we're going to start with. So, first I'd like to ask a question of Gretchen and Taylor, our co-founders on the panel. Can you tell us something that sort [clears throat] of most surprised you from the work over the past 20 years? >> Do you want to kick? >> All right. Um Ann notified me of this question in advance. So I had time to think over a thousand surprising things and every time I went through them I um I did always just catch my breath over what's happened in China. It's just um been completely mind-blowing the degree to which um at many many different levels uh the China has transformed and I'm sure there are many factors involved but it's um just makes my skin you know have goosebumps thinking back over the um very systematic, very um very high energy, very committed and um often in some ways almost desperate, but in a way that many places have become. There's been so much disaster, you know, you have to get out of it. And um it's but then on the beautiful side it's been amazing to see how much um what we hoped for has actually come to life. So the um incredible commitment at every level in the country and the restoration of ecosystems, you can see it with um all kinds of measures and you can just feel the promise of um going farther. So it's been an incredible honor and um blessing just to see some of that. Taylor. >> Hi. All right. So, I apologize in advance for like sort of an opposite vibe to Gretchen. What has really surprised me is how slow other than in China the uptake to policy [laughter] has been. I I think really naively when we started this I was like, "Yeah, we're going to express nature in terms that the markets and decision makers understand and it's just going to take off and they're going to take it up into policy and markets are going to spring up and laws are going to spring up and public uh payments for ecosystem services are going to spring up and I have been surprised um at the gap the science implementation Asian gap again with really amazing exceptions and not just in China. And I think that surprise is as much due to my naive as the world really not responding as um maybe it could have. So I don't know how much of that was just like unreasonable expectations from me and how much was otherwise. But I mean we've written Jim Saltzman's here. We've written whole papers about why is that and is it the kind of science we're doing that is good for putting ecosystem services on the agenda demonstrating how important it is but not really to inform somebody's decision tomorrow? Is it um just the way our social ecological systems and economic systems are set up that it's harder to make this sort of systemic change that we're talking about? But I think that is one of the big challenges for the next 20 years of NACAP and the next time for all of us is to really work on understanding that gap and closing it. We've essentially been testing the information effect. If we just tell people how valuable this stuff is, things will change. And there's a lot of in lot of data that the information effect is not a very effective effect. So I think we need to be more deliberate about what the problems been in places that aren't the shining lights like China and others and work on that as part of our work that study the science policy gap and close it. >> Thanks Taylor. I think that really gets to part of our thinking about those early days of involving the multilateral development banks. And I'd like to turn to Chingfong and Tuan Pablo to help us think about kind of some of those challenges. Um, some of what's contributed to the system change being slower than optimistic young Taylor might have thought. [laughter] So, Chingfong and Juan Pablo, can you talk about what you see as the most significant barriers today and how we can better lower them so that we can not have Taylor come back in 20 more years saying that [laughter] it's still too slow. Thank you so much. I think for the next decade is a key changes how we are ski up uh the innovations and also the the good work we already build up in the last two decades. Again I of course like the Asia Pacific we already have the le capital accounting in number of the key countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka and many uh Cook Island of course we also working at Yans River. uh now of course we expand you know this type of leure capital accounting work to some of the small countries like the Bhutan. Talking about the type of lecture capital accounting and our innovations uh from the multilateral development bank perspective is we always look uh developing impact but the same time also the uh the sort of the meaningful sizable uh investment. uh take an example of the Btown. Uh again I thank to Ging and also Lushing and the other colleague your great efforts of your successfully launch capital accounting in Bhutan. I just come back from the Bhutan last month I waited list the prime minister he announced he's a one of the few country nationwide I doubt the GP. Now the question is from the multitude of development bank perspective Bhutan uh the uh haveing 600,000 people so when talking about investment uh we cannot expect too much so we look the sort of lecture capital ling just a local benefit the regional benefit and the global benefit Bhutan is a a the the Asia water tower. So the linkage with the downstream India and the Bangladesh so critical. So that's why uh when we in the Bhutan we only just talking Bhutan we uh bring India and the Bangladesh together in the same table we want to uh launch the we call is the rig to reef approach integrate the orange agricultural ecosystem uh coastal ecosystem management into the sort of the more concessment framework across Bhutan India and the Bangladesh in this way when we are working this small country uh this size small but you know the de impact can be very big and also our investment opportunity in India and the Bangladesh is also quite significantly to show how we can scale up uh natural capital investment so again I this is one of the key area but I think it's through this regional and the programmatic approach we can mitigate this gap. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. And I mentioned in when I was talking about the importance of when you talk about mainstream in nature. I think we learn a lot inside the NDBs also what is a reflection of how governments work and in all the agendas we need to be very humble and listen a lot. It listen the other what are the priorities nature climate in general local pollution cannot be as an imposition or as a problem has to be also be seen as an opportunity when uh I'm seeing the team of Greg right now working with infrastructure when you say listen that's why I mentioned the road in Guatemala when you say this is part of the of of the solution to do a better road and you show that with evaluation with the numbers numbers. That's why I mentioned the readiness to have that advice soon is key because if you are dealing with a government and they say listen I want a loan from MDB to do AB and C and that's going to take let's say six months but then you say no listen maybe it will take one year and a half because we're going to include nature we're going to see resiliency we're going to see many other things they said we need the loan right now right the minister maybe will change in six months so the readiness is key to have that technical information on hand >> to bring it >> but at the same time you need to listen what is the priority of a ministry of infrastructure I love what you said about health we're learning in infra we're minimuming nature a lot in roads in water I'm seeing every day more nature-based solutions as part of the water agenda in cities I just came back from Baku from the world urban forum and we show for example Barancia it was the first loan that we did in Colombia just to do mainstreaming of nature into the development of the whole city. A huge micro park that is creating a lot of jobs as well. But at the same time, you see the conservation. So bringing the nature agenda as an opportunity to create jobs to create more productivity in the private sector with health. I really love what you said because I saw the reaction of our social department in a workshop that we had the other day. They've done a lot of cash transfers for example in the last 20 years in Latin America to change behavior in education and health. We need to learn from that to apply that to do cash transfers for rural communities to create jobs in the Caribbean with mangroves or in the Amazon. So when we talk about biodiversity credits, habitat banks etc. The link with productivity with jobs has to be key and health is an amazing link also as part of that agenda. I'm seeing that with the health uh department of the bank saying how we can link this better. So local pollution the link with nature I think is going to be fundamental. Last the ADB created a couple of years ago a platform for ministries of finance for sustainability. We started with climate and now we introduced nature. We invited WWF last year to do a presentation with the GF and many ministries of finance didn't even know the GF because they are not the focal points to GF. >> So when we need to every day more align the use of different resources in the nature agenda with ministries of finance linking that ministries of environment and sectors. But seeing the evolution in that platform we met uh first time in Dominican Republic a couple of years ago. I asked to the ministers of finance and deputy ministers how many of them knew their NDCs and had participated in the development of their NDCs. I asked the same question when we met last year. The evolution is amazing. Now Greg is going to start working more and more with them about valuation of nature and we're bringing now natural disasters as part of that to start seeing the linkages. So again this is not easy coordination many streaming takes a lot of time but is important to do it and understand the other part and signature as part of the of the solution again linked to jobs linked to compet I mean to be more productive more competitive from the private sector and the lingu health is going to be key in the next years. >> Thank you. We do have a session maybe this afternoon on health. Is that this afternoon team? >> Yes. >> Yes. Might want to check that one out. Uh I'd like to talk about standardization a little bit. I think it gets to the readiness that you were talking about, Juan Pablo, so that we don't take forever to get back to somebody with some answers about um how to bring nature into decisions. So I'm wondering if O Yang and Steve could talk a little bit about standardization and your vision for how country governments for example can um report national or regional statistics that inform decision- making and make it easier to do so in standardized ways. >> Okay. Um yeah it's a great question. I I actually think so both Uong and I talked a little bit about this idea of GE, right? We all know about GDP. So GE, gross ecosystem product. And when I talk about GE, I oftentimes hearken back to what was the world like in 1930 when there was no GDP, right? Um and so how did they um at the time there was sort of this call this need for having better macroeconomic statistics. We were in the Great Depression and then the World War II and and there was a real perceived need to have standardized macroeconomic measures. Um, and so it, you know, coming back to Taylor's point, it took 20 years before this really took off and and arguably you could say it took 50 years before it really spread kind of around the world. Um, so it's not fast, but um, what we're doing on on GE and and and Uong and and his colleagues in China deserve tremendous credit uh, for this for not only the ideas but but you know, as we've heard getting this into practice, getting this into uh, governments using this. Um so we have a number of of available tools like the the geo uh you know explicit statistics that we have now that build the biohysical foundations of this. Frankly the economic side has to catch up a little bit in terms of valuation. But our hope right now is that we we will provide a template out there for here's uh a way of doing this. Here's the data. here's the methods for being able to quantify and value these ecosystem services. But then it will take a process of working humbly with a number of partners with people to say well in in in my country or in my part of the world this is really important and we need to better develop that. But you know that's the general idea though is to is to supply at least a kind of a framework for how this can be done which then people can um can work from and and and improve. >> Yeah this is a good idea uh good question actually in China the GP idea the meth say variation methods counting methods since 2012. Yeah, professor Drew Ching Chan work together. Okay. And since then we have try from very beginning to the like shing a city and then to province and to to the many province and many cities and to the nationally. So we do it shape do another pilot and figure out what data we need. You see China like America is a huge country have different ecological districts and they have different systems diction process different eolog process and different exent products. So we need to develop how to cover almost all kind of the house product services and then and different places we have different the parameters general model is the same but the parameters perhaps different. So we need to develop like this. So according China's experiments from the north of the power study and then format national GP accounting guideline based guideline and different places they will set up the how to say monitoring system they're following like this way. So I think China is one way but other kind different countries are differently how say different the system and uh I think most situation according to the developed country developed countries are not the services in the data we have the ways how to integrate integrated to the TV county like America I think in Europe country in China I think okay some development country don't have enough data. So this is a one issue for the bio physical value accounting. So I think push it and currently actually another big company like Google and like all the Chinese also as a DG center they have global data from e system this is for by physical value accounting I think go is is quite say optimized it's easy push the challenge for me I'm e lot economist China means how to pricing the services or extreme products. So we need economist work together. So so and and economist and eolog have a different think about this pricey perhaps. So we need to mean we need to work together with different partners different field of science work together to do that. Okay. Thank you. [snorts] >> Thank you. >> Okay Lucas last but not least I've got a question for you. Um, I'm wondering if you can talk to us about how we can better innovate to bring in novel sources of funding. We've talked about pricing natural capital, but how do we fund the work that this group is trying to do and how do we fund better and more stewardship of natural capital? >> Yeah, that's um, thanks. I knew this question was coming. Still still a hard one, I would say. um innovation. It's um I think it's a double-edged sword as I said this kind of thing because I think technologically we're making these leaps and I would say maybe similar to what Taylor said and and others um we have a new campaign at W nature needs us now where we're really trying to kind of go beyond just you know reach new audiences and I think on things like health um on recreation on intrinsic value on kind of making a broader case for nature it will expand our constituency and I think more money will come And we we're both you know we're very technocratic in NATCAP. I think we love the data but we can't let that you know obscure the fact that we have to reach out to these broader audiences and connect it more holistically because that's the key I think to funding but also to expanding our constituencies. Um I think also another thing we need to do in terms of innovation is better connect the cycle. I was I mean we talk a lot about examples about a really good tool or a really good country or a really good decision or a really good project but I think for me trying to go out to speak to investors constantly and and speaking to different is that I don't think we have enough case studies that run the gamut of that cycle that take us from you know a study to a decision to an application to a project to an impact we just we are very siloed in terms of how we speak about that and I think that is where bringing in new money and and having those case studies. I think the last thing I'll say is kind of more on trying to get in more money and also just kind of trying to get this innovation is I think we novelty is wonderful but we also tend to focus I think on a lot of sometimes we overly focus on markets or tools that are novel rather than focusing on the things that work. I'm always struck and I I work exclusively abroad internationally, but like the wetland market, the wetland, you know, banking market in the US is a three billion dollar market. I mean, if you go to climate week or you go to like the places I go, you would think it doesn't I mean, you know, it's three billion. The voluntary carbon market's a fraction of that. You would you never hear about it. Uh biodiversity compensation payments, Mariana Sento from Terasos is here. She and I have talked about this for many years. It's a huge market. compensation payments dwarf compliance markets for biodiversity offsets carbon but again these are just not known I mean we don't speak about them I don't know if because they're not sexy they're not they're not novel enough but I think we need to do whatever possible to show knowing that here in the US we have very we have much less sticks than we do we have a lot more carrots in the US than sticks but you know showing these I work a lot in Bhutan an incredible country to show that basically that's doing more on ecosystem valuation for decades showing bio wetland mitigation, showing habitat bank, showing, you know, showing these things that work to show the broader community that we need novelty, we need innovation, but also we need to do a better job just showing audiences and people what's working. This is not as difficult as we think, but we oftenimes just don't do enough of showing that. So, those are a few ideas I would have. >> Great. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to steal a couple of minutes of your time to continue this panel a little bit longer because we have 10 institutions that are current members of the natural capital alliance or collaborators of the natural capital alliance and I didn't think it was possible to get 10 people on this panel. So I would like to invite first Megan Meechum from the Stockholm Resilient Center to say a few words about Sure. Come on up. [applause] Hi everyone. My name is Megan Mechum and I represent the Stockholm Resilient Center, a very proud member of the Natural Capital Alliance. And at the Stockholm Resilience Center, we really use a systems approach to work with complexity, to build resilience of things that we want to keep or grow, and to navigate transformation away from the things we don't want to keep or towards futures that represent something new that we value. Um, and I had a qu sorry, a question for the panel, but maybe it's more just a call to everyone so we don't have to answer it now, but uh, we think a lot about how we're in a bit of a new world. We see a lot more uncertainty, a lot more surprise and a lot more novelty to your point. Um, I think we can all feel it and we can see it. So how is uh this evolution of the alliance and this community finding the strategies and opportunities and examples for working in a world that's new and full of that kind of uncertainty. So that's it. >> Thank you [applause] and Ian Lubie from the Nature Conservancy. [applause] Hello everybody. It's great to see so many friendly faces and uh be at NACA. So I'm here representing the Nature Conservancy. I think most of you probably have heard of the Nature Conservancy and I can't dream of trying to speak for the 6,000 people that work there and the around the world but um TNC was there at the beginning 20 years ago uh as a founding member um and is still a founding uh member of the alliance and a research and implementing partner uh going forward. And I think I think like Lucas you kind of mentioned uh you know being in grad school before you know natural capital was a thing but you know there's so much wisdom up here but when I got into school almost basically uh natural capital e services was already like the language and how we spoke and I think that's exciting for kind of a next generation of researchers and people applying natural capital as we go forward is we have a really strong foundation and we can branch out into new stuff But I really think it's an exciting time uh to bring on to learn from you all but then bring on this this next wave. Um so excited to talk about that this week. Um I also think because of time I won't uh ask a question but uh excited to talk to many of you. Um I know TNC is working with most of the organizations here uh in some capacity that I don't even know about but uh if you want any connections uh let me know. So thanks [applause] And then we've got Eric Lndorf from Natural Capital Insights. [applause] Thank you. Thank you. It's nice to see you all. It's a honor and a privilege to be part of the natural capital uh alliance. Uh for those that don't know since we have I'm one of four members of the natural capital insights team so I do feel comfortable speaking on our behalf. Um we are a small consulting group basically created uh over the last couple of years to expand the capacity of the natural capital alliance members to do implementation. uh uh we heard mentioned that sometimes projects need to take uh less than uh a year and we know that if you're working through university you might spend most of that time just trying to get through the administration of the university. So uh we're allowed to kind of take on and expand the capacity. So we do a lot of technical work uh from development planning, training, stakeholder engagement, optimizations and things like that. So we'll be around uh ready to talk about any projects you want to work with. We work with a lot of core members and also independently. Um and then I guess uh one thing we haven't heard as much about and would be curious as we go through the week is to think about the challenges and opportunities with uh kind of thinking about climate change and the ground sort of shifting underneath as we do implementation. Um be cool to hear about. So thanks [applause] >> [applause] >> just like to thank our panel so much for your interventions and your um reminiscence about the early days and helping us think about how to go forward with this. So, thank you all and thank you all for your attention and I think it's now time for a break.