Natural capital

Hello, and welcome to another episode on the New Books Network.

I'm one of your hosts, Dr. Miranda Melcher, and I'm very pleased today to be speaking with Dr. Patrick Gallagher about a book just out from Columbia University Press in 2026 titled Valuing Nature at the Ends of the World: Natural Capital and Climate Disaster in Belize.

Now, that title gives us a whole bunch of things to talk about because we're going to be discussing what terms like natural capital mean, how one thinks about climate, climate disaster, nature in somewhere like Belize, um, which is often described as kind of an ideal ecotourism destination, pristine, gorgeous, etc.

And obviously, if you're gonna look up photos, it is pretty gorgeous looking.

However, as this book helps us understand, there is a lot going on below, inside those photographs that helps us understand that kind of, okay, maybe the trees haven't been cut down, but a lot has been changed, a lot has been done to conceptualize what is going on with nature, to determine who gets to make decisions about what the value is.

Okay.

That's a very helpful introduction to kind of the different things you wanted to investigate that resulted in this book.

Um, but you mentioned the term ecosystem services a bunch of times, and we came across natural capital in the subtitle of the book.

Countrywide Connect with Andy Thompson and Sarah Perriam-Lapp.

Natural capital accounting, what is it? Something I haven't really heard about.

I'm going to talk to Ricky Stanich, who is the partner of Climate and Sustainability at Deloitte.

Deloitte and BNZ have just released some new work looking at how businesses account for for their dependence on things like soil, water, climate, vegetation, biodiversity when making long-term investment decisions.

For farmers, these aren't abstract environmental concepts.

They're fundamentals to producing food and making money.

What does this look like and what exactly is natural capital accounting? As I said, to join us is Ricky Stanich.

Ricky, g'day.

Welcome to the Mexico Business Now podcast, your ultimate source for insights and trends shaping the Mexican business landscape.

The following expert contributor article of the sustainability industry is The New Low-Risk Economy, Investing in Natural Capital by Cathy Gregoire, Executive Director, Pronatura Mexico.

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Investing in ecosystems is the new low-risk economy.

The future has already arrived.

Those participating today in impact projects that implement green infrastructure, watersheds, mangroves, forests, and soils will secure tomorrow's right to operate.

The rest will pay the cost of having failed to invest in the most valuable asset of all, natural capital.

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