Our Services

Natural Capital and Land Use

What is Natural Capital?

Natural capital refers to the assets provided by nature with the capacity to generate goods and services which benefit business and society. Natural capital underpins the whole economy, including agriculture, forestry and fishing. With climate change, burgeoning populations and an uncertain political and economic outlook, the good management and use of our natural capital assets is critical for the prosperity of generations to come.

Our Expertise

Cumulus Consultants is at the forefront of channelling a natural capital approach into innovative strategy and operational solutions for governments, landowners, supply chain actors, investors and policy makers, in the UK and internationally.

Our experienced team of specialist consultants with knowledge and experience of both natural capital and specific sectors adds value to applying a natural capital approach into both policy and practice:

Sustainable land management: including agriculture and forestry, agri-environment, green finance and rural economy (sustainable economies and rural surveying).
Fisheries and marine

We are familiar with working across different scales including national (e.g. UK countries, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories), landscape (e.g. National Parks, National Landscapes), portfolios (e.g. investment, supply chain) and individual estates. Given the range of needs, scoping and collaboration is essential to bring together the right team and technologies for each job.

Our Natural Capital and Land Use services

Our key natural capital and land use services include the development of natural capital assessments and strategies, and land use and management frameworks, together with follow-on implementation and support – please see the service descriptions below.

Natural capital assessments and strategies

Cumulus provides natural capital assessments and strategies for governments, corporate and institutional landowners, and individual estates, helping clients to better understand and manage their relationships with nature. Scoping is essential as each natural capital assessment and strategy is bespoke and decision-focused. The assessment includes a natural capital and ecosystem services baseline and an appraisal of key natural capital dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities. The natural capital strategy sets out goals (e.g. nature, climate, resilience), prioritised actions, opportunities for investment, and future monitoring and reporting. We are pleased to support clients with follow-on implementation and integrating a natural capital approach into the core business.

Land use and management frameworks

Cumulus works with governments and corporate and institutional landowners to develop and implement land use and management frameworks to guide and direct land-based decision-making and help achieve long-term, land-related goals (e.g. nature recovery, net zero, climate adaptation, farming, forestry, water, development, access etc.). Framework development typically includes scoping, stakeholder engagement, baseline and opportunity mapping, scenario analysis and modelling, developing a vision, priorities and principles, and a balanced land use/net zero pathway. Framework drafting, testing and finalisation follow, together with the provision of GIS tools and resources. Implementation can involve sector-specific roll-out, policy/scheme integration, blended finance, and monitoring and reporting. Portfolio or local frameworks integrate with national frameworks and initiatives such as National Estates for Nature.

“This work has provided a strong evidence base, bringing together local knowledge and stakeholder insight to give us a clearer way to balance the different pressures on land. It will play an important role in helping to coordinate how we meet our net zero targets, alongside wider priorities for food production, nature and the economy, and support more informed long-term decision-making.”

Isle of Man Government

“It is always a pleasure to work with Cumulus. Your expertise, understanding and professionalism is outstanding.”

Kilnsey Park Estate

“A very good piece of work, vision raises the bar, thank you to everyone involved, and Cumulus for lending us support….Tremendous. Very ambitious strategy/plan.”

Crown Estate Scotland

“An impressive piece of work… these accounts will be helpful to the protected area authorities in how they think about and manage ecosystem services…. more generally the work is enormously helpful for the wider development of habitat accounts under the ONS-Defra Natural Capital Accounting Roadmap.”

Defra

“Very much appreciate the work and outputs from the experienced team at Cumulus, which is always to a high standard.”

NatureScot

“We’re pleased at how our new natural capital strategy has come together. It’s already providing an extremely useful framework to guide current and future decision-making on the ground. The financial cost benefit analysis of different land management options is exactly what we were hoping for and has helped to guide which agri-environment schemes we apply for.”

Kilnsey Park Estate

“We’ve much enjoyed working with Paul, George and Charlie on our Natural Capital Baseline Assessment. They are clearly a highly experienced and knowledgeable team who we look forward to working with further in the future as our Natural Capital and Carbon Agendas develop.”