What is Nature Positive?

What is Nature Positive?

In 2019, a group of environmental organisations and others (convened by WWF) coined the term ‘Nature Positive’, as a proposed headline global goal for nature. Nature Positive – which builds upon decades of scientific research and innovative policy making effort, including the development of concepts such as "Bending the Curve” and the Mitigation and Conservation Hierarchy – has since gathered significant momentum across public, private, and third sector actors.

Any definition of the Nature Positive goal should be founded on nature recovery in absolute terms (not relative to a counterfactual of continued decline), and should be in line with global biodiversity agreements (Bull et al., 2020; Milner-Gulland, 2022; zu Ermgassen et al., 2022). For example, Naturepositive.org defines Nature Positive as a goal to:

“halt and reverse nature loss measured from a baseline of 2020, through increasing the health, abundance, diversity and resilience of species, populations and ecosystems so that by 2030 nature is visibly and measurably on the path of recovery”.

Nature Positive is closely aligned with the new Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed under the Convention on Biological Diversity in December 2022, which includes an immediate mission to “halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2030”. It is also aligned with emerging national or regional policies and regulations worldwide, for instance mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain in the UK.

At the Oxford Nature Positive Hub, our research spans the full spectrum of action needed to inform Nature Positive pathways (see Figure above). This ranges from identifying the driving forces that underlie biodiversity loss and promote positive action, to understanding organisational impacts on biodiversity (negative and positive), identifying feasible and effective strategies to mitigate impacts and take conservation action in line with global biodiversity agreements, developing approaches to measure biodiversity outcomes and building capacity within sectors to deliver Nature Positive goals.

Many organisations, businesses and governments are committing to contributing to this global Nature Positive goal. Delivering these Nature Positive contributions requires organisations to be ambitious, consider a wider spatial, temporal and systemic scope of impacts than just their direct footprint, mainstream biodiversity into their wider decision making, and have clear and evidenced plans for implementation that can deliver effective and equitable outcomes (Booth et al, 2023).