James Aronson, Paddy Woodworth, Christelle Fontaine, Orlando Rangel, James N. Blignaut, Richard M. Cowling, David Tongway, Bev
Debrincat, Rudolf S. de Groot, Daniel Renison, Samuel Levy, Chris Birkinshaw, Andre Clewell, Joshua Farley, Suzanne J. Milton, Porter P. Lowry II
The world’s large and rapidly growing human population is exhausting Earth’s natural capital at ever-faster rates,
and yet appearsmostly oblivious to the fact that these resources are limited. This is dangerous for our well-being and
perhaps for our survival, as documented by numerous studies overmany years.Why are we notmoving instead toward
sustainable levels of use? We argue here that this disconnection between our knowledge and our actions is largely
caused by three “great divides”: an ideological divide between economists and ecologists; an economic development
divide between the rich and the poor; and an information divide,which obstructs communications between scientists,
public opinion, and policymakers. These divides prevent our economies fromresponding effectively to urgent signals
of environmental and ecological stress. The restoration of natural capital (RNC) can be an important strategy in
bridging all of these divides. RNC projects and programs make explicit the multiple and mutually reinforcing
linkages between environmental and economic well-being, while opening up a promising policy road in the search
for a sustainable and desirable future for global society. The bridge-building capacity of RNC derives from its double
focus: on the ecological restoration of degraded, overexploited natural.
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