Financing the Pluriverse: A Nature Futures Framework Foundation for Nature Positive Finance

Finance steers the global economy, determining which activities thrive and which decline. Historically, financial flows have driven biodiversity loss. In response, the concept of "Nature Positive Finance" has emerged, arguing that investments should actively enhance nature rather than either ignoring it or merely minimizing harm. However, current definitions of "Nature Positive" remain vague. Furthermore, when analyzed using the Nature Futures Framework (NFF), they embody values clustered around ‘Nature for Society’, with minimal attention to ‘Nature for Nature’ values and almost none to ‘Nature as Culture’ values. This narrowness contrasts with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which explicitly embraces pluralistic nature values.

Without a robust, pluralistic definition, Nature Positive Finance will not be effective and could even promote conflict. This paper proposes a systems-oriented approach to Nature Positive Finance. We trace the roots of nature-positive concepts across knowledge clusters in the Natural, Social, and Integrated sciences. We compare over twenty knowledge clusters that contain nature-positive concepts ranging from Earth System Governance and Planetary Boundaries, to Industrial Ecology and Environmental Justice, to Rewilding and Landscape Ecology.

To robustly compare these diverse streams, we employ a tripartite coding methodology designed to capture the plural dimensionality of nature-positive approaches:

• The NFF is used to identify implicit nature values and visions of the future.
• The Seven Resilience Principles are used to assess how each stream handles different aspects of social-ecological complexity, such as connectivity, feedbacks, and polycentricity.
• Dryzek’s Environmental Discourses are used to deconstruct the political framings and problem definitions embedded in each stream.

Our analysis reveals that no single stream covers all domains; however, a synthesis of them spans the full spectrum of values, dynamics, and narratives. We argue that genuine nature-positive action must bridge these perspectives. We suggest that the NF, in combination with the resilience principles, can provide a methodological framework that will enable multiple approaches to Nature Positive to be used in a complementary fashion that clarifies the existence of gaps, trade-offs, and synergies. We believe that anchoring Nature Positive Finance within a rigorous, diverse scientific foundation can enable approaches that respect the diversity of people, knowledge, and nature.