Making the intangible more tangible: how non-material nature’s contributions to people are integrated by different science-policy assessments

Addressing multiple global challenges like climate change, land degradation, biodiversity loss and sustainable development requires holistic actions which account for the diverse needs of people and ecosystems and maximise co-benefits while avoiding trade-offs which hinder progress. The IPBES Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP) framework promotes the visibility of “non-material” NCPs, including learning and inspiration, physical and psychological experiences and supporting identities, to be equitably accounted for in decision-making processes alongside material and regulating NCPs. Non-material NCPs are central to understanding how people value, connect to, and interact with nature and thus how they make decisions about nature and the sustainable use of natural resources. Challenges remain however in how to effectively evaluate, communicate and assess non-material NCPs and their relevance in different contexts. This creates a potential barrier to their cohesive inclusion in strategies to address global challenges.

In order to better understand how non-material NCPs are perceived and utilised in complex science-policy contexts, we are conducting a systematic review of how they are represented, framed, and operationalized across major science-policy assessments related to global frameworks addressing global challenges, such as those from the IPCC, IPBES, UNCCD and the Global Sustainable Development Report. We identify where and how non-material NCP are described, the language and perspectives used, and the extent to which they inform policy options through a combination of keyword searches and qualitative content analysis. Highlighting strengths and weaknesses of different approaches for integrating non-material NCPs into science-policy assessments, this analysis will identify entry points for more consistent and inclusive integation of non-material NCPs across high-level policy contexts and how they could be better realised for their role in addressing multiple global challenges.

Early insights from this ongoing work will contribute to the session’s broader discussion on bridging concepts and practice to support the development of more inclusive and holistic approaches to biodiversity research and decision-making which better accounts for the diverse values of nature.