The world’s economic systems fail to recognise the value of nature for the health of the planet and human beings, and significant economic factors negatively affect the natural world both directly and indirectly. The degradation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems affects the well-being of billions of people and costs about 10 per cent of the global gross domestic product annually.

However, restoring nature offers enormous economic opportunities. Implementing a Nature Positive Economy – an economy that takes complete account of environmental impacts and sustainability and strives to improve the state of nature actively – is possible. Yet, the ways to achieve it still need to be better understood.

The project

The ‘GoNaturePositive!’ (GoNP) project aims to drive change towards a Nature Positive economy. This change is made possible through nature-based solutions (Nature-Based Solutions) and by adopting alternative business models that use nature as the core element of their product and service offerings (Nature-Based Enterprises).

GoNaturePositive! wants to demonstrate how Nature Positive practices can generate multiple benefits for nature and humans while reducing business risk and attracting more nature-sensitive investors. To do this, it has set up five European and one global pilot projects in the agri-food, forestry, blue economy, tourism and construction sectors. The pilot projects will have a multidisciplinary approach and involve different stakeholders: industry, politics, NGOs and society. GoNaturePositive! will also provide a conceptual framework and practical demonstrations of how a Nature Positive economy can be realised.

Our contribution

Etifor actively participates in testing and scaling Nature Positive strategies with nature-based enterprises and the corporate sector. We are also committed to coordinating the activities of regenerative tourism and sustainable forestry projects. 

More specifically, Etifor will:

• Coordinate the five project pilots’ engagement, set-up, planning, implementation and monitoring. 
• Identify and build networks of organisations representing the five project sectors to sensitise and transfer Nature Positive knowledge. 
• Design and test Nature Positive strategies with a selection of these organisations representing the sectors.
• Monitor and evaluate the Nature Positive strategies tested with pilots.
• Lessons learned will contribute to a practical guide to Nature Positive transformation.
• Develop and deliver a programme of capacity-building based on the lessons learned from the above.