Multispecies economy starts with recognition
Reflections on "The EU Economy's Dependency on Nature" report
In February 2025, the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission (EC) published a short report, titled The EU Economy's Dependency on Nature. In this post, I share three main reflections on the value of this report in multispecies discussions, what it means for us as individuals and professionals, and the perspectives it might be missing.
Disclaimer: All views are my own and do not reflect views of my employers nor other affiliated organizations. Notes are not peer reviewed, do not constitute scientific theories or findings, and can change as new information emerges.
Updates:
I am teaching a summer school, “Designing with Nature for Sustainability,” in August at Aalto University, Finland. You can still apply and join the course! The application period ends 31.05.2025.
On 03.06.2025, I am giving a public lecture “Design for a multispecies sustainable world” in Rīga, Latvia, during the Design Summer School “Design Activism: Interventions for Eco-Social Challenges” (info of Fabula Collective’s Instagram).
I am collecting questions, challenges, situations, and perspectives for the “Ask Emilija” segment of the Multispecies Digest video lectures. If you have anything you want addressed in an upcoming lecture, please share.
Summary of the report
The report, commissioned by the European Commission (EC)'s Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV), did calculations and arrived at a high-level estimate of how much the EU’s economy depends on various materials, provisions, and services of nature. The EU policymakers are increasingly concerned with the negative effects of biodiversity loss, climate change, and widespread degradation of nature on the economy.
The two main findings are:
“Between 19% and 36% of the EU’s gross value added (GVA) is found to be highly dependent on ecosystem services” (p.1 of the report), and
“The entire economy is susceptible to nature degradation, since all sectors are interconnected via supply and customer links" (p.1 of the report).
The study used the ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure) framework, and particularly the framework’s definitions of ecosystem services.
The full list of ecosystem services considered in the calculations is long and surprisingly varied (check the Dependencies/Ecosystem Services section):
Regulating and Maintenance services (aka what nature does for us, while we likely do not recognize that it has contributed to us):
global climate regulation,
rainfall pattern regulation (at sub-continental scale),
local (micro and meso) climate regulation,
air filtration,
soil quality regulation,
soil and sediment retention,
solid waste remediation,
water purification,
water flow regulation,
flood mitigation,
storm mitigation,
noise attenuation,
pollination,
biological control,
nursery population and habitat maintenance,
other - dilution by atmosphere and ecosystems,
other - mediation of sensory impacts (other than noises).
Provisioning services (aka what we directly receive from nature to sustain ourselves and our systems):
biomass provisioning,
generic material services,
water supply,
animal-based energy
Cultural services (aka what we can do and experience because there is nature):
Recreation-related services,
Visual amenity services,
Education, scientific, and research services,
Spiritual, artistic, and symbolic services.
Overall, ecosystem services provide large amounts of input into the economy. In some sectors, such as tourism and agriculture, the input of nature and dependence of the activity on nature’s provisions are clearly visible. In other sectors, for example, research and higher education, spotting these inputs and dependencies requires extra thought and unpacking. The provision and dependencies are also distributed across supply chains and can vary across geographic contexts, which makes it harder to see.
Through estimates and calculations, the researchers can roughly estimate how much of the EU’s economy depends on nature. They estimate the direct dependencies of a sector, as well as indirect dependencies, upstream (among suppliers) and downstream (among customers).
Overall, the report tries to estimate, at the macroeconomic and financial risk level, how much the EU depends on ecosystem services. The results are that the EU economy depends a lot on nature. The dependence is highest in sectors that directly use inputs from nature and relatively lower in those that indirectly use ecosystem services or are far removed in the supply chains from direct use of nature.
Multispecies themes in the report
This report illuminates one important aspect of human relationships with nature: we are indeed dependent on nature, regardless of how much we are used to and would want to disregard that. It also suggests that a shift in how humans relate to and value nature is truly ongoing.
Human dependence on nature is real, and it is finally being recognized in policy-making and business.
One of the main elements that we humans need to relearn in the 21st century is that we depend on nature.
Physiologically, our bodies require freshwater, nutritious food, a sufficient level of oxygen in the air, and a temperature that is not too hot or too cold. These aspects are provided to us by natural processes, systems, and beings. We also need our microbiome (literal microorganisms on our skin and in our guts) to digest food, fight harmful bacteria, and maintain our immune system.
All our materials–including those we perceive as artificial–come from the natural environment, be that from cotton that we grow or crude oil and metal ores we extract from the depths of the geosphere. We need plants to photosynthesize, animals to grow, ecosystems to collaborate, and minerals and rocks to never run out.
All electrical energy we generate also directly and indirectly depends on nature. To generate energy, we burn fossil fuels and biomass that originate from nature, or use solar, wind, and hydro energy that is generated by natural processes, or use naturally occurring nuclear materials and a ton of metals and oil to build and operate nuclear power plants.
Moreover, all of our waste, including organic waste, solid waste, water waste, fumes, exhausts, plastic waste, and electronic waste, end up somewhere in the natural systems. Nature helps us take care of and recycle that waste (as much as it can of course, because we are not making that job easy for her), as microorganisms break down organic waste into nutrients, plants photosynthesize with the CO2 we release, ecosystems, like meadows and oceans, store or try to function around the waste that we have dumped.
If parts or the whole of nature disappear, we will also disappear rapidly. Or maybe we will disappear before the full breakdown is complete, because it will be too hot, we will have no freshwater to drink, and no nutritious food to eat.
We humans overlook the reality of human dependence on nature on a daily basis. It is not something we often think about. As an extension, our disciplines, professions, research, and business practices also overlook the dependence on nature. For example, design (my own ‘home’ discipline) traditionally overlooks any and all dependencies on nature, even though some alternative approaches like more-than-human design and sustainable design have emerged. Also, economics and finance largely overlook dependence on nature, as natural resources and processes have been perceived as never-ending, ever-present, and unnecessary to account for. In marketing, the goal is to make people buy products and beat the competition without asking much whether the natural environment can sustain the increased consumption and handle the increased waste.
When I first read this EU report, it was a strong signal for me that things are indeed changing. Even the framing of the report–to find out the dependence of the economy on nature–seems like a step away from how the economy tends to close its eyes to issues of nature, climate change, biodiversity, and sustainability. It also came at the same time as other indicators and signals. In the past months, I have seen several research positions in finance, economics, and management studies that strive to build new frameworks for how nature and dependence on nature are represented and accounted for in these disciplines. Insurance companies are exiting the Florida market because of the risks posed by climate change, which means that nature indeed has a strong impact on the bottom line for many companies and people. Another insurer has warned that “Climate crisis on track to destroy capitalism.”
Economists, businesses, insurers, and policy makers are more and more aware that what they do, their business models, supply chains, workforce, citizens, and governmental stability depend on nature.
I am happy to see this shift.
(Re)ingraining the idea of human dependence on nature in worldviews, systems, products, and daily practices is one of the key multispecies challenges
Once we start (re)embracing the idea that humans and all our systems extensively depend on nature, we will need a push towards rethinking and reshaping our personal and collective worldviews, production and consumption systems, supply chains, economics, business practices, laws, and regulations.
We need to undergo a significant transition (in my mind, as a self-proclaimed multispecies generalist, it is the multispecies transition, but others might call it differently).
As individuals, we can ask ourselves: Am I dependent on nature? In what ways? Do I live in a way that acknowledges my dependence on nature? Do I consume food, breathe air, drink water, enjoy walks in the forest, and take a dip in the lake with the appreciation that nature, its systems, and varied beings have provided these necessities and luxuries for me? How does it make me feel to be dependent? Do I feel weak, want to fight back, and prove that I am an independent, self-sufficient being? Or do I feel connected that I am a small yet lovely part of this large interconnected web of life? Or both? Does being dependent on nature make me want to have some knee-jerk reactions? Would dependence on nature change who I vote for or what I expect from companies?
As professionals, we can ask ourselves: How is my job dependent on nature? Does my job depend on any of the ecosystem services listed above? If yes, which ones and how? If no, why do I think it is a no? Could the dependence be somewhere down the line in the supply chains? Or in materials? Or in the experience of nature? Or more generally, just a dependence on viable and functional soil, water, air, and climate? Does my profession or discipline recognize dependence on nature in any way? Did I learn anything about nature and my profession’s relationship with nature in my studies or workplace? Do we ever discuss dependence on nature? How could we discuss that? If we never talk or learn about nature, how does that make me feel? What could I do to face those feelings and learn new ways of thinking so that I can take informed actions later on? Who could I talk to about this?
As I am listing these questions, I know that I have not reflected on all of them. If you attempt to answer them, I hope you can be gentle with yourself, as they are seemingly easy but can be extremely hard to answer.
Representation of nature through economic tools and formulas is limited, utilitarian, and anthropocentric, but still a step in the right direction.
As I was reading the report, I was catching myself thinking of its limitations. (And hearing in my head some imaginary multispecies practitioners and researchers being dismissive of it because of how utilitarian it is, or complaining that it is not multispecies, non-anthropocentric, or non-Western enough).
And, yes, indeed, the report and its whole framing have their limitations. It frames contributions of nature as services to people. It only estimates the instrumental contributions of nature (instrumental contributions are those that are perceived as useful for people to reach some kind of human goals) and does not recognize the intrinsic value of nature (intrinsic value is the value of natural being or system that does not relate to and is not evaluated by humans; typically it is said that and an instrinsically valuable thing is value in itself, for itself, of itself and does not need to be instrumentally valuable to humans to be valuable). It links economy and economic activity as a measure for experiences of nature that are not and should not be mediated by money or the economy.
But let’s see it for what it is. The report was commissioned and made by people who are most likely deeply entrenched in the economy as their key expertise and who see the world through the economic and financial paradigm (which, let’s be honest, is a very prevalent mindset in those who hold power positions in this world).
So, even if not perfect, I see this report as an important step for spelling out the value of nature to those who only see value in the economy. Economists need to recognize the value and contributions of nature. Finance bros and dropshippers need to recognize the value and contributions of nature. So do lawyers, policy-makers, elected officials, insurers, SME owners, economics professors and scholars, and that old friend who is part of an MLM…
If economic rationale is required to initiate a thought pattern in those people, we need to seize that opportunity.
As we strive for multispecies sustainability, all small current steps are helpful. They might be opening doors. This does not mean that there will be no further steps needed to correct the course. But we cannot expect that first we will figure out, envision, or futurecast exactly what the multispecies sustainable world looks like and then arrive with that to the people and expect them to accept it as the ultimate truth and joyfully embrace the changes and transitions required to make our visions possible (that would border on multispecies ‘facism’ or multispecies ‘cristian crusades’ if we attempt to force people to accept our 'ultimately right and rightious’ multispecies views).
We need to bring people along, one small, imperfect report at a time.
Closing remarks
The EU Economy's Dependency on Nature report positively surprised me. I’m glad to see that the EU is taking a strong stance and seeing the huge importance of nature in the economy and overall EU functioning. They also recently released another nature-related report, “WATER RESILIENCE EXPERIMENT - Gathering learnings through multilevel governance for innovative policymaking at the European Commission,” which utilized multispecies and more-than-human perspectives.
Much work still needs to be done within each individual, profession, research discipline, and institution. But the small steps happening, and there are many, are inspiring.
While writing the essay, I also learned about the ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure) framework, and how well their website breaks down dependencies of nature and impact on nature (this element was not part of this EU report and essay). So that’s going to be a tool that I keep returning to.
If any of this resonated, comment below.
If you can think of someone who might benefit from reading this essay, share it with them!
Hope to catch you in the next one!
More on human dependence on nature
Journal article “Multispecies Sustainability” by Christoph D. D. Rupprecht and colleagues (Open Access).
Lecture and Q&A session on the “Multispecies Sustainability” paper Christoph D. D. Rupprecht.
News release by the World Economic Forum “Half of World’s GDP Moderately or Highly Dependent on Nature, Says New Report”.
Briefing by the European Environment Agency “Exiting the Anthropocene? Exploring fundamental change in our relationship with nature”.
Book “Nature's Services: Societal Dependence On Natural Ecosystems”
edited by Gretchen Cara Daily, you can read Chapter 1 open access here.
Journal article “Ecosystem Services, Nonhuman Agencies, and Diffuse Dependence” by Keith Peterson (Open Access).
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