The Forestry England Natural Capital Application (FENatCapApp) is an R Shiny implementation of the Microsoft Excel 2018 AECOM Forest Enterprise Local Geographic Area Natural Capital Tool. This tool has made a small number of updates to the ecosystem service valuation methodologies, and several enhancements to the user workflow.
The timber ecosystem service values are calculated by taking the product of mean annual increment values and timber price values. The timber price values are set to £27.00 by default, or are alternatively stipulated by the user. Similarly, mean annual increment values are based on regional averages (no reference), or alternatively stipulated by the user.
The climate ecosystem service values are calculated using two methods.
For timber, the mean annual increment values are multiplied by conifer and broadleaf-specific Volume to Carbon Dioxide equivalent conversion factors (no reference).
For other land uses, the area of each land use type on site is multiplied by the corresponding Carbon flux value from the Natural England Carbon storage and sequestration by habitat report (Gregg et al. 2021).
These carbon flux values are then multiplied by the central carbon values taken from Table 3 of the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Green Book supplementary guidance: valuation of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions for appraisal (BEIS 2023) up until 2050, carbon values after 2050 are obtained through linearly extrapolating the 2020-2050 data.
Recreation ecosystem values are calculated through two methods, one of which may be selected by the user.
The Outdoor Recreation Valuation (ORVal) tool was developed by the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy (LEEP) Institute at the University of Exeter, and uses a statistical model of recreation demand for green spaces based on a number of factors including demographic data, the date, the sites attributes, and quality of other local green space Day and Smith (2018).
The Forestry England Natural Capital valuation tool directs the user to use this tool externaly.
In the manual estimation method the number of visitors is multiplies by a per visit value of £2.15 derived from Willis et al. (2003).
Food ecosystem values are assumed to be equivalent to the agricultural tenancy rent on the basis that “the tenant is paying for the productive capacity of the natural capital that they rent” (Heaver 2018).
Volunteering ecosystem service values are calculated by multiplying user-inputted estimates of the number of volunteer hours generated by the project for each scenario, and a fixed value of £9.99 as recommended by DEFRA (Heaver 2018).
The air quality ecosystem service valuation method is adapted from Willis et al. (2003) and examines PM2.5 values only (Heaver 2018). Land categories were grouped into three types: Broadleaved woodland, Coniferous woodland, and grasslands. All data unless specified was obtained from Willis et al. (2003).
Three air quality damage costs (£ per tonne of pm2.5), derived from DEFRA (2013), were used:
Urban - £32,768
Suburban - £14,108
Rural - £0
To calculate the quantity of PM2.5 pollution present in the site the product of the following variables was taken:
Land category area, obtained through user input
Regional background PM2.5 pollution levels, taken from DEFRA (n.d.).
Two sets of calculations were then performed for each set of deposition velocities: a) in-leaf, and b) off-leaf. The Broadleaf and conifer deposition velocities were estimated by taking the mean values across a range of species in Nowak et al. (2013), with the grassland value taken from Willis et al. (2003). The quantity of PM2.5 pollution present in the site was then multiplied by the:
Deposition velocity (in-leaf or off-leaf).
Leaf surface area index (in-leaf or off-leaf).
Number of days in-leaf or off-leaf, supplied to AECOM by the Woodland Trust.
Regional percentage of dry days, obtained from the Met Office (Office, n.d.).
yielding in-leaf and off-leaf PM2.5 pollution absorption values, which were then summed to give the absorption total by land category.
To calculate the air quality ecosystem service value the relevant air quality damage cost is then multiplied by the sum of PM2.5 pollution absorbed by the Coniferous woodland, Broadleaved woodland, and Grasslands land use categories.
Mineral ecosystem service values are equivalent to user-inputted data for the market value of the minerals that can and will be extracted from the site (Heaver 2018).
To calculate the ecosystem service pollination values an five-step process is taken.
First, data for the area of ‘Pollinator habitat’ on site is requested from the user, with pollinator habitat classified into four categories (Heaver 2018):
Semi-natural grassland or ruderal (with diverse sward).
Area of pollinator shrubs and trees.
Gravel, sand or soil banks.
Other specific pollinator habitat. If this area is greater than 0.25ha, the site is judged to support pollinator populations.
Second, data for the area of land within a 3km radius used for the production of arable crops is requested from the user.
Third, a categorical value for local availability of alternative pollinator habitat within a 3km radius and excluding the site is requested from the user. The categories correspond to a ‘alternative pollinator habitat reduction factor’ which is used to assign the relative contribution of the pollinator habitat on site to the local cropland production. It is recommended that an ecologist is consulted for this step. The categorical values and corresponding alternative pollinator habitat reduction factors are detailed below.
High = 0.1
Medium = 0.25
Low = 0.5
Zero = 0.75
Fourth, data for the value of insect pollinated crops per hectare of cropped land is calculated by dividing the regional value of insect-pollinated crops taken from Breeze et al. (2011), by the regional cropped area taken from DEFRA (2018).
Fifth, the pollination ecosystem service values is calculated by taking the product of:
The local cropland cover area (step 2).
The alternative pollinator habitat reduction factor (step 3).
The regional value of insect pollinated crops per ha (step 4).
A pollination production factor taken from Bartomeus et al. (2014), which represents the minimum increase in production when insect pollination occurs (Heaver 2018).
The user is required to record costs related to the project in the first year e.g. the capital expenditure required to deliver the project, and costs representing the anticipated annual expenditure for the project.
The user is required to record revenues obtained for the establishment of the project in the first year, and anticipated annual revenues thereafter.
Note that revenues recorded in this section should not relate the ecosystem services values quantified using the methods described above.
In addition to the natural capital services that are quantified above
The user is requested to record the current and expected condition of the land for each scenario. Three categories were used, Good, Moderate, and Poor. This data is not currently used in the ecosystem service valuations.
Any changes in the area of Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) habitats (JNCC 2019) are recorded independently of the land category areas. This data is also not currently used in the ecosystem service valuations.
The user is provided with the option to supplement the quantitative ecosystem service valuation with qualitative text inputs for each scenario for the sites:
Objective
Forest Resilience
Habitat Condition
Biodiversity
Landscape impacts
Other features