Becoming Nature Positive: Transitioning to a Safe and Just Future

As humanity sits at an existential crossroads, this book introduces the need to build a nature-positive future to secure the functioning and stability of Earth systems essential to the survival and wellbeing of present and future human generations as well as the rest of Earth's amazing diversity of life.

Alongside the change in climate, a more silent but equally terrifying crisis is unfolding: the loss of nature and biodiversity. These twin crises are in fact interconnected. After decades of ignoring our impacts on the natural world, we are beginning to realise that nature conservation is a security issue for humanity, and an imperative for intersectional and intergenerational justice. For these reasons, we must embrace a transition from a nature-negative to a nature-positive society, one that ensures human development and addresses today’s inequality, while conserving, restoring and sustainably benefiting from nature's resources and services. A Nature Positive future is one with more nature than today: more forests, more fish, more pollinators, more soil biodiversity, with benefits for the Planet and for us. In this book we define what becoming Nature Positive means from a variety of perspectives, what it takes to deliver it and why it is possible and, most importantly, necessary.

This book is essential reading for those concerned with conserving nature and securing a safe future for humanity in the face of climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and ecological collapse. The future can be bright. The choice is ours.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives (CC-BY-ND) 4.0 license.

Marco Lambertini is Convenor of the Nature Positive Initiative.

Joseph “Joe” W. Bull is Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford, UK.

Leroy Little Bear is Professor Emeritus at the University of Lethbridge, Canada.

Harvey Locke is Co-founder and Senior Advisor for Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative and Nature Needs Half.

Eva Zabey is the CEO of Business for Nature.

Dorothy Maseke is Head of the African Natural Capital Alliance (ANCA) secretariat and Africa Lead, Nature Finance & TNFD at FSD Africa.

Carlos Manuel Rodríguez is CEO and Chair of the Global Environment Facility.