NATURE.
PEOPLE.
MONEY.
An economy that works for Nature
Our ecological crisis is not only environmental — it is economic. This site is about aligning economy and Nature: how a Citizen’s Dividend for Nature can reframe incentives, strengthen natural capital accounting, and bring ecological value into everyday decisions. Markets are excellent at pricing extraction, yet often fail to recognise stewardship. If Nature underpins all wealth, why is it largely absent from how wealth is measured, distributed and incentivised? If we want economic systems that are resilient and fair, we need better value signals — and we need them where choices are made: in policy, finance, and daily exchange. My Drop In the Oceans explores a systemic response: a framework designed to align economic incentives with ecological reality by embedding Nature into accounting, institutions, and forms of financial recognition that help normalise stewardship as a rational economic choice.Latest insights
Dividends for Nature
A Citizen’s Dividend for Nature is not a charitable gesture. It is a structural adjustment to how value is accounted for. If ecosystems generate measurable public wealth — stability, resilience, productivity — then that value should be reflected in economic flows and in how benefits are shared. This thinking builds on a longer intellectual and practical lineage. Early efforts such as TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) helped articulate ecosystems in economic terms. In the private sector, initiatives such as Puma’s Environmental Profit & Loss (EP&L) accounting demonstrated that environmental externalities could be measured and priced. Civil society contributions — including the work of the Global Footprint Network and Earth Overshoot Day — translated planetary limits into tangible metrics. More recently, frameworks such as the Dasgupta Review, the UN SEEA framework, and the IPBES Global Assessment have reinforced and institutionalised this direction of travel. Together, they converge on the same conclusion: natural capital is foundational to prosperity, yet remains structurally undervalued in economic decision-making. The dividend concept is less about “sharing” what Nature already gives us, and more about ensuring Nature’s value is recognised in economic terms that can compete with conventional measures of performance. In other words: institutional design that makes stewardship financially legible — comparable to how good company stewardship can translate into higher wages, profits and dividends. The key is legitimacy at scale: shared standards for measurement and valuation, governance that earns public trust, and mechanisms that translate ecological outcomes into tangible economic value. Without that, “natural capital” remains abstract and cannot compete with the financial signals that currently drive decision-making.Aligning incentives in everyday life
The hardest part of systemic change is not persuading people to behave differently; it is redesigning the signals that determine what the economy rewards — in prices, wages, investment and accounting. When the costs of ecological loss are externalised, rational decisions can still generate harmful outcomes. When stewardship is economically invisible, it is treated as optional. Aligning economy and Nature therefore means making ecological value financially legible at the same level as other forms of performance — so that ordinary economic behaviour, operating within better-designed systems, naturally supports long-term resilience. A practical problem is a timing mismatch: the long-term benefits of stewardship rarely translate into immediate recognition today. A Citizen’s Dividend for Nature aims to close that gap — attributing present value to actions that generate long-term resilience, and helping to normalise stewardship as a rational economic choice. This is not about “rewarding” people for behaving well. Fact is, it is about correcting the signals the economy sends. What is measured is managed — and what is valued shapes behaviour, investment, and policy. One operational expression of these principles is mydio.com — a closed-loop approach that attributes immediate value to sustainable public services and everyday spending. Rather than relying on subsidies or moral appeals, it embeds financial recognition directly into exchange to incentivise sustainable choices. If you’d like context, see how mydio.com works and the thinking behind mydio.com. For more background on the narrative we inherit, read Money = Work = Worth, and for a practical entry point into the concept of recognition, see the stewardship recognition essay.How a Citizen’s Dividend for Nature could work
The dividend idea can be approached as institutional design rather than a slogan. In practice, it could combine: (1) credible ecological measurement, (2) transparent accounting of natural capital changes, (3) a governance layer that protects legitimacy, and (4) a distribution mechanism that shares recognised value back to people and communities. A simple way to think about it is this: when stewardship measurably improves ecological assets — biodiversity resilience, watershed health, flood protection, soil fertility — the economy benefits. A dividend framework asks how those benefits can be made visible and shared, so that the incentives in the system point away from short-term depletion and toward long-term prosperity. If you’re looking for a structured overview of the pathway from principles to mechanisms, start with the Theory of Change for implementation, and explore the argument that Nature is an economic imperative.Frequently asked questions
Is this a universal basic income?No. While it uses the language of a dividend, the focus is ecological accounting and incentive design: aligning economic signals with the value of natural capital and stewardship. How is this different from carbon pricing?
Carbon pricing addresses a specific externality. A Citizen’s Dividend for Nature addresses the broader question of how ecological wealth is recognised, measured and distributed within economic structures. Why link this to everyday transactions?
Because incentives work where people and organisations make decisions. Bringing ecological value into day-to-day exchange helps close the gap between long-term benefits and immediate financial recognition. Want to explore a collaboration or share relevant work? Send a message via our contact page. Privacy matters — see the privacy policy.
