Land and land resources play a fundamental role delivering the economic growth targets of many emerging economies and have close links to issues such as job creation, poverty alleviation, food security, and climate change. Although land is a valuable asset that produces social, environmental, and economic benefits, economic benefits are the most readily recognized; social and environmental impacts are often unpriced and undervalued.

As demands on Indonesia’s land resources continue to increase in the coming years, improved capacity to value the benefits associated with land (called natural capital assessment) and to integrate this information into land allocation decisions could support efforts to achieve both development and environmental goals.

This brief distills the elements of natural capital assessment process, highlights a few cases of existing, related experience and tools from around the world; and situates the discussion in the context of Indonesia’s development goals and pressures.