Natural Prosperity is a measure of the interdependence between well-being, wealth and nature. It is based on the premise that a well-functioning, healthy natural world lies at the core of sustaining and improving global and local prosperity and building regenerative economies. The ideas behind natural prosperity come from the real-world conversations and discussions with local communities, leaders from civil society, business and religions around the world.
Natural Prosperity goes beyond the concept of natural capital, the framework for natural assets that go into economic production and consumption. Rather, Natural Prosperity highlights how a society connects to the natural world. It tells us about how a society organises itself around the resources it depends on; biodiversity, clean land, water and air, and the way in which this common wealth is used to determine prosperity and social equity.
Natural Prosperity provides an authentic framework to evaluate the ways in which human society is innovating and adapting at a time of rapid climatic and technological change. It provides a benchmark for income and wealth distributional policies and helps us determine ways of living more secure and fulfilling lives.
Natural Prosperity is one element in the larger prosperity initiative of the IGP, looking at the meaning and measurement of prosperity in communities around the world. The focus for the initial work on Natural Prosperity is in Kenya, where the IGP is working with subsistence farming communities in Elgeo-Marakwet and on community-wildlife interaction amongst the Maasai communities in the Greater Mara Ecosystem.