Natural Capitals on the Duchy of Cornwall farms

The Duchy of Cornwall’s Natural Capital Project has at its core the ambition to cherish, protect and enhance the environment for future generations.
Across its 130,000 acres of upland and lowland farmland and forests the Duchy is establishing a database that will provide a unique baseline assessment of seven key natural capital elements, namely soils, water and air quality, biodiversity, historic interest, recreation and access and landscape.
Based on these assessments, integrated farm plans will be drawn up to not only safeguard existing features but also to provide ambitious enhancements on each farm and at scale across the estate as a whole.
The Duchy of Cornwall is establishing several demonstration farms (called Focus Farms) where it can develop its more detailed understanding, not only of the costs and benefits (monetary and non-monetary) of the ecosystem services of this work but also where research can be pioneered and developed to help inform its future assessments.
To this end, the Duchy wishes to collaborate with Exeter University to explore a science-led programme for the monitoring of its natural capital assets. It is hoped that this work will provide opportunities for research students to collaborate to develop a multi-disciplinary programme which establishes high quality and cutting-edge methods of natural capital assessment and monitoring.