What is nature tech and why is it important?

Photo: Carbon Tanzania/Roshani Lodhi

Nature tech describes technologies that can accelerate the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS) at scale. In particular, technology to:

1. deploy NBS – such as drone technology for reforestation
2. monitor, report & verify (MRV) NBS – such as satellite monitoring
3. improve transparency around NBS – such as blockchain for carbon transactions
4. connect people and projects involved in NBS – such as mobile apps and platforms to connect local communities to higher-paying markets for their products

Our recent market analysis estimated that the current nature tech market size is approximately $2 billion and that it will grow to $6 billion in less than ten years.

Four trends for market growth over the next five to ten years:

1. Nature tech’s ability to value and report on nature will greatly improve, providing increasingly bankable benefits for those who protect, restore, and manage natural systems, ecosystems, and landscapes;
2. The main driver of nature tech market growth won’t be technology per se, but the world’s ability to create effective policy, and to build human capacity and community;
3. As nature tech solutions mature and scale, the market will undergo considerable consolidation and vertical integration, but perhaps with a “mass customization” twist; and
4. Some of the most important innovations in nature tech will come from the Global South

As more companies and investors wake up to the importance of putting biodiversity and nature at the centre of their climate strategies, nature tech will certainly have a role to play – and earn the respect, and capital, that it deserves.

Nature Tech can help address the challenges of climate change and nature loss, supporting global sustainability goals. Given the point we are at in these crises, we need all the innovation, speed, and scalability that technology can offer to bring us back on a path towards a stable and nature-abundant planet.

To understand what nature tech is read our introductory white paper here.