Don’t ask what nature can do for you

DESPITE the seemingly endless drumbeat of calls to halt the destruction of nature, its decline is increasingly evident across our world. Somehow, the message of impending planetary doom is not enough. In fact, it may be making it harder to change the situation.

We need a new approach to motivating people to create a better future for all of life – human and otherwise – on earth.

At the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report Office, we aim to extend our understanding of development to include the quality of our relationships with the natural world, and to measure and report this progress – or lack thereof – at the national level. We call this new measure the Nature Relationship Index (NRI).