You Asked, We Answered - The Nature Record

As The Nature Record takes shape, we’re hearing from people asking how the assessment works, who it’s for, and how they can get involved. Below are the questions we hear most often.

Who is The Nature Record for?

The Nature Record is for anyone who makes or influences decisions about nature — or lives with those decisions.

We’re building The Nature Record for leaders at every level — federal, state, Tribal, territorial, and local — who need reliable information to guide their planning and spending.

We’re also designing for the needs of people doing the work on the ground: park managers, city planners, health workers, and conservation groups. They need to understand risks, benefits, and trade-offs in practical terms.

We serve scientists and researchers too. We bring together ecological, social, cultural, and economic dimensions of nature and show where we still need more knowledge.

We help businesses and investors understand the connections between nature’s effects on their supply chains, their risks, and their long-term success.

And we aim to be accessible to everyone: teachers, museum staff, reporters, and people who simply want to understand what’s happening in their own backyard.

Our goal is to give everyone the same trusted information so we can all make better decisions about nature and how it supports our lives.

What products might accompany the nature assessment?

We’re exploring a range of products:

• Arts-based products that highlight people’s relationships with nature
• Policy-focused products that synthesize findings for decision-makers
• Informal and formal educational opportunities

These are early examples, and this will continue to evolve.

How will The Nature Record interact with state-level policy and natural resource management?

The Nature Record interacts with state-level policy and natural resource management primarily through strategic partnerships with trusted boundary organizations that specialize in translating science into actionable policy and management guidance. The Nature Record is designed to work with partners, such as the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, professional associations, and practitioner networks, who already have deep relationships with state policymakers, wildlife agencies, and natural resource managers.

Through these partnerships, findings from the assessment will be synthesized into concise, modular policy briefs, toolkits, case studies, and learning opportunities that align with the realities of state governance. This approach allows evidence from The Nature Record to be carried forward into state wildlife action plans, land and water management strategies, biodiversity initiatives, and budgetary decisions in ways that are timely, relevant, and decision-ready.

Are you engaging with groups collecting data to monitor changes in nature?

We don’t currently plan to directly conduct or manage monitoring efforts. That said, we’re interested in supporting groups that do this work and welcome opportunities to connect. In particular, we can help explore nature-based solutions that address multiple challenges at once and inform monitoring priorities.

What frameworks guide the assessment?

The Nature Record is guided by a set of complementary frameworks that support a holistic, equitable, and decision-relevant assessment of nature and its benefits to people. The assessment is grounded in social–ecological systems thinking, recognizing people as part of nature and emphasizing dynamic interactions among ecological, social, economic, and cultural systems across scales. It draws on multiple people–nature relationship frameworks, including perspectives that emphasize biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, nature’s contributions to people, and relational values that reflect cultural, spiritual, and stewardship connections to nature.

We value knowledge in many forms, and the assessment aims to be inclusive of multiple worldviews. It integrates risk-based, indicator-based, and resilience-based approaches to evaluate what is valued, what is at risk, how conditions are changing, and where interventions can strengthen resilience. It uses a use-inspired, evidence-based synthesis framework grounded in expert consensus and transparent statements of confidence.

Are there opportunities to contribute data or information?

Yes. We encourage everyone to provide input on the draft assessment during the public engagement period, which begins in March. Our authors are also conducting broad scans to identify additional data sources.

If you read a chapter and notice a missing dataset or have relevant data to share, we welcome those contributions through naturerecord.org once the draft is live.

Will the assessment become part of any existing datasets?

We’re committed to making the assessment’s metadata publicly available and accessible. All information included in the report will be released alongside it. From there, we’ll explore how the assessment’s outputs can support and integrate with other data efforts.

How are you engaging the business community?

Several members of our advisory board come from the private sector and help translate findings for business audiences. Some assessment authors also work within private-sector organizations.

We’re actively exploring opportunities to engage with the business sector. If you have ideas or opportunities for business engagement, we’d love to hear from you.

Have a question?

Join our next webinar to be part of the conversation. All webinars are held at 12:00-1:30 p.m. PST.

Upcoming topics:

• March 4: How to assess nature
• March 18: What is happening to nature?
• April 1: How do changes to nature manifest (part 1)?
• April 15: How do changes to nature manifest (part 2)?
• April 29: What can we all do?

For more details, visit the registration page