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• The principles of financial accounting are equally relevant for environmental management: without knowing our assets, we can't know our income.

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• Nature's stocks of fields, forests, wetlands and rivers provide flows of services to society and the economy, such as flood regulation, carbon sequestration, food and fuel provision, and recreational amenities.

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• We need to know which ecosystems generate which services, which are in the best condition, which are degraded and how their quality and extent have changed over time, the extent of their services' contribution to economic activity, what monetary values might be attributed to those contributions and how those values should be considered in the context of the many ways people value nature.

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• Our research applies the UN-standard Natural Capital Accounting methodology, the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) to river catchments in Ireland for the first time in order to develop decision-support tools for policy-makers.

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• The research also conducted economic impact assessments to analyse food production policies on natural capital.

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• Natural Capital Accounting can inform integrated economic and political decision-making, sectoral policies, responsible business strategies and support evidence-based investment, rural development, health and sustainability outcomes.