# Gretchen C. Daily
**Gretchen C. Daily** (born 1964 in Washington, D.C.) is an American ecologist at Stanford University who works on valuing ecosystems in decision-making, a field often called ecosystem services or natural capital.[1](https://www.tylerprize.org/laureates/gretchen-daily) She is the Bing Professor of Environmental Science in Stanford's Department of Biology, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, and co-founder of the Stanford Natural Capital Alliance, known until January 2026 as the Natural Capital Project, where she became faculty director.[2](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/people/gretchen-daily) • [3](https://biology.stanford.edu/people/gretchen-c-daily) Her research areas are land use, biodiversity dynamics, and ecosystem services.[4](https://profiles.stanford.edu/gretchen-daily)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Field | Ecology and conservation science; ecosystem services valuation and natural capital[1](https://www.tylerprize.org/laureates/gretchen-daily) |
| Position | Bing Professor of Environmental Science, Stanford Department of Biology (since 2005)[5](https://www.cbd.int/cooperation/midori/daily.shtml) |
| Education | B.S. 1986, M.S. 1987, Ph.D. 1992, Biological Sciences, Stanford University[5](https://www.cbd.int/cooperation/midori/daily.shtml) |
| Signature work | "Intensive farming drives long-term shifts in avian community composition", *Nature*, 2020 ([doi](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2090-6))[4](https://profiles.stanford.edu/gretchen-daily) |
| Program led | Co-founder and faculty director, Natural Capital Alliance (founded 2005); InVEST software used in more than 185 countries[2](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/people/gretchen-daily) |
| Major honors | Tyler Prize (2020), Blue Planet Prize (2017), BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2019), Volvo Environment Prize (2012), Midori Prize (2010), International Cosmos Prize (2009)[2](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/people/gretchen-daily) |
| Societies | National Academy of Sciences (2005), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2003), American Philosophical Society (2008)[5](https://www.cbd.int/cooperation/midori/daily.shtml) |
## Education and career
Daily took all three of her degrees at Stanford: a B.S. in Biological Sciences in 1986, an M.S. in 1987, and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences in 1992.[5](https://www.cbd.int/cooperation/midori/daily.shtml) From 1992 to 1995 she was a Winslow/Heinz Postdoctoral Fellow at the Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley.[5](https://www.cbd.int/cooperation/midori/daily.shtml)
She returned to Stanford in 1995 as Bing Interdisciplinary Research Scientist in the Department of Biological Sciences, serving until 2002, and from 2002 to 2005 was a Fellow at Stanford's Institute for International Studies.[5](https://www.cbd.int/cooperation/midori/daily.shtml) Since 2005 she has held the Bing Professorship of Environmental Science, with a senior fellowship at the Woods Institute and, by courtesy, at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.[5](https://www.cbd.int/cooperation/midori/daily.shtml) • [3](https://biology.stanford.edu/people/gretchen-c-daily) She has directed the Natural Capital Project and its successor alliance since 2005, and the Center for Nature & Society (formerly the Center for Conservation Biology) since 2010.[4](https://profiles.stanford.edu/gretchen-daily)
## Representative work
Her 2020 *Nature* paper [Intensive farming](https://www.edgepedia.org/intensive-farming) drives long-term shifts in avian community composition ([doi](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2090-6)) documented 18 years of bird-community change across intensive-agriculture, diversified-agriculture, and natural-forest habitats in four regions of [Costa Rica](https://www.edgepedia.org/costa-rica).[4](https://profiles.stanford.edu/gretchen-daily) It found declines of endemic and IUCN Red List species in the intensive-agriculture habitats, evidence that intensive farming reshapes tropical bird communities over the long term even where total bird counts may hold up.[4](https://profiles.stanford.edu/gretchen-daily) The study grew out of her long-running work on countryside biogeography, a field she pioneered to evaluate how human-dominated landscapes can maintain biodiversity and deliver ecosystem services.[6](https://www.amacad.org/person/gretchen-c-daily)
## Ecosystem services and natural capital
Daily's research program rests on the idea that nature has measurable value to people: natural capital is the soil, air, water, and other assets that ecosystems supply, and decisions about land and investment should account for them.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/gretchen-daily-natural-capital-environment/) She has published about four hundred scientific and popular articles and thirteen books, including *Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems* (1997), *The New Economy of Nature* (2002), *Natural Capital: Theory and Practice of Mapping Ecosystem Services* (2011), and *Green Growth that Works* (2019).[2](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/people/gretchen-daily)
A 2009 paper in *Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment* stated plainly that the scientific basis, and the policy and finance mechanisms, for incorporating natural capital into land-use decisions at large scale did not yet exist, and set out the program her group then built.[8](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/080025/abstract) That paper also described InVEST's tiered design: Tier 1 models run on modest data, Tier 2 compute absolute service levels and economic values, and Tier 3 integrate external complex models; it reported an application with [Kamehameha Schools](https://www.edgepedia.org/kamehameha-schools) on a tract of land on O'ahu assessing alternative land uses.[8](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/080025/abstract)
The policy reach is now large. In March 2014 China's State Council called for developing Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP), the total value of ecosystem goods and services, as a performance metric for officials; in March 2021 the UN Statistical Commission adopted the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting Framework.[9](https://g20sfwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/P4-G20-SFWG-Stanford-Natural-Capital-Project-Valuing-Nature-in-Policy-and-Finance.pdf)
## The Natural Capital Project and Alliance
Daily co-founded the Natural Capital Project in 2005 as a partnership of Stanford University, the [University of Minnesota](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-minnesota), WWF, and [The Nature Conservancy](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-nature-conservancy), aiming to integrate the values of nature into planning, policy, finance, and management.[5](https://www.cbd.int/cooperation/midori/daily.shtml) • [2](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/people/gretchen-daily) According to the Natural Capital Alliance Fact Sheet 2026, its free, open-source InVEST software (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) has been used in more than 185 countries and in more than 1,000 independent peer-reviewed publications, and is downloaded more than 25,000 times a year.[10](http://naturalcapitalproject.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/natural-capital-alliance-fact-sheet-2026) • [11](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/news/natural-capital-project-now-natural-capital-alliance)
In China, the Natural Capital Project's tools helped zone more than half of the country for ecosystem protection and restoration while improving livelihoods for 200 million rural land stewards through eco-compensation payments.[10](http://naturalcapitalproject.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/natural-capital-alliance-fact-sheet-2026) According to the Natural Capital Alliance Fact Sheet 2026, work with the World Bank in about 9 countries in Africa and Asia influenced nearly $1 billion in development finance over two years, and a partnership with [Morgan Stanley](https://www.edgepedia.org/morgan-stanley) produced a free, systematic approach to reporting corporate impacts on nature.[10](http://naturalcapitalproject.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/natural-capital-alliance-fact-sheet-2026) According to *The Washington Post*, the project counts roughly 250 partners worldwide and reports some 1,700 projects.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/gretchen-daily-natural-capital-environment/) On January 7, 2026 it was renamed the Natural Capital Alliance, marking twenty years with a tiered membership structure.[11](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/news/natural-capital-project-now-natural-capital-alliance)
## Honors and recognition
The Tyler Prize cited her pioneering research on the essential services ecosystems provide and her work enabling meaningful valuation of natural capital in decision-making.[1](https://www.tylerprize.org/laureates/gretchen-daily) She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003, the National Academy of Sciences in 2005, and the [American Philosophical Society](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-philosophical-society) in 2008.[5](https://www.cbd.int/cooperation/midori/daily.shtml)
## Recent developments
Since 2023 her output has moved toward finance and human health. In June 2024 she and her group delivered a report, *Natural Capital: Valuing Nature in Policy and Finance*, to the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group, defining natural capital approaches as those that change policy and investment decisions by quantifying, mapping, and valuing natural capital stocks and ecosystem service flows.[9](https://g20sfwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/P4-G20-SFWG-Stanford-Natural-Capital-Project-Valuing-Nature-in-Policy-and-Finance.pdf) Her post-2023 publications include "Bringing nature into decision-making" (*Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B*, 2024), a 2025 *Nature Health* paper on wearable data and urban green space, a 2025 *Nature Cities* paper on acute mental health benefits of urban nature, and "Landscape efficiency frontiers for biodiversity, climate mitigation, and net economic value" (*Science*, 2026).[2](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/people/gretchen-daily) She was also appointed co-chair of the [World Economic Forum](https://www.edgepedia.org/world-economic-forum)'s Global Future Council on Natural Capital.[12](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/news/turning-tools-finance-toward-saving-planet-and-ourselves) The 2026 Natural Capital Symposium was held June 29 to July 1 at Stanford.[11](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/news/natural-capital-project-now-natural-capital-alliance)
## Debates over valuing nature
Monetizing nature's value remains contested, and Daily's own record marks the limits she acknowledges. The 2009 *Frontiers* paper she co-authored stated that neither the scientific basis nor the policy and finance mechanisms for large-scale natural-capital decisions yet existed.[8](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/080025/abstract) Her 2022 *Nature* comment "25 years of valuing ecosystems in decision-making" ([doi](https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01480-x)) revisited the first ecosystem valuations of 1997 and their contested reception over the following quarter century.[4](https://profiles.stanford.edu/gretchen-daily)
## References
1. [Laureate: Gretchen C. Daily, Tyler Prize](https://www.tylerprize.org/laureates/gretchen-daily)
2. [Gretchen Daily, Natural Capital Alliance](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/people/gretchen-daily)
3. [Gretchen C. Daily, Stanford Department of Biology](https://biology.stanford.edu/people/gretchen-c-daily)
4. [Gretchen C. Daily, Stanford Profiles](https://profiles.stanford.edu/gretchen-daily)
5. [Gretchen C. Daily, 2010 MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity (CBD Secretariat)](https://www.cbd.int/cooperation/midori/daily.shtml)
6. [Gretchen C. Daily, American Academy of Arts and Sciences](https://www.amacad.org/person/gretchen-c-daily)
7. [Gretchen Daily's conservation quest with the Natural Capital Project, The Washington Post, 2021](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/gretchen-daily-natural-capital-environment/)
8. [Ecosystem services in decision making: time to deliver, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2009](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/080025/abstract)
9. [Natural Capital: Valuing Nature in Policy and Finance, G20 report, June 2024](https://g20sfwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/P4-G20-SFWG-Stanford-Natural-Capital-Project-Valuing-Nature-in-Policy-and-Finance.pdf)
10. [Natural Capital Alliance Fact Sheet 2026](http://naturalcapitalproject.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/natural-capital-alliance-fact-sheet-2026)
11. [The Natural Capital Project is now the Natural Capital Alliance](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/news/natural-capital-project-now-natural-capital-alliance)
12. [Turning the tools of finance toward saving the planet, and ourselves](https://naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/news/turning-tools-finance-toward-saving-planet-and-ourselves)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Life and health › Life and health scientists › Ecologists and evolutionary biologists › Ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry › Terrestrial ecosystem scientists*
*Initially written Sep 21, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 25, 2026; Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 25, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license