---
title: "nature's balance sheet"
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/natures-balance-sheet
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/natures-balance-sheet.md
subtitle: "everyone wants to put nature on the balance sheet. a new kind of institution gives nature its own, and does a bank's work on two sides"
category: natural-capital
---

# nature's balance sheet

*everyone wants to put nature on the balance sheet. a new kind of institution gives nature its own, and does a bank's work on two sides*

Open a savings account and your money moves onto the bank's balance sheet, as something the bank owes you. Count a forest in a national account and it becomes a line in a country's books. Either way the books belong to someone else. Nobody asks whose books the river's money sits on, because a river has never had books of its own.

The Colorado River was carrying water long before anyone kept a ledger. The river, the species in it and the people along it exist whether or not anyone opens an account for them. [**Ensurance**](/?from=guide) is one way money can reach them. It is not what they are.

**What is nature's balance sheet?** Nature's balance sheet is a set of books kept in a living thing's own name: an account for a river, a species, a place or a purpose that can receive, hold and pay out money through its keepers. It is the reverse of putting nature on a balance sheet a company or a country owns.

:::johnson accent
**everyone wants to put nature on the balance sheet. we gave nature its own.**

An account addressed to a place holds its own balance, in its own wallet, signed for by the people who keep it. It is not pooled with anyone else's money, and anyone can read it on the public ledger.

[next: nature is the customer →](/guide/nature-is-the-customer?from=guide)
:::

## nature on the balance sheet, and whose it is

"Nature on the balance sheet" is an accounting practice, and a good one. The United Nations framework for it, SEEA Ecosystem Accounting, was adopted by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2021. It records how large an ecosystem is, what condition it is in and what services it supplies. Where a country also compiles the monetary accounts, they record stocks of ecosystem assets and the changes in them, including degradation. Natural capital accounting carries the same idea into company reports, where environmental information sits beside the financial statements.

More in [an account is not a forest](/guide/an-account-is-not-a-forest?from=guide).

Look at who holds the pen, though. A national account belongs to a nation. A corporate natural capital account belongs to the company. In both, the wetland is an entry in someone else's report. The report can be accurate and the wetland can still have nothing to spend.

A statistical account describes a place. A financial account lets money arrive, stay and leave under a name, and banks give that kind to people and organizations, not to rivers.

**Nature on the balance sheet makes a living system an entry in an owner's books. Nature's balance sheet gives the living system books of its own.**

## what "its own" means here

**The river is not on any ledger. Its money is.** An account does not own the river, price it or speak for it. Nature is the wealth and the principal. The account is where funding addressed to it can sit.

**The books are each account's own.** The balance is never pooled with the institution's own money. It sits in the account's own wallet, apart from every other account, and whoever holds the account's token holds the key. That wallet is on Base, a public blockchain network, and what it holds can be read by anyone ([what a tokenbound account is](/guide/what-a-tokenbound-account-is?from=guide)).

**Someone has to hold the keys.** Whoever holds an account's token holds its key. A river cannot sign, so a person or organization keeps the account in its name, and people and AI can work for it under its mandate. Early in the build, most accounts are kept by the people who set them up. Holding the token gives no authority over the river or the people who live along it, and existing and customary rights come first ([community land rights come first](/guide/community-land-rights-come-first?from=guide)). [Post 5](/guide/who-holds-the-keys-to-a-rivers-account?from=guide) covers who holds the keys.

Every account also keeps two lists, what it depends on and what depends on it ([every account has two lists](/guide/every-account-has-two-lists?from=guide)). On nature's balance sheet those relationships sit next to the money, because they say who ought to be paying in, and who besides the place the money should reach: the stewards, growers and neighbours whose living depends on it.

## a bank's work, on two sides

**This is a new kind of institution. It keeps accounts for nature, and it finances nature and the people who depend on it, without being a bank.**

A bank does two things that matter here: it keeps accounts, and it finances its customers. This does both for a different customer, and does the second one differently.

| side | what a bank does | what nature's balance sheet does | status today |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Accounts** | Opens an account for a person or company it can identify. The balance becomes the bank's liability | A place, species or purpose holds the account. The balance stays in that account's own wallet, held by whoever holds its token | Live and small. 2,095 accounts across 25 groups with accounts (29 group records); 3 were active in the last 7 days (14 November 2026) |
| **Financing** | Lends, funded largely by the deposits it holds, and earns the spread | Funds the place and the people who depend on it from activity: payments by dependents, policies on natural assets, certificate and coin proceeds, fees | Partly live. 26 policies. Minted certificates on the 24 priced in USDC come to $36,832 at today's prices, a price count and not money received. Most routing to accounts is built or designed, not yet flowing |

A small fee on swaps through the app helps fund the protocol's operations while it is built. Routing a share of activity to the accounts of the places involved is part of the design. A protocol-wide distribution to certificate holders is designed, and none has been paid. So "all activity funds every account" is the design. Today the money that reaches a place is sent to its account directly or arrives through its own certificates and proceeds contracts.

What this side does not do is lend out anyone's balance. No deposits are taken, so there is nothing to lend. An account may choose to place its own dollars in an approved onchain lending venue, confirmed by a person or inside limits its keepers set ([the account proposes, you confirm](/guide/the-account-proposes-you-confirm?from=guide)).

## side by side with the three largest us banks

The comparison is about reach: who can hold an account and how the institution meets them. The three largest US consumer banks publish those figures in their annual reports.

| institution | who holds accounts (each one's own measure) | how it meets them | as of |
|---|---|---|---|
| JPMorgan Chase (Consumer & Community Banking) | 86.6 million consumer customers and 7.4 million small business customers | 5,083 branches | 31 December 2025 |
| Bank of America (consumer and small business) | Approximately 69 million consumer and small business clients | Approximately 3,600 financial centers and approximately 15,000 ATMs | 31 December 2025 |
| Wells Fargo (Consumer Banking and Lending) | 60 million consumer and small business customers | 4,090 retail bank branches | Year-end 2025 |
| *ensurance*, today | 2,095 accounts for places, species, purposes and people; 3 active in 7 days | 25 groups with accounts, an app and a public API | 14 November 2026 |
| *ensurance*, who could hold one | About 8.5 million mapped river reaches; about 2.28 million catalogued species; and any person, place or purpose a bank could also serve | No branch needed to open an account | Capacity, not a forecast |

Customers, clients, branches and financial centers are each bank's own measures, so the rows are not like for like and none should be divided by another. The JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo reports state no ATM count, so none is shown.

On 14 November 2026 the stats endpoint reported 2,095 accounts, 26 policies, and 3 accounts active in the last week. The public accounts list showed 2,085 at 13:12 UTC, and 86 of those had a wallet deployed. Every account has a wallet address from the day it is made and can receive funds there; deploying the wallet is the step that lets it sign and send.

What the rails have is room. The same account shape fits a creek or a continent ([place, purpose, people at any size](/guide/place-purpose-people-at-any-size?from=guide)), and the things that could hold one include every holder a bank could serve plus millions it never counts as customers. The river reaches are HydroRIVERS mapped segments, not named rivers, and the species figure is the Catalogue of Life release of 14 October 2026, not a census. Those are orders of magnitude, not added together and not a forecast.

Groups are loosely the nearest thing to branches. A group organizes names, service and responsibility for a region or a theme ([what is an ensurance group](/guide/what-is-an-ensurance-group?from=guide)). It holds no pooled deposits and no authority over the people who live there.

## not a bank, and doing a bank's work

"Bank" is the comparison here, not the name. *Ensurance* holds no charter, takes no deposits, pays no interest, carries no deposit insurance and creates no money. [What a nature bank could be](/guide/what-a-nature-bank-could-be?from=guide) says ensurance is not a bank, and this series agrees: not a bank, and doing a bank's work on two sides for a customer banks do not serve.

No insurer and no central bank stands behind a balance in a place's account. And an account is not a new source of money: it gives funding an address, and somebody still has to send it.

## who works the counter

A bank has tellers. This has people and AI. A keeper can run an account by hand, automate routine steps, or let it act autonomously inside limits they set ([autonomous is a setting, not a personality](/guide/autonomous-is-a-setting-not-a-personality?from=guide)). Each operator works under the account's mandate and its keepers' authorization. A model has no signing power, ownership or personhood of its own. Those limits can be changed or turned off at any time.

Banks keep books for the people and companies they can identify. This keeps books in the name of the places and species those people depend on, and funds the people who look after them from what moves through. Today it is small. The books are open.

## where to start

Read [nature is the customer](/guide/nature-is-the-customer?from=guide) for how many rivers, species and places could hold an account, and how few do. Or [look at the accounts that exist](/explore?from=guide).

Funders: [for foundations](/solutions/foundations?from=guide&topic=natures-balance-sheet), [for capital providers](/solutions/capital-providers?from=guide&topic=natures-balance-sheet) and [for onchain groups](/solutions/onchain-groups?from=guide&topic=natures-balance-sheet). To talk it through, [write to us](/contact?from=guide&topic=natures-balance-sheet).

## frequently asked questions

### what is nature's balance sheet?

Nature's balance sheet is books kept in a living thing's own name. A river, species, place or purpose holds an account that can receive, hold and pay out money through its keepers. The balance sits in that account's own wallet, not pooled with anyone else's money.

### how is that different from putting nature on the balance sheet?

Putting nature on the balance sheet records an ecosystem in a country's or a company's accounts, as SEEA Ecosystem Accounting and natural capital accounting do. Nature's balance sheet is separate books for the living thing itself. The first measures. The second lets money arrive.

### is ensurance a bank?

No. It holds no charter, takes no deposits, pays no interest and has no deposit insurance. It does two things a bank does, accounts and financing, for places and species, and it funds them from activity and does not lend out balances.

### does the river own the money in its account?

Not in law. A river cannot sign, whatever standing the law gives it. The money sits in a wallet addressed to the river and is controlled by whoever holds the account's token. What makes it the river's is the address and the mandate: it is kept in the river's name and spent for it, in public. Holding the token gives no claim on the river itself.

## sources

[SEEA Ecosystem Accounting](https://seea.un.org/ecosystem-accounting) — United Nations; adopted by the UN Statistical Commission at its 52nd session in March 2021; monetary ecosystem asset accounts record stocks and changes in stocks, including degradation and enhancement

[UN adopts landmark framework to integrate natural capital in economic reporting](https://www.un.org/en/desa/un-adopts-landmark-framework-integrate-natural-capital-economic-reporting) — UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, on the adoption of SEEA EA

[Business and natural capital accounting](https://seea.un.org/content/business-accounting) — United Nations SEEA; companies integrating environmental information alongside financial information

[JPMorgan Chase & Co., 2025 Annual Report](https://www.jpmorganchase.com/content/dam/jpmc/jpmorgan-chase-and-co/investor-relations/documents/annualreport-2025.pdf) — Consumer & Community Banking business metrics for 2025: 86.6 million consumer customers, 7.4 million small business customers, 5,083 branches

[Bank of America Corporation, 2025 Annual Report](https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_c88539a6717957514910928c75e7c025/bankofamerica/db/867/10497/annual_report/BAC+2025+Annual+Report.pdf) — approximately 69 million consumer and small business clients; as of 31 December 2025, approximately 3,600 financial centers and approximately 15,000 ATMs

[Wells Fargo & Company, 2025 Annual Report](https://www.wellsfargo.com/assets/pdf/about/investor-relations/annual-reports/2025-annual-report.pdf) — Consumer Banking and Lending serves 60 million consumer and small business customers; 4,090 retail bank branches at period end 2025

[HydroRIVERS](https://www.hydrosheds.org/products/hydrorivers) — HydroSHEDS; 8.5 million individual river reaches, which are mapped segments

[Catalogue of Life, data downloads](https://www.catalogueoflife.org/data/download) — 2,276,639 species in the base release of 14 October 2026

[ensurance protocol stats](https://ensurance.app/api/protocol/stats) and [account catalog](https://ensurance.app/api/accounts) — accounts, groups, policies, ensured total, coins, 7-day active accounts, 24-hour volume and deployed wallets, stats read 14 November 2026 at about 13:02 UTC; account list re-read at 13:12 UTC (2,085 accounts, 86 wallets deployed)

## the series

1. [nature's balance sheet](/guide/natures-balance-sheet?from=guide) — **Read first:** Everyone wants to put nature on the balance sheet. A new kind of institution gives nature its own, and does a bank's work on two sides
2. [nature is the customer](/guide/nature-is-the-customer?from=guide) — Millions of rivers, species and places could hold an account. A few thousand do
3. [what a river does with an account](/guide/what-a-river-does-with-an-account?from=guide) — Personhood gives a river standing. An account gives it a ledger. Here is one, read live
4. [financing nature and the people who depend on it](/guide/financing-nature-and-the-people-who-depend-on-it?from=guide) — A bank lends. This side of the institution funds a place from what moves through it
5. [who holds the keys to a river's account](/guide/who-holds-the-keys-to-a-rivers-account?from=guide) — The institution never pools the balance with its own money. Whoever holds an account's token holds the key, and people and AI work under them