The System of Environmental Economic Accounting - Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) is a spatially-based, integrated statistical framework for organizing biophysical information about ecosystems, measuring ecosystem services, tracking changes in ecosystem extent and condition, valuing ecosystem services and assets and linking this information to measures of economic and human activity. It is an integrated statistical framework adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission.
The SEEA-EA outlines five sets of ecosystem accounts:
1. Ecosystem extent accounts
2. Ecosystem condition accounts
3. & 4. Ecosystem services flow accounts (physical and monetary)
5. Monetary ecosystem asset accounts As part of a recent amendment to Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 on environmental economic accounts, it will be mandatory for EU Member States to report ecosystem extent, condition and services (physical flow) accounts in line with SEEA-EA. The monetary flow of ecosystem services and the monetary value of ecosystem assets will not need to be accounted for under the new regulation. Mandatory reporting by member states will commence in 2026. One of the ecosystem services on which we will be required to report is the nature-based recreation service provided by ecosystems. This survey will feed into the compilation of this account.
This questionnaire was designed to capture the contribution of ecosystems to our quality of life and the economy. The aim was to estimate the consumption of recreation and cultural ecosystem services of households in Ireland.
A consultation process was carried out as part of the questionnaire design, and stakeholder feedback was incorporated to ensure the relevance of our outputs.
The data collection model was carried out in two phases. The first phase involved the issuing of letters of invitation to a representative sample of approximately 100,000 persons aged 16 years or over, asking if they would be willing to join a panel to participate in CSO surveys. Approximately 7,900 persons indicated that they would be willing to participate and provided contact details to the CSO for this purpose. The second phase involved the issuing of emails to these persons with a link to the online questionnaire. Participants were prompted to enter a unique identifier and access key to start the survey (CAWI data collection mode). A very small cohort, who indicated they wished to be contacted by phone only, were invited to take part via phone call (CATI data collection mode).
The achieved sample size for the questions on recreation in nature was 3,916 respondents.
The survey was launched on 3 October 2024 and closed on 29 November 2024. Most of the questions were related to the summer period, i.e. June to August 2024.
The Household Environment survey data was collected from private households. Institutional households, (e.g. nursing homes, barracks, boarding schools, hotels etc.) were not covered by the survey.
To provide national population results, the survey results were weighted to represent the entire population of persons aged 16 years and over. The survey results were weighted to agree with population estimates broken down by age group, sex and region.
Design weights were calculated for all individuals in the initial sample. The design weights are computed as the inverse of the selection probability of the unit. The purpose of design weights is to eliminate the bias induced by unequal selection probabilities.
These design weights were then adjusted for non-response. This eliminated the bias introduced by discrepancies caused by non-response, particularly critical when the non-responding individuals are different from the responding ones in respect to some survey variables as this may create substantial bias in the estimates. Design weights are adjusted for non-response by dividing the design weights of each responding unit in the final/achieved sample by the (weighted) response probability of the corresponding group or strata.
To obtain the final household weights for the results, after the previous steps were carried out, the distribution of respondents by NUTS3 region, sex and age was calibrated to the population based on the Labour Force Survey for Quarter 3 2024, using the R package Icarus.
Estimates where there are fewer than 50 persons in a cell are too small to be considered reliable. These cells are presented with a double period (..) in the relevant tables.
Some challenges were encountered during the survey development, including delimitation of key concepts.
The EU Ecosystem Typology has been developed by Eurostat to classify ecosystems across Europe using a common classification. It has 12 ecosystem types at level one of the classification. It uses technical language, such as ‘Sparsely vegetated ecosystems’ which needed to be converted into accessible language for the questionnaire to enable assessment of visits to ecosystems. After consultation with academics and educators in the field, survey questions were designed to enable a crosswalk to the Typology.
| Table 8.1 EU Ecosystem Typology and crosswalk to survey questions used to assign visits | |
| EU Typology Ecosystem Type | Survey Question |
|---|---|
| Settlements & Other Artificial Areas (Urban Greenspace) |
Visited an urban green space? Such as a public park or garden, sportsground, or green on a housing estate. For example: when walking, playing sports, or walking the dog. |
| Croplands |
Spent time in or beside fields with crops or grass in them or orchards? For example: when walking, cycling, or running on routes through the countryside or farmland, or visiting the grounds of a country estate. |
| Grasslands (pastures, semi-natural and natural grassland) | |
| Forests & Woodlands |
Visited a woodland or forest? For example: when walking, hiking, or mountain biking. |
| Heathlands & Shrub |
Visited heathland? Hills or mountain areas with low-lying bushy vegetation like heather and gorse. For example: when hillwalking or hiking. |
| Sparsely Vegetated Ecosystems |
Visited a rocky mountain area or bare rock landscape? For example: the Burren, Croagh Patrick, or the Sugarloaf. |
| Inland Wetlands |
Visited a bog or wetland with or without a boardwalk trail? A wetland is an area of wet ground with patchy water. For example: when hiking or wildlife watching. |
| Rivers & Canals |
Visited a river or canal? For example: when walking, running, or doing activities such as kayaking, boating, or fishing. |
| Lakes & Reservoirs |
Visited a lake or reservoir? For example: for fishing, boating, swimming, or to enjoy the view of the water. |
| Coastal Beaches, Dunes, & Wetlands |
Visited an area along the coast where you could see the sea? For example: walking or running on a cliff route, a sandy beach, or rocky shore or enjoying the sea view. Do not include: Visits to the coast to do activities in the sea. |
| Marine Inlets & Transitional Waters |
Done an activity on or in the sea? |
| Marine Ecosystems |
For example: sea swimming, kayaking, boating. |
Some ecosystems were aggregated for the publication. This was either because they were aggregated to simplify the questions in the survey (i.e. Grasslands and Croplands, and Marine Inlets & Transitional Waters and Marine Ecosystems, referred to as Marine and Transitional Waters), or they occur in close proximity or as a mosaic of habitats (i.e. the three ecosystems Heathland & Shrub, Inland Wetlands, and Sparsely Vegetated Ecosystems which were aggregated in the tables).
The Central Statistics Office wishes to thank the respondents for participating in the survey.
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