Information Note on Ecosystem Accounting

The goal of Ecosystem Accounting is to provide a coherent and harmonised understanding of ecosystems and their relationships to the economy and the overall beneficiaries of ecosystem goods and services. At international level, the System of Environmental Economic Accounting –Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) has been developed by the United Nations. The SEEA-EA aims to establish international standards for the collection of data and compilation of ecosystem accounts to record the stocks and flows of ecosystem services, as well as tracking their changes. Ecosystem accounting is a relatively new area and is still under development. Published for the first time in 2012, the SEEA-EA underwent a revision which started in 2018. In March 2021, chapters 1 to 7 describing the accounting framework and the physical accounts were accepted as international statistical standards. Chapters 8 to 11, while not adopted as an international standard, present statistical principles and recommendations for valuation of ecosystem services and assets.

Ecosystems and biodiversity are central pillars of the new European politics and economy, as can be seen by the recent launch of the European Green Deal and the Biodiversity Strategy 2030 by the European Union. These two frameworks set out ambitious plans to implement broad-based action aimed at transforming society’s relationship with ecosystems and their associated biodiversity. At national level, this trend is reflected by the development of numerous policies including the National Biodiversity Action Plan and the National Peatlands Strategy.

The story of ecosystem accounting started however much earlier. The Earth Summit in Rio (1992) is considered as a founding event and marks a definitive shift towards environmentally-focused policies. This summit resulted in six major outcomes among which:

• Rio Declaration stating 27 principles to guide countries in sustainable development;
• Agenda 21 setting the global agenda for the next 20 years in terms of actions for sustainable development;
• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) whose main three goals are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of components of biological diversity, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources;
• UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) whose task is the stabilisation of greenhouse gas emissions.

The outcomes of the Earth Summit triggered multiple events representing incremental steps towards the awareness of the importance of ecosystems and their biodiversity. Figure 3.1 summarises the main events which contributed to the development of Ecosystem Accounting.

Go to the next chapter: Structure of Ecosystem Accounting