7 October 2014: The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has released a report, titled ‘Ecosystem Natural Capital Accounts: A Quick Start Package,’ as No. 77 of its Technical Series. The paper serves as a manual for integrating the value of biodiversity into national accounting systems to support the implementation of Aichi Biodiversity Target 2.

According to the paper, with the growing demand for incorporating ecosystems into economic accounting practices, the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC) endorsed the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EEA) volume in 2013. SEEA-EEA frames a research agenda and the first steps toward ecosystem accounting, but with many practical and conceptual issues missing from SEEA-EEA, Technical Series No. 77 aims to provide the necessary elements for countries that desire to institute ecosystem accounting now.

After an introduction to the SEEA-EEA approach and the Quick Start Package, the manual devotes a chapter to building the necessary data infrastructure, followed by a chapter on land cover mapping and accounting.

The paper then recommends a set of core accounts that must be comprehensively established before moving on to functional accounts. The suggested prioritization is laid out in a roadmap for national governments to follow, focusing on the three broad component accounts: ecosystem carbon, water and infrastructure-based services. Tables, methodologies and suggested data sources are included for each account.

With this background in place, the report goes on to explain how to turn the calculated ecosystem capital ecological value into ecological capability units, which the report indicates are the “currency used to aggregate all ecosystems.”

The publication was launched at a side event at the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 12) to the CBD on 7 October 2014. A training session on how to put the manual to use was also offered. [Publication: Ecosystem Natural Capital Accounts: A Quick Start Package] [The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity (TEEB) Announcement]