February 2016: Research teams from Madagascar, Mauritius and Morocco have presented to policymakers the findings of the Global Development Network’s (GDN) one-year project on natural resource and wealth accounting. The three project teams focused on, inter alia, coastal degradation, land and water use, and how resource depletion affects the economy. Participants, including from the Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) partnership, discussed lessons learned from the project, how to link the work with other initiatives, and how to bridge the gap between researchers and policymakers.

WAVES, GDN staff and the project’s scientific committee and advisers met in Paris, France from 26-27 November 2015 at the French Development Agency (AFD).

Pierre Bertrand, GDN, said that the research process addressed local issues while using methodologies that are accepted worldwide. He noted that providing local researchers with the tools to account for natural capital should enable expanded use of the accounts by policymakers. Scientific advisers oversaw and mentored the teams during the duration of the project, and a scientific committee oversaw the program’s quality. Participants agreed the process was useful in that it created institutional capacity to develop natural capital accounting (NCA) by engaging local researchers in answering current policy questions. The project was funded by AFD and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development.

In addition, a WAVES series, ‘Natural Capital Accounting in Action,’ shows how NCA data have informed and influenced national policies and decisions and translated into action on the ground. The series looks at how: Australia’s water accounts informed policy to tackle the impacts of drought in the Murray Darling Basin, whereby the government decided to decrease water use with as little impact on GDP and employment as possible; energy accounts informed carbon tax decisions in South Africa, indicating the economic impacts of such a tax would be relatively small; Australia’s pilot ecosystem accounts benefited management of the Great Barrier Reef; Guatemala’s forest accounts linked forest resources with the economy; and Sweden’s carbon accounting informed its carbon tax policy, whereby Sweden’s Climate Committee cut greenhouse gas emissions. [WAVES News and Events] [WAVES News on GDN Project] [WAVES News on ‘Natural Capital Accounting in Action’ Series] [‘Natural Capital Accounting’ in Action Series]