9 October 2014: The Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) programme released its October 2014 newsletter, which highlights trainings and capacity building on Natural Capital Accounting (NCA).

Other articles feature: a Bogotá, Colombia, workshop that focused on ‘Uses of Environmental Accounts in Colombia;’ a training workshop in Himachal Pradesh, India, that addressed forest accounts and the contribution to hydropower and tourism; a workshop in Morocco that aimed to estimate the country’s total wealth at the King’s request; and an ecosystem accounting workshop in the Philippines that built capacity and momentum around NCA, as well as worked on constructing accounts.

The newsletter links to: a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) publication on ‘The Importance of Mangroves: A Call to Action;’ a Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) paper on ‘Ecosystem Natural Capital Accounts: A Quick Start Package;’ and a publication on ‘Natural Capital Risk’ prepared by Fauna & Flora International and others. It also mentions a publication by the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) on ‘TEEB Challenges and Responses,’ which describes the experiences of TEEB to date, progress made towards mainstreaming the economics of nature, the main challenges as the initiative begins its implementation phase and responses from the TEEB community.

The WAVES newsletter also includes a multimedia presentation by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Director, Marco Lamertini, who discusses the role of natural resources in reducing poverty.

In addition, the newsletter mentions the following upcoming events: the London Group on Environmental Accounting; the Global Green Growth Forum on Valuing Nature in Business; and the Natural Capital Summit on ‘Valuing our Life Support Systems.’ [WAVES Newsletter Issue 20, October 9, 2014] [IISD RS story on Mangroves Call to Action] [IISD RS story on Quick Start Package] [IISD RS story on TEEB Summary Report]