Ecosystem Accounting DIMESA Meeting of 17 June 2008 Copenhagen “Global warming may dominate headlines today. Ecosystem degradation will do so tomorrow” Corporate Ecosystems Services review, WRI et al. March 2008

Direct Drivers Indirect Drivers Ecosystem Services Human Well-being Direct Drivers of Change  Changes in land use  Species introduction or removal  Technology adaptation and use  External inputs (e.g., irrigation)  Resource consumption  Climate change  Natural physical and biological drivers (e.g., volcanoes) Indirect Drivers of Change  Demographic  Economic (globalization, trade, market and policy framework)  Sociopolitical (governance and institutional framework)  Science and Technology  Cultural and Religious Human Well-being and Poverty Reduction  Basic material for a good life  Health  Good Social Relations  Security  Freedom of choice and action Life on Earth: Biodiversity What’s at stake – human and planetary well being Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Accounting for ecosystem costs and benefits at different scales… Global scale National & regional government, European market Action level, local scale Migratory Birds Flyways, Wetlands & Bird Flu Prevention Doñana, Spain: Water, Wetland & Strawberries Amvrakikos, Greece: Wetland management, Water & Fish

1990 LEAC/ Landscape Ecological Potential , 1km² grid (Source: Ecosystem Accounting for Mediterranean Wetlands, an EEA feasibility study for TEEB) Change … & accounts for connecting different scales Natural Park of Camargue (France)

The economic questions behind ecosystem accounting Risks of unsustainable use of the living natural capital are ignored: the negative impacts of over-harvesting, force-feeding with fertilisers, intoxication, introduction of species, fragmentation by roads, or sealing of soil by urban development have no direct monetary counterpart in GDP or corporate accounts. The natural capital is not even amortised in accounting books of companies and in the national accounts – no allowance is made for maintaining ecosystems’ critical functions and services. The full cost of domestic products is not covered in many cases by their price. This is as well the case of the price of imported products made from degraded ecosystems: their full cost is not covered by their price. Actual value for people of free ecosystem services is not accounted in their final consumption (the market tells: price is zero).

SEEA2003: enlargement of SNA1993 for a better description of the economy-environment relation RM HASSAN - UN The System of Environmental and Economic Accounting (UN 2003) - RANESA Workshop June 12-16, 2005 Maputo Volume 1 Statistical Standard Volume 2 Non Standard Accounts Volume 1 Statistical Standard NAMEA, expenditure, physical quantities, sub-soil, energy, value of economic assets Volume 2 Non Standard Accounts ecosystems, quality, valuation… Revision  SEEA2012 Macro-ecological closure (non-linear feedback, spatial issues) Impacts on ecosystems & related services/benefits

Ecosystem Assets [stocks and resilience] Subsoil Assets [stocks] Environmental Expenditures, Taxes Additional Ecosystem Maintenance Costs Material & Energy Flows NAMEA Ecosyste m Functional Services Natural capital / assets SNA flows & assets Additional Ecosystem Costs in Imports (less in Exports) Ecosystem Services Ecosystem Assets [stocks and resilience] Rest of the World SEEA Integrating Ecosystems Physical flows Monetary flows/valuation Assets valuation Subsoil Assets [stocks]

Application of ecosystem accounting foreseen for… Eureca! 2012 MA follow-up 2015 IPBES, The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem services IPES, International Payments for Ecosystem Services TEEB, The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity Adaptability to Climate Change Thematic Strategy Sustainable Use of Resource ESEA, European Strategy for Environmental Accounting Data centers related to land and ecosystems (Go4 recommendation) Beyond GDP National initiatives Corporate accounting guidelines for environmental liability