Accounting for protected areas: Approaches and applications

Abstract

The System of Environmental-Economic Accounts Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) provides a statistical framework for measuring ecosystems and the services they supply, complementing the System of National Accounts (SNA). Although accounting for protected areas (PAs) is proposed in the SEEA EA and would provide consistent and useful information on PAs, it has not yet been widely implemented. This article examines different possibilities of applying the SEEA EA to PAs by reviewing existing work in that field, including case studies for South Africa, Uganda and Andalusia. We show that accounting for PAs using the SEEA EA would benefit PA planning, management and investment decisions, by i) bringing statistical rigour and consistent data over time and space, ii) compiling disparate data together and making them coherent, and iii) revealing the relationships between PAs, the economy and social well-being, enabling their integration into development planning and decision making. This information can help inform better decision making by allowing synergies and trade-offs between environmental, economic and social outcomes linked to PAs and their management to be explored, fostering a more integrated development approach. This will be essential if the flagship target of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to conserve 30% of the world’s surface by 2030 is to be achieved in an ecologically meaningful, economically sustainable and socially inclusive manner.