Abstract
Interest in ecosystem services accounting is growing exponentially. There are many un-solved issues that need to be addressed, the notion of capacity is among them. International guidelines suggest that capacity should constitute the link between the ecosystem assets accounts and the ecosystem services accounts. In order to address this issue, the authors use Supply and Use table for ecosystem services to show the relationship between (i) ecosystem assets and (ii) capacity, intended as “virtual stock” of individual ecosystem services. It is in fact important to distinguish ecosystem assets from capacity as “virtual stock”: a comparison between asset accounts for natural resources and capacity is presented to clarify this difference. This novel approach is described together with its implications in order to feed further developments and discussion.
Highlights
Interest in ecosystem services accounting is growing exponentially
We only focus on the monetary assessment of the capacity, following the guidelines presented in the SEEA EEA TR
The trade-offs between different baskets of ecosystem services derived from ecosystem types can contribute to the generation of a variety of goods and services upon which people depend: each ecosystem asset generates a number of different ecosystem services that are subject to complex, non-linear dynamics involving negative or positive feedback loops
Summary
Interest in ecosystem services accounting is growing exponentially. The integration of ecosystem and economic accounts would allow to mainstream information on ecosystem services into decision-making from strategic planning at national scale to management purposes at subnational scales. The World Bank recalls the SEEA framework in its Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) initiative that is a global partnership aiming at ensuring the mainstream of natural resources in development planning and national economic accounts. The European Commission aims to apply the SEEA framework in its Knowledge Innovation Project Integrated system for Natural Capital Accounts (KIP INCA) initiative. The steps leading to the EU account are: to expand the database available for filling out the accounting forms, to provide a series of tests, experiments and demonstrations on natural capital in Europe, and to formulate guidelines leading Within this project, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission is elaborating supply and use tables of ecosystem services in physical and monetary terms. The purpose of this short note is to propose a consistent frame for capacity, able to combine the notion of ecosystem asset with ecosystem services in a coherent way
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