Linking biodiversity into national economic accounting

Steven King,Michael Vardon,Hedley S Grantham,Mark Eigenraam,Simon Ferrier,Daniel Juhn,Trond Larsen,Claire Brown,Kerry Turner

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2020.10.020

Abstract

Biodiversity underpins the supply of ecosystem services essential for well-being and economic development, yet biodiversity loss continues at a substantial rate. Linking biodiversity indicators with national economic accounts provides a means of mainstreaming biodiversity into economic planning and monitoring processes. Here we examine the various strategies for biodiversity indicators to be linked into national economic accounts, specifically the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EEA) framework. We present what has been achieved in practice, using various case studies from across the world. These case studies demonstrate the potential of economic accounting as an integrating, mainstreaming framework that explicitly considers biodiversity. With the right indicators for the different components of biodiversity and scales of biological organisation, this can directly support more holistic economic planning approaches. This will be a significant step forward from relying on the traditional indicators of national economic accounts to guide national planning. It is also essential if society’s objectives for biodiversity and sustainable development are to be met.

Highlights

IntroductionThe importance of biodiversity to human well-being is well estab lished (e.g., via IPBES, 2019; MA, 2005; TEEB, 2010) and enshrined in multiple international commitments (e.g., the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Convention on Biolog ical Diversity’s (CBD) Aichi Targets)
The importance of biodiversity to human well-being is well estab lished and enshrined in multiple international commitments (e.g., the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Convention on Biolog ical Diversity’s (CBD) Aichi Targets)
The IPBES (2019) report identifies that declines in biodiversity undermine progress to wards 80 % of the SDG Targets related to poverty, hunger, health, water, cities, climate, oceans and land

Summary

Introduction

The importance of biodiversity to human well-being is well estab lished (e.g., via IPBES, 2019; MA, 2005; TEEB, 2010) and enshrined in multiple international commitments (e.g., the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Convention on Biolog ical Diversity’s (CBD) Aichi Targets). Biodiversity is critical in maintaining ecosystem services flows during times of disturbance or stress that ecosystems may experience, for example, climate variability, pollution incidents or fires This resilience is achieved via ‘functional redundancy,’ where different as pects of biodiversity (e.g., species) can perform similar ecosystem functions, but are affected by disturbance in different ways (Elmqvist et al, 2003; Mori et al, 2013). The IPBES (2019) report identifies that declines in biodiversity undermine progress to wards 80 % of the SDG Targets related to poverty, hunger, health, water, cities, climate, oceans and land To help address these losses, IPBES (2019), the CBD (via Aichi Target 2) and the SDGs themselves (via SDG Target 15.9) all call for the mainstreaming of biodiversity and ecosystem services into development planning

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Discussion

Conclusion