Developing (simplified) ecosystem capital accounts Current status of work at EEA MAES meeting, 26 April 2013

UN manual for environmental-economic accounting: SEEA2003 Enlargement of the System of National Accounts RM HASSAN - UN The System of Environmental and Economic Accounting (UN 2003) - RANESA Workshop June 12-16, 2005 Maputo Volume 1 The SNA satellite accounts for the environment expenditure, taxes, hybrid accounts, physical flows, sub-soil, energy, water, land, economic assets depletion Volume 2 Ecosystem capital accounts Ecosystem stocks and quality, ecosystem services, benefits and maintenance costs… Revision  SEEA2012/13 Negative feedbacks of ecosystem degradation on production and wellbeing Impacts on ecosystem capacity of delivering services/benefits

Purpose of ecosystem capital accounts The development of ecosystem capital accounts aims to: Describe the national, European and/or global stock of ecosystem capital Identify flows of ecosystem services that can be used sustainably Track trends in the stocks and flows associated with the natural capital in our ecosystems If successful this leads to information on: The quantity and quality of ecosystem stocks and flows Human impacts on the resilience of ecosystems An understanding of ‘ecological debt’ due to over-use of ecosystems A framework for managing our renewable natural capital stock, i.e. ecosystems and their services

Simplified ecosystem capital accounts Spatially explicit EU-27 LAND Land cover change Productivity WATER Water in soil/runoff Water quantity Water use CARBON Organic carbon Land use Organic carbon flows Landscape Ecological Potential Naturalness of vegetation Trends in populations Simplified accounts DB

Example of methodology: carbon Kept very simple Ecosystems approach Define compartments (soil, forest, …), and flows Calculate C stocks and flows based on peer reviewed/good practices literature methods Disaggregate regional statistics to 1km grid, and inside the 1km grid using simple operations Calculate C contents based on peer reviewed/best practices literature

SOIL FOREST OTHER VEGETATION CROPLAND LIVESTOCK CITIES IMPORT EXPORT Food Fodder Dead biomass Organic fertilization CONTINENTAL WATER Activated sludge Dissolved organic carbon ATMOSPHERE Primary producti on Primary producti on Respiration Grazing Felling Marine Biota Fishing

Disaggregation method NUTS2 statistics Observations raster (Corilis 0, vegetation performance, livestock density, CAPRI, …) NUTS regions Aggregate Totals by NUTS Divide Local amounts Multiply Local factors Capture statistics Aggregate from other rasters Organic C content factors Multiply Organic C contents / flows

Data sets as input & output Forest inventories DB Forest inventories DB Crop statistics DB Livestock statistics DB Disaggregated forest stocks 1km Disaggregated crops 1km Disaggregated crops 1km Disaggregated livestock 1km Disaggregated livestock 1km NPP Ocean NPP Fish stocks Plancton stock Fishing (captures) Production of sludge Application of manure Grazing Timber harvest DB

Thank you for your attention!