The EU policy context: Ecosystem Capital Accounting Jan-Erik Petersen European Environment Agency (chair) Kremena Gocheva, Ministry of Environment and Water, Bulgaria (rapporteur)

Components of Natural Capital NCA pilot focus Natural capital Ecosystem capital: (linked to ecological systems and processes) Sub-soil assets: (geological resources) Minerals, earth elements, fossil fuels, gravel , salts etc. Non-renewable & depletable Abiotic flows: (linked to geo- physical cycles) Solar, wind, hydro, geo-thermal etc. Renewable & non-depletable Ecosystems as asset: Structure and condition Ecosystem service flows: Provisioning Regulation & maintenance Cultural services Renewable & depletable

Methodological challenges Discussion point: Evaluating methodological options for accounting for natural capital, both for physical accounts and valuation Contributions: NCA is not equal to monetary valuation Double counting – tackle methodically Concepts: accounts vs. indicators Stock and flow – in NC and accounting terms A coherent data framework is important

Next steps Objective of NCA pilot: Come up with a concrete methodological guidance that acts as reference document for implementation in EU MS EEA works on simplified ecosystem capital accounts MAES will support first biophysical (until 2014) and later economic valuation (until 2020) process in MSs Improve EU wide dataset using MS inputs related to ecosystem capital stocks: Data Testing of methodologies Guidance requirements

Ecosystem Assessments in EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020 Action 5 under target 2 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020: ”Member States, with the assistance of the Commission, will map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services in their national territory by 2014, assess the economic value of such services, and promote the integration of these values into accounting and reporting systems at EU and national level by 2020.”

Organic carbon datasets (land use: cropping, husbandry, forestry, …) Example: data organisation Analysis Indicators Reports Data publication Accounting tables ECA database Organic carbon datasets Land Water datasets Spatial datasets (reference data, disaggregated stats, and proxies like CAPRI or vegetation phenology) Multi-purpose, cross-cutting databases Statistics database (land use: cropping, husbandry, forestry, …)

Progress so far in pilot study Held a workshop to discuss key concepts and first outputs of NCA pilot study, hosted by EEA, 27-28 June; see under: http://biodiversity.europa.eu/ecosystem-assessments/events- 1/eureca-meetings/natural-capital-accounting-2013/ Results of EU Member State survey are coming in Draft of methodological reference document will go into consultation in November Further information: Jan-Erik.Petersen@eea.europa.eu

Biophysical structure or process Limit pressures via policy action? (e.g. woodland habitat or net primary productivity ) Service (e.g. flood protection, or harvestable products) Function (e.g. slow passage of water, or biomass) Benefit (e.g. contribution to aspects of well-being such as health and safety) Σ Pressures Limit pressures via policy action? Value (e.g. willingness to pay for woodland protection or for more woodland, or harvestable products) Environment The Social and Economic System CICES Supporting or intermediate services Marketable products and services Final services Provisioning, regulating, maintenance services Ecosystem outputs Goods and benefits the `production boundary`