Ecosystems Accounting and policy applications

Rocky Harris, Project leader, Defra, UKMAES project19 September 2014

Need for quick wins on policy applications for spatial accounts

Ambitious and challenging programme of work, but momentum may easily be lost, because•Statistics more useful with a time series•Initial estimates are fairly rudimentary with significant gaps and weaknesses•Some of the benefits are intangible – e.g. improved coherence of data•Accounts tend to re-present information which the experts already know – difficult to demonstrate value-added until integrated accounts across different ecosystems have been developed

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The value-added is derived from interconnectedness

Improved understanding of sustainability

Better resource management

Wealth tracking Integrated

asset and services accountsUnderstanding

pressures

Managing trade-offs through efficiency policies

Targeting funding programmes

Links with the SNA and SEEA

Spatial relationship between location of assets and services

Benefits of links with SNA and SEEA

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Value of production of services and depreciation of assets

Information on relationship between economic activities, environmental pressures and ecosystem condition

Asset balance sheetNatural Capital Accounts provide overall estimates of the value of natural capital and also ownership

Opportunity to relate estimates of current and capital spending to condition and value of natural capital

Resource use and emissions

Environmentally-related monetary flows

Incorporation into ‘environmentally-adjusted’ national accounts aggregates

Spatially disaggregated accounts

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Reporting on the benefits derived from the Public Forest Estate to

• Understand the extent and location of benefits and how alternative resource allocation might improve value-for-money

• Assess the impacts of specific tree diseases• Relate expenditure needed for maintenance/restoration to benefits

Accounts for National Parks and other protected areas can

•Inform resource management decisions and help to mainstream ecosystems approaches to management•Identify the extent which these areas are protected and managed in order to maintain delivery of services

Accounts for peatlands could

•Support emerging Peatlands Code and influence incentives for restoration•Help to measure progress on policy commitments to reduce peat extraction

Linking habitat-based and cross-cutting accounts

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Cross-cutting accounts (land cover/land use, carbon and water) will enable the relationships between different stocks and flows to be more readily understood

Links between ecosystem asset accounts and ecosystem service accounts will throw light on the relationship between the capacity to deliver and the actual delivery of services

Cross-cutting accounts provide useful summaries of the changes in our natural assets

Key messages

• Early engagement with relevant decision-makers to manage expectations and identify policy needs

• Data and methodological limitations need to be clearly understood so that the results are not misinterpreted – modelled data not reliable at locally detailed levels

• Accounts and underlying data need to reflect changes in resource management or ecosystem condition in a timely way - need to optimise use of data from Earth Observation

• Accounts need to build on existing forms of ecosystem service mapping

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Outstanding issues (1)

SEEA EEA research agenda item

Issues of concern to UK Work currently being undertaken

Delineation and classification of land and spatial units (including marine)(a)

Coastal and marine delineation and treatment of linear and point features; also accounts based on land use but need to reconcile with Land Cover Map

Marine accounts use of HWM; issues in reconciling National Forest Inventory and Agricultural Census with LCM/Countryside Survey; delineation of urban and coastal

Methods for measuring different ES and ecosystem condition (including biodiversity and carbon)(b)

Limits and thresholds; treatment of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

Use of trip generating functions; Defra project on synoptic biodiversity indicators

Presentation and structure of accounts (c)

Reliability of modelled results at sub-national levels

Policy applications of sub-national accounts

Methods for geo-spatial linking of environmental and socio-economic data (d)

Role of subnational accounts within broader National Accounts framework

New project on protected areas

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Outstanding issues (2)

SEEA EEA research agenda item

Issues of concern to UK Work currently being undertaken

Valuation methods for ES (including wealth accounting and corporate accounting)(e)

Valuation of subsoil carbon; use of random Utility Models; non-use values; incorporation of restoration costs; time period for asset valuation

Seminar on valuation of renewable resources; use of production functions for recreation services; time period issue now resolved?

Accounting concepts (f) Counterfactual/reference condition

Woodland ecosystem water regulation service

Developing science on link between ES and ecosystem condition and dependencies between ecosystems (g)

Use of bird indicators as a proxy for condition of biodiversity

Defra project on synoptic biodiversity indicators

Aggregation and formation of ecosystem-wide indicators (h)

Consistency between asset accounts; treatment of disservices; use of value transfer techniques; overlap with SNA

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