Mainstreaming biodiversity is generally understood as ensuring that biodiversity, including ecosystems, are adequately factored into the policies and practices of a range of sectors, including national, subnational and private sector. Natural capital accounting is the umbrella term used to indicate the use of an accounting framework to provide a systematic way to measure and report on stocks and flows of natural capital, including ecosystems. The underlying premise of natural capital accounting is that nature is important to society and the economy and should be recognized as an asset that must be maintained and managed, and its contributions better integrated into the regular statistical production process. This in turn can bolster mainstreaming efforts.

The System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) is the accepted international statistical standard for natural capital accounting, providing a framework for organizing and presenting statistics on nature and its relationship with the economy. The SEEA Ecosystem Accounting[1], adopted in 2021, is part of the standard and supports integrating biodiversity considerations into measures of national performance and policy appraisal and is integral to inclusive wealth accounts. According to the 2021 Global Assessment on Environmental-Economic Accounting, 90 countries compile SEEA accounts with 36 countries compiling ecosystem accounts. Scaling up implementation in countries is an important goal of the statistical community, which adopted an implementation strategy for the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting in 2022[2].

This side event will examine how the SEEA can support mainstreaming biodiversity into relevant strategies and plans, including systematically integrating biodiversity into programmes, policies and projects, promoting inter-ministrerial coordination and setting time-bound targets. Using the SEEA as the underlying statistical framework for some of the indicators for the Goals and Targets in the global biodiversity framework, in particular in Goals A, B and Targets 9,11, 14 and 19, will result in indicators that are consistent across domains and comparable across countries and over time, strengthening the monitoring progress towards achieving the goals and targets.

Recognising that the SEEA is new to many stakeholders in the biodiversity sector, the statistical community is committed to building links and collaborating to ensure that the SEEA serves the needs and priorities of the biodiversity community. The incorporation of indicators drawn from the SEEA in the monitoring framework for the global biodiversity framework presents an ideal opportunity for harnessing synergies.

The event will feature speakers from both the statistical and biodiversity communities and will highlight the importance of the SEEA in supporting effective monitoring and integrated policies and decision making.

Speakers

 

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity

Shonisani Munzhedzi, Chief Executive Officer, South African National Biodiversity Institute

Anne Teller, Senior Expert, Directorate-General Environment, European Commission

Eli Fenichel, Assistant Director for Natural Resource Economics and Accounting, Office of Science and Technology Policy, The White House

Elke Hüttner, Director of Division Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure, GIZ, Germany

Tristan Pett, Assistant Deputy Director, Head of Natural Capital Accounting, Office for National Statistics, United Kingdom

François Soulard, Research Manager, Census of Environment, Statistics Canada

María Cecilia Londoño, Senior Researcher, Humbodt University, Colombia

Giuseppe Ottavianelli, Head of the Earth Observation Applications Section, Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes, European Space Agency - ESRIN

 

Moderators

 

Juha Siikamaki, Chief Economist, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

 

Alessandra Alfieri, Chief of Environmental-Economic Accounts, United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD)

 

Agenda

 

Moderators: Juha Siikamaki (Chief Economist, IUCN ) and Alessandra Alfieri (Chief of Environmental-Economic Accounts, UNSD)

1. Opening remarks (5 mins)
   • Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema (Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity)

2. Context Setting: SEEA and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (8 mins)

• Ms. Alessandra Alfieri (Chief of Environmental-Economic Accounts Section, UNSD)

3. Keynote: How ecosystem accounting in South Africa is contributing to monitoring biodiversity (10 mins)

• Mr. Shonisani Munzhedzi (Chief Execuitve Officer, South African National Biodiversity Institute)

 

4. Panel discussion 1 : Why NCA is relevant for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and what can be done to advance it ? (25 min.)

Panelists

• Anne Teller (Senior Expert, DG Environment, European Commission)
• Eli Fenichel (Assistant Director for Natural Resource Economics and Accounting, Office of Science and Technology Policy, The White House)
• Elke Hüttner (Director of Division Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure, GIZ Germany)

 

5. Panel discussion –  Advancing SEEA implementation in countries for monitoring the global biodiversity framework (30 mins)

• Mr. Tristan Pett (Assistant Deputy Director, Head of Natural Capital Accounting, Office of National Statistics)
• Mr. François Soulard (Research Manager, Census of Environment, Statistics Canada)
• Ms. María Cecilia Londoño (Senior Researcher, Humbodt University, Colombia)

Mr. Giuseppe Ottavianelli (Head of the Earth Observation Applications Section, Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes, European Space Agency – ESRIN_

6. Closing remarks (5 mins)

• Alessandra Alfieri (UNSD) and Juha Siikamaki (IUCN)