The 44th session of the UN Statistical Commission held in February discussed a conceptual framework for ecosystem accounting described in the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) - Experimental Ecosystem Accounting. The meeting recognized there is sufficient evidence that it is feasible and policy relevant to implement ecosystem accounting at a national level while also recognizing that development and testing of methods is required.
While the conceptual framework for ecosystem accounting is ‘experimental’, it is thoroughly grounded in existing natural science, economics and official statistics.

The countries were encouraged to test the framework and develop ecosystem accounts as laid out in SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting. Ecosystem accounting is seen as especially useful for land management and assessment of trade-offs among alternative uses, as well as potentially useful for disaster risk management—growing in importance in the context of climate change.

“Constructing ecosystem accounts is likely to be considered a somewhat overwhelming task if taken as a singular, one-step, objective,” said SEEA Editor, Carl Obst. “The best approach, which can be started now, is understanding and organizing the available information on ecosystem services, changes in land use and land cover, and changes in the quality of ecosystems.”

SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting is a complement to the SEEA 2012 Central Framework that provides internationally-agreed statistical standards (on par with the current System of National Accounts), to account for (i) environmental assets such as minerals, timber, fish, water and land; (ii) physical flows such as energy, water, emissions and waste; and (iii) economic activity and expenditures related to the environment including environmental protection expenditure and environmental taxes and subsidies.

The adoption of the SEEA Central Framework in 2012 has removed a major barrier to the adoption of natural capital accounting. The framework for ecosystem accounting aims to remove further barriers by accounting for all of the services provided by ecosystems.