Izmir, Turkey. Photo: Mehmet Namik Ugur / World Bank Turkey is the latest country to join the WAVES (Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services) global partnership as a participating partner to help meet their sustainable development goals, maintain the country’s natural resource wealth and improve their statistical systems.

As the 16th largest economy in the world, Turkey has implemented a strong national economic and development plan and is on target to become one of the world’s 10 largest economies by 2023.

Turkey has seen rapid growth in recent decades and the availability of natural capital  (such as water, energy, forests, lands, and minerals) remains a critical element to their continued success.

Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) can be used as an important tool to help the Turkish Government calculate the value and efficient use of its natural resources and ecosystem services so they are considered in developing policies that lead to sustainable development and green growth, as specified in Turkey’s Tenth National Development Plan (2014-2018).

“The Ministry is convinced that the WAVES initiative is a great option to fulfill the aims of the Ministry,” said Cevdet Yilmaz, Turkey’s Minister of Development. The Ministry of Development of Turkey is looking for the opportunity to learn from other countries’ experiences in the application of Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) methods in sustainable development planning and decision making, and to eventually be able to share the knowledge learned in the process of moving to NCA.”

By using information from natural capital accounts, it is possible for a country or region to see whether GDP growth is sustainable or if a country is just living off its natural capital and depleting their overall wealth.

Some questions that NCA can answer are: How does a country weigh tradeoffs among competing users to manage water and forests? How much should be invested in natural capital, such as forests or protected areas? How should rents from non-renewable resources be invested to offset loss of capital due to depletion?

As a participating partner of WAVES, Turkey joins developed and developing countries across the globe that have signed on to the Communiqué on Natural Capital Accounting, which gained traction at Rio+20 in June 2012, and provides a unique opportunity for the public and private sectors to join forces, demonstrating the importance of taking collective action in support of including natural capital in economic decisions or business operations.

Participating partners also include international organizations, including several UN agencies (UNEP, UNDP, UN Statistical Commission); civil society representatives including foundations, NGO’s, academic and research institutions, and local governments that have an interest in and be able to contribute to the promotion of NCA.

Currently, the WAVES partnership has eight core implementing countriesBotswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Philippines and Rwanda, and has plans to expand that number to 15 or more over the next two years.