TY - JOUR

T1 - Progress on ecosystem accounting in Europe

AU - Lange, Sabine

AU - Campagne, Carole Sylvie

AU - Comte, Adrien

AU - Bank, Emily

AU - Santos-Martín, Fernando

AU - Maes, Joachim

AU - Burkhard, Benjamin

N1 - Funding Information: The authors would like to thankfully acknowledge the financial support of the EU Horizon 2020 grant 817527 (MAIA).

PY - 2022/10

Y1 - 2022/10

N2 - Research on methods and applications on the integration of ecosystem services flow accounts into economic reporting systems has increased in the last decades. Along with Natural Capital Accounting (NCA), Ecosystem Accounting (EA) has been increasingly considered and has been integrated into research, policy and decision-making. Following the System of Environmental Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) distinction of core and thematic accounts, this study presents a short overview of the EA progress in European countries. Based on the review of scientific and grey literature, the ecosystem accounting progress from 29 European countries was identified (EU27 countries, the United Kingdom and Norway). Overall, the largest share (more than 50%) of finalized accounts at a national scale were recorded for the ecosystem extent accounts. Besides, the review revealed that for monetary ecosystem service accounts, the relatively largest proportion of accounts was developed only at the local scale. Generally, the accounting progress has been found to be distributed rather heterogeneously throughout the different countries. The most intensive ecosystem accounting progresses were identified for the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The most frequently developed thematic account was the carbon account. Within this study, we only considered finalized ecosystem accounts. Nevertheless, in the process of the review, we came across a vast amount of further ongoing accounting initiatives. In combination with the growing relevance and increasing awareness of ecosystem accounting in policy- and decision-making in the countries and within supranational bodies like the UN and the EU, we expect a significant increase in completed ecosystem accounts in the foreseeable future.

AB - Research on methods and applications on the integration of ecosystem services flow accounts into economic reporting systems has increased in the last decades. Along with Natural Capital Accounting (NCA), Ecosystem Accounting (EA) has been increasingly considered and has been integrated into research, policy and decision-making. Following the System of Environmental Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) distinction of core and thematic accounts, this study presents a short overview of the EA progress in European countries. Based on the review of scientific and grey literature, the ecosystem accounting progress from 29 European countries was identified (EU27 countries, the United Kingdom and Norway). Overall, the largest share (more than 50%) of finalized accounts at a national scale were recorded for the ecosystem extent accounts. Besides, the review revealed that for monetary ecosystem service accounts, the relatively largest proportion of accounts was developed only at the local scale. Generally, the accounting progress has been found to be distributed rather heterogeneously throughout the different countries. The most intensive ecosystem accounting progresses were identified for the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The most frequently developed thematic account was the carbon account. Within this study, we only considered finalized ecosystem accounts. Nevertheless, in the process of the review, we came across a vast amount of further ongoing accounting initiatives. In combination with the growing relevance and increasing awareness of ecosystem accounting in policy- and decision-making in the countries and within supranational bodies like the UN and the EU, we expect a significant increase in completed ecosystem accounts in the foreseeable future.

KW - Condition account

KW - Ecosystem services account

KW - Extent account

KW - Grey literature

KW - Natural capital

KW - Scientific literature

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137315488&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2022.101473

DO - 10.1016/j.ecoser.2022.101473

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85137315488

VL - 57

JO - Ecosystem Services

JF - Ecosystem Services

SN - 2212-0416

M1 - 101473

ER -