Project Goals
The "Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services" (NCAVES) project, launched in 2017, aims to:
- Enhance knowledge and develop policy applications of environmental-economic accounting, particularly ecosystem accounting.
- Pilot test SEEA Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) in Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa.
- Improve measurement of ecosystems and their services, mainstream biodiversity and ecosystem considerations in policy planning, and contribute to developing and applying internationally agreed methodologies.
Funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Statistics Division, United Nations Environment Programme, and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Main Global Impacts
- Contribution to the adoption of SEEA EA as a statistical standard by the United Nations.
- Endorsement of the resolution “Accounting for biodiversity” by the IUCN World Conservation Congress WCC-2020.
- Substantial contributions to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
- Establishment of the African Community of Practice on Natural Capital Accounting.
Where TEEB fits in
TEEB focuses on accurately measuring essential biodiversity and ecosystem services, combining insights from ecology, economics, policy, and social sciences to advise governments and businesses on integrating environmental values into decision-making. Traditional economic measures like GDP overlook the environmental costs of production and consumption, including the depletion of natural assets and their diminishing future ecosystem service capacity. TEEB advocates for policy reforms in subsidy, land management, natural area protection, natural infrastructure restoration, and incorporating natural capital into national accounts.
TEEB champions developing natural capital accounts to enhance decision-making, prompting questions about critical ecosystem services, their sources, beneficiaries, and impacts. It promotes using the System for Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) as a unified framework for comparable answers. SEEA, the international standard for environmental-economic accounting, merges economic and environmental data under agreed standards, focusing on environmental assets and their economic interactions, including emissions.
TEEB influences SEEA-EEA by guiding economic valuation in ecosystem accounting and offering global policy-making applications through scenario analysis. While valuation is crucial, TEEB emphasizes the importance of understanding ecosystems' biophysical aspects, such as changes in forest extent or ecosystem service provision, beyond monetary or qualitative values, highlighting biophysical data's role in resource management and conservation.
