Regional Workshop on Ecosystem Accounting in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals and Global Biodiversity Framework

The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) provides the agreed upon statistical framework for measuring the relationship between the environment and the economy. It is comprised of two complimentary international statistical standards: the SEEA Central Framework (SEEA CF) and the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA). The SEEA CF takes a resource-based approach to measuring the supply and use of environmental resources and availability of environmental assets. The SEEA EA takes a more holistic approach in providing a spatially explicit approach to compiling accounts on ecosystems. The SEEA can be flexibly implemented by countries prioritizing accounts based on availability of information and policy priorities. The accounts are designed to respond to data needs for multiple policy initiatives including global initiative on sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

In the Asia-Pacific region, there is an increased demand for the compilation of ecosystem accounts in support of national policies aimed at the management of ecosystems, and compilation of indicators for national and international reporting. National statistical offices and ministries of environment of countries in the region have expressed strong interest in compiling various SEEA accounts, including taking steps towards compiling ecosystem extent, condition and services accounts which are among the most relevant accounts for informing biodiversity. Furthermore, with the recent adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), demand by users for ecosystem accounts will increase as the SEEA EA is the methodological base for several headline indicators of the GBF. There is a need to strengthen the capacities of national statistical systems to produce and disseminate SEEA ecosystem accounts to better meet the needs of users for high quality integrated data on ecosystems in general and biodiversity in particular.
 

The workshop, organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the UN Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), with the support of the Office of the Director-General for Policy Planning on Statistical Policy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of the Government of Japan, and in collaboration with the BPS Statistics Indonesia, aims to further build capacities in the Asia and the Pacific for the compilation of SEEA EA in support of SDG and GBF reporting.