This experimental review explores options for developing integrated seagrass accounts, primarily focusing on ecosystem extent accounts and ecosystem condition accounts, while briefly reviewing how these accounts could be linked to ‘ecosystem production’ and ‘service supply-use’ accounts.
This review represents a step toward the development of integrated seagrass accounts that would help track progress toward multiple European policy objectives, including:
- Ecological Objectives under UN Environment / Mediterranean Action Plan’s (UNEP/MAP’s) Integrated Monitoring and Assessment Programme of the Mediterranean Sea and Coast and related Assessment Criteria (IMAP);
- Multiple descriptors of ‘Good Environmental Status’ under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).
Further, it will assist with the implementation of:
- The Water Framework Directive, through seagrasses’ use as indicators of the quality of the marine environment; and
- The Conservation of Habitats, Flora and Fauna Directive (92/43/EEC), or “Habitats Directive” (Annex 1 of Article 17).
Natural capital accounts such as these are an important way of tracking the changing extent and condition of such habitats, along with their capacity to deliver the services upon which humans depend.
Related Case Studies
This study presents a framework for the valuation of ecosystem services related to conservation policies, both theoretically and practically, in order to make an economic case for the conservation of biodiversity. Theoretically, it is shown that the application of monetary valuation techniques is instrumental to the outcomes of models. Practically, the case study covers the valuation of water purification in the Northern Mediterranean region.
This study estimates the distribution of costs of reclaiming and transporting treated wastewater for reuse in agricultural irrigation across Europe. It considers treatment costs as well as the costs associated with the water transport infrastructure and energy for pumping.
This publication summarizes the results and methodological findings of a first round of test applications of the European Framework for Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting for Forests. Its objective is to provide an insight into the experience gained and progress made in linking forest-related data to the national accounts.
This report was produced in the context of the Knowledge Innovation Project on an Integrated system of Natural Capital and ecosystem services Accounting (KIP INCA), which aims to develop a set of experimental accounts at the EU level, following the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting - Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EEA). It assesses and accounts for two ecosystem services: outdoor recreation (on a daily basis) and crop pollination. Each service is assessed biophysically using the ESTIMAP toolbox, and then translated into monetary units using valuation methods consistent with the System of National Accounts.