Ecosystems contribute essential services to the economy and society. These include the provision of food, filtration of air and water, climate regulation, protection against extreme weather events such as heat waves and flooding, and many more. Despite the crucial role of ecosystems and their services for society, there is no established and regular measurement of ecosystem extent, condition and their change over time, nor of the quantity of services these ecosystems supply. Ecosystem accounting is an emerging field that aims to address this major gap and provide an internationally agreed guidance to measure and record changes in ecosystems and ecosystem services in a consistent and comparable manner
This report summarizes key results of the INCA project, which was launched in 2015 to produce a pilot for an integrated system of ecosystem accounting for the European Union. It provides an introduction to ecosystem accounting and presents ecosystem extent accounts, initial ecosystem condition accounts and ecosystem services accounts. It also shows practical examples of possible uses of ecosystem services accounts and existing policy applications.