Bridging the gap between national and ecosystem accounting

  1. Pablo Campos
  2. Alejandro Caparrós
  3. Jose L. Oviedo
  4. Paola Ovando
  5. Begoña Álvarez-Farizo
  6. Luis Díaz-Balteiro
  7. Juan Carranza
  8. Santiago Beguería
  9. Mario Díaz
  10. A. Casimiro Herruzo
  11. Fernando Martínez-Peña
  12. Mario Soliño
  13. Alejandro Álvarez
  14. María Martínez-Jáuregui
  15. María Pasalodos-Tato
  16. Pablo de Frutos
  17. Jorge Aldea
  18. Eloy Almazán
  19. Elena-D. Concepción
  20. Bruno Mesa
  21. Carlos Romero
  22. Roberto Serrano-Notivoli
  23. Cristina Fernández
  24. Jerónimo Torres-Porras
  25. Gregorio Montero
Journal:
Documentos de trabajo ( CSIC. Unidad de Políticas Comparadas )

Year of publication: 2017

Issue: 4

Type: Working paper

Sustainable development goals

Abstract

National accounting either ignores or fails to give due values to a country´s ecosystem services, products, total income and environmental asset variations. To overcome these shortcomings, we develop a spatially-explicit extended ecosystem accounting framework, which we test in the Mediterranean forests of Andalusia (Spain). This framework goes beyond the production boundary of standard national accounting by considering four private activities (forestry, hunting, residential and private amenity) and six public activities (mushroom, carbon, water, recreation, landscape and threatened biodiversity). To keep valuation consistent with standard accounts, we simulate exchange values for non-market goods and services. Manufactured capital and environmental assets are also integrated. Upon comparing extended to standard accounts, our results are 3.7 and 2.9 higher for gross value added and total income, respectively. These differences are explained primarily by the undervaluation of recreation, landscape and threatened biodiversity, and the omission of private amenity, carbon and water activities in standard accounts. Extended accounts, with their implementation of simulated exchange values, demonstrate that standard accounts measures only 17% of Andalusian forest ecosystem services.