Beyond the economic boundaries to account for ecosystem services

Abstract

Ecosystem services (ES) accounts are essential to quantify and monitor the contribution of ecosystems to human well-being. The System of Environmental and Economic Accounting - Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EEA) is the first attempt to provide a set of standards to compile ecosystem accounts. We argue for the inclusion of an ecological perspective in the SEEA EEA that considers ecosystems to be more than input providers to the economy. Ecosystems can act as accounting units capable of producing, consuming and recording changes in regeneration and absorption rates. To account for that we propose (i) to identify ES typologies according to the way in which energy, biomass and information is released to generate services; (ii) to use these typologies to define the concepts of ES potential, ES potential flows, ES demand and ES actual flows; and (iii) to build the ES capacity accounts in monetary terms based on these concepts. These arguments are illustrated with case studies for water purification and crop pollination accounts in European countries. Extending the production boundary would allow the measurement of the sustainable use of ES and the establishment of causality between the use of ES and the value accrued by the economic actors and households.

Keywords: Ecosystem services accounting; Ecosystem services flow types; Production boundary; Supply and use tables; Sustainability assessment.

Fig. 1

Groups of ES according to the differences in the potential and actual flow. (a) Demand exceeds the ES potential flow and services is overused (e.g. when a resource is extracted above its regeneration rate or when pollutants are emitted above the ecosystem absorption rate). (b) Demand exceeds the ES potential but services cannot be overused (e.g. when people living in a country/region cannot enjoy a range of ES because there are no green spaces). (c) ES potential exceeds demand (e.g. when economic activities are not located where ES that could support them are provided).

Fig. 2

The supply table: linkage between ecosystem services, ecosystem types and capacity as NPV.

Fig. 3

Map of mismatch between ES potential and demand for crop pollination in 2006 (source: Vallecillo et al. (2018)).

Fig. 4

Monetary assessment of crop pollination service and its role with respect to pollination-dependent crops for the EU, in millions of euros (source: data processed from Vallecillo et al. (2018)).

Fig. 5

Map of mismatch between ES potential flow and ES actual flow for water purification in 2005 (source: data processed from La Notte et al. (2017b)).

Fig. 6

Trend in the actual flow of water purification and the increase in the sustainability path (1985–2005) (source: data processed from La Notte et al. (2017b)).

Fig. 7

Trend of water purification capacity (total million euros – primary axis) and nitrogen emissions (tons/km – secondary axis) from 1985 to 2005 (source: data processed from La Notte et al. (2017)).