It’s quite common to think of the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) as a framework that is relevant only for organising data at national, state or landscape scale.
But it’s entirely possible to apply the SEEA framework at a site level, including for example at farm scale.
A new paper in the Journal of Environmental Management titled ‘A decision methodology for site-level ecosystem accounting’ presents a methodology for developing site-level ecosystem accounts using the SEEA, describing the important decisions at each step of the process.
The paper describes site-level case studies in Ireland for the following two projects:
- Nature + Energy, developing ecosystem accounts for improving biodiversity and environmental management of windfarms
- ForES, using ecosystem accounting as a base for developing tools for sustainable forestry management decision-making.
The paper explains that the two major challenges for site-level accounting are stakeholder engagement and data availability. For those familiar with the application of SEEA at larger scales, these two challenges are certainly familiar.
These case studies provide some of the first published examples of the application of SEEA EA at the site level and promote the consistent implementation of natural capital accounting across scales.
The authors of the report are Courtney E. Gorman (University College Dublin), Francesco Martini (Trinity College Dublin), Kathleen Conroy (Trinity College Dublin), Emma King (Trinity College Dublin), Reiss Mcleod (IDEEA Group), Carl Obst (IDEEA Group), Jane C. Stout (Trinity College Dublin), Ian Donohue and Yvonne M. Buckley (Trinity College Dublin).
If you would like to know more about how the SEEA can be applied in your context, however small, please contact us.