Ecosystem Accounting in
Australia
Brian Pink
Australian Statistician
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Learning Centre
Experimental Ecosystem Accounts
United Nations Statistical Commission
25 February 2013
Outline of presentation
• Background
– Australian Government interest in
environmental accounting
– ABS program of environmental accounting
• How ecosystem accounting is being
advanced in Australia
• ABS experimental land and ecosystem
accounts
• Issues for resolution
• Lessons learnt
Background:
2009 Review of the Environment
Protection and Biodiversity Act
Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)
Also known as the Hawke Review.
Chapter 19 is devoted to national
environmental accounts
Available on line:
http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/revi
ew/index.html
Background:
Recommendation 67 (1) of the EPBC Act
Review
The Review recommends that the Australian
Government, in the interests of promoting ecologically
sustainable development, develop a system of
environmental accounts to:
(a) establish baseline national environmental information;
(b) provide capacity to systematically monitor changes in the
quality of the Australian environment;
(c) provide an information basis for improved regional
planning and decision-making; and
(d) provide a secondary objective of strengthening the
capacity of local government land-use planning
decision-making.
Background: Current ABS
Environmental-Economic Accounts and
Ecosystem Accounting
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4628.0.55.001
Ecosystem
accounts
Water Account
(Annual)
Biodiveristy
Carbon
Ecosystem condition
ABS, BOM, DCCEE, DAFF
Victorian government
South East Queensland CMA
Wentworth group and universities
Energy Account
(Annual)
Experimental Land Accounts
(2 states so far)
Australian System of
Environmental - Economic
Accounts
(Annual)
Experimental Waste
Account
(Feb 2013)
National Accounts
Data
Natural resources on
National Balance Sheet
(Annual)
National Carbon Account
(Dept of Climate Change)
Input-output analysis of energy and
greenhouse gas emissions
Development of ecosystem
accounting Australia
Several versions of ecosystem accounting have been
developed in parallel in different organisations and
scales (local, state, national, international)
At the ABS ecosystem accounting has grown out of the
established environmental accounting program
The SEEA Central Framework and the SEEA Experiment
Ecosystem Accounting provide the starting point for
the ABS
• ABS provided substantial technical support for the
development of the SEEA and in this we engaged widely with
other parts of government, land management agencies and
academics in making contributions to the SEEA.
• ABS with the Bureau of Meteorology and Department of
Sustainable and Environment of Victoria co-hosted a meeting
of the Expert Group on Ecosystem Accounting
• Other government departments, natural resource
management agencies and academics are now using the SEEA
Examples of ecosystem
accounting initiatives in Australia
Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water,
Population and Communities
– 2010 Ecosystem services: Key concepts and
applications
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/ecosystem-services.html
Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries
– 2012 Discussion paper on Ecosystem services
http://www.daff.gov.au/natural-resources/ecosystem-services/ecosystem-services-report
Victorian Department of Sustainability and
Environment
– 2008 ecoMarkets
http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/conservation-and-environment/ecomarkets/ecomarketsscience
Wentworth Group
– 2008 Accounting for Nature
–http://www.wentworthgroup.org/
2011 Trials of environmental asset condition
South East Queensland Catchments
– 2012 Ecosystem Services Framework SEQ
http://www.ecosystemservicesseq.com.au/
ABS land and ecosystem
accounting Australia
• Land accounts provide the starting
point for ecosystem accounting at the
ABS
• Land cover and land use are two key
characteristics to consider is
ecosystem accounting
• To these ABS is developing with
partners experimental accounts for
– Biodiversity
– Carbon
– Ecosystem condition
ABS Experimental Land Accounts
for Victoria and the Great Barrier
Reef Catchments
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4609.0.55.001
Land account integrated:
•
Environmental data
•
Economic data
•
Social data
•
Ecosystem condition
Data was spatial explicit
Land and ecosystem
valuation
• The hardest part of ecosystem accounting is
valuation
• Land and ecosystems have economic and noneconomic values
• Land is traded in markets and economic values
for the land, and all the characteristics of the
land - e.g. rainfall, elevation, soil type, land cover,
proximity to markets - can be established (and is
recorded in the SNA)
• Ecosystem services encompass both economic
(production of food) and non-economic values
(conservation of biodiversity).
• Physically identifying and separating the
economic and non-economic values is the
starting point
Land value in Australia
• Total market land value at 30 June 2012 was AUD
3,684 billion, down slightly from AUD 3,887 billion
at 30 June 2010
• Rural land accounted for AUD 264 billion or 7% of
total land value
• At 30 June 2012 land represented 37% of all of total
assets (= AUD 10,488 billion)
• At 30 June 2012 land represented 85% of all of
natural resource assets (=AUD 4,560 billion)
From the Australia System of National Accounts
All values are in current prices
1 AUD = 1.02 USD
Billion = 1,000,000,000 or 109
Great Barrier Reef
Statistical Area 1 regions
Accounts were developed with
special survey forms that included
maps of individual land parcels,
generated from administrative
data sources
Land Account Outputs
Tables (NRM and GBR region)
• Land use by industry (hectares)
• Land use by industry (AUD$)
• Land use classified by ACLUMP
• Dynamic Land Cover
• Vegetation cover 2006 and pre 1750
• Forest extent and change 1998 to 2008
• An interactive Google Earth® showing:
– Counts of population (i.e. population) and businesses
– Fire, temperature and rainfall
– Rateable land value and land use
Land Value as recorded in government information system
Accounting for
the condition
of different
areas
National park = zero value
Experimental biodiversity
and carbon accounts
• Biodiversity and carbon accounts are two clearly defined
component of ecosystem accounting
• The ABS is working with the Victorian Government,
researchers at the Australian National University, the
University of Queensland and the Bureau of Meteorology
to develop biodiversity and carbon information to add to
the experimental land accounts
• The accounts will build on existing national data on carbon
stocks and flows from the System of National Accounts, the
National Carbon Accounting System and lists of endangered
and threatened species
Key issues for Australia
• Determining the appropriate reference for
reference condition (e.g. “natural”, expected
services flows or arbitrary base year?)
• The benefits and costs of different activities can
change depending on the scale (typically a clear
local private beneficiary and widespread and
dispersed public costs) and as such the appropriate
scale of accounting can change.
• Different agencies are interested in different
aspects of ecosystem accounting (e.g. physical
assets, physical flows or valuation). Where to focus
efforts in the short term?
• Educate potential users so that they can better
understand accounts and how they can be used
• Build technical capability and improve basic data
Lessons learnt
• Cooperation is essential – between agencies and
between professions (e.g. accountants, economists and
ecologists)
• Spatial data and spatial manipulation of data are
needed
• Experimental or pilot studies are useful for developing
methods, building capability and demonstrating how
accounts can be used
• Need to focus on repeatability (i.e. the regular
production of accounts)
• There will be criticism – the work necessarily requires
trade-offs between accuracy and frequency (especially if
annual production is the aim) as well as fitting imperfect
data to the accounting tables
• Need to explain the application of accounts to public
policy to potential users
Example of explaining
accounts to users
• Issues linked to
accounts, including
climate change, green
growth and
sustainability
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs
@.nsf/mf/4628.0.55.001
Contact for more information
michael.vardon@abs.gov.au
Acknowledgements
A large number of people and agencies are
contributing to the development of ecosystem
accounting in Australia
• Bureau of Meteorology
• Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water,
Population and Communities
• Department of Climate Change and Energy
Efficiency
• Victorian Government
• Queensland Government
• South East Queensland Catchments
• Wentworth Group
• Australian National University
• Queensland University