Ecosystem services and environmental goods
Environmental goods such as clean air, healthy forests, biodiversity or intact natural landscapes are so-called public goods. No one can be excluded from consuming them and they are non-rivalrous - in that use by one individual does not reduce availability to others - and no one is willing to pay a price for them.
Therefore, there is no market for environmental goods, as the state provides them more or less for free, which is why there is a risk of over-exploitation and decline in the quality of environmental goods. There are no consequences to be faced if environmental goods are consumed irresponsibly, which is why the motivation for voluntary contributions to the improvement of environmental quality is usually low.
The concept of ecosystem services has its origins in the 1970s and 80s and aims to raise societal awareness of these services of nature that are beneficial to humans, as well as to make the value of nature visible and to protect it better as a result.
These services are based on intact ecosystems, the maintenance and renewal of which is subject to complex ecological processes. As a result of inadequate use, these processes can be impaired and the ecosystems are no longer able to provide the expected services.
Due to the negative effects of the global loss of ecosystems despite international treaties, as well as the increasing consumption of resources, the concept of ecosystem services found its way into the international environmental policy agenda.
Regulations (EU) No. 691/2011 and 538/2014 created a common framework for the preparation of European environmental accounts. The recording of ecosystem services is explicitly mentioned in this EU Regulation as a possible additional module.
The SEEA (“System of Environmental-Economic Accounting”) of the United Nations has been making efforts for several years to integrate ecosystem services into the system of environmental accounts.
Volume 2 of the SEEA, “Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EEA 2014)”, represents a first step in the development of a statistical framework for ecosystem accounting. It deals with ecosystems and their capacities to provide services for present and future generations . In addition to information on the general principles and methodology of ecosystem accounting, the publication also contains considerations on the monetary valuation of ecosystem services. However, there are criticisms of this, as much of the value of ecosystem services does not have a direct market price and attempts to use approximations have proven extremely difficult.
Since December 2015 there has been a Consultation Draft of the Technical Recommendations for the SEEA-EEA, which is intended to support the testing of ecosystem accounting at the national level. In the meantime, many country studies have been carried out by international organizations and the countries themselves. The results were summarized in technical recommendations.
The discussion about a possible implementation of ecosystem services in environmental accounts requires further research work, for example on the topics of classification, delimitation of spatial units, indicators for the condition of ecosystems and assessment. The SEEA-EEA is to be revised by 2020.
Environment Agency Austria: Ecosystem services and agriculture (German with English summary)
Environment Agency Austria: Forest ecosystem services (German with English summary)
TEEB - Report - The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity
UNSD: System of Environmental Economic Accounting 2012 - Experimental Ecosystem Accounting
European Environment Agency: Biodiversity (SOER 2015 - thematic assessment)