South Africa a pioneer in environmental statistical measurement
South Africa is one of seven pilot countries selected by the United Nations (UN) to test a framework that will measure the state and condition of the country’s ecosystems. Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) are partnering on this project.
A three-day training session is currently being hosted in Pretoria, from 10 to 12 November 2014, on the UN’s broader and more established System of Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA). This session will be directly followed by a workshop on the pilot Experimental Ecosystem Accounts.
The SEEA was accepted by the UN in 2012 as the international standard of measuring the amount of natural resources a country has in reserve and how quickly these reserves are being used. Statistics South Africa has already made inroads into measuring the state of our country’s natural resources: in 2009 it published accounts on the amount of water used by various industries, and earlier this year released updated accounts for energy (the amount produced by coal, crude oil and gas), minerals (depletion rates for gold, coal and platinum) and fisheries (the physical stock of hake, lobster and abalone caught over time) in its 2014 Environmental Economic Accounts Compendium. Such data is vital to the crafting of effective environmental management policies.
The Experimental Ecosystem Accounts project builds on the SEEA by moving beyond simply measuring each account in isolation; instead the focus is shifted to the analysis of the linkages and relationships that exist between human activities, the impact of economic activities on the natural environment, and the information that various accounts can provide. In time, an established ecosystem accounting system will be able to answer cause-and-effect questions related to what the impact will be on the entire ecosystem if specific policy decisions are made regarding resource use.
The aim of the training workshop hosted this week by Stats SA and SANBI is to strengthen relationships with relevant government departments and other agencies who will be involved in the compilation of the data needed for the development of the SEEA accounts for South Africa, and to provide a deeper understanding of the accounting principles that are required to meet this goal.
For statistics on South Africa’s natural resources, click here for the latest Environmental Economic Accounts Compendium.
