Clients: Joint Nature Conservation Committee (since 2017), Darwin Initiative Grant (2020-2022), Fishmongers’ Companies Fisheries Charitable Trust (2022)
Service area(s): Accounting for Natural Capital
Country/region: UK Overseas Territories (Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Virgin Islands)
eftec team: Ian Dickie, Jake Kuyer, Natalya Kharadi, Sophie Neupauer, Georgie Conlan, Victoria Reeser and Paul Chung
About the programme of work:
Since 2017, eftec have worked with JNCC and other partners to develop a system of ecosystem accounting in the UK Caribbean Overseas Territories. This includes producing individual territory accounts for Anguilla, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands (2017-2019), as well as regional accounting efforts to consolidate learnings and approaches through a Darwin Initiative project (2020-2022).
Click here to view our work on the Darwin Initiative Site
We work with local stakeholders to develop Natural Capital Accounting tools and practices that are aligned with the United Nations System for Environmental Economic Accounting (UN SEEA).
The ecosystem accounts provide a framework for the collection and presentation of environmental and economic data, so that the value nature provides can be better understood. They also translate ecological and scientific data into economic terms, so that they are comparable with other economic data (such as GDP). This provides an evidence base to support environmentally and economically sustainable decision making on issues that are both dependent on, and impact on, nature, including: investment in nature, action on climate change (mitigation and adaptation), delivery of international initiatives (e.g., UN Sustainable Development Goals) and support for green post-Covid economic recovery.
Our work led to the establishment of the UK Overseas Territories Ecosystem Accounting Network in 2021. This is a regional practitioner’s network with members from environment and statistics departments in Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Virgin Islands and support from the Caribbean Development Bank, UK’s Office for National Statistics, JNCC and Defra. Regular meetings since September 2021 discuss accounting progress and cover specific topics of interest, such as marine and fisheries evidence, statistical processes and lessons learnt so far. In March 2022, a three-day Caribbean Ecosystem Accounting Conference was hosted in Anguilla to bring the Network together to consolidate ecosystem accounting in the OTs. The Network provides a space for knowledge transfer, training, and peer engagement on ecosystem accounting practice.
Current ecosystem accounting activities in the OTs will streamline annual data collection efforts and build capacity for the production of ecosystem accounts. The aim is for use of the accounts by governments and the private sector across the Caribbean to help build resilient and prosperous societies.
Published outputs include: