Operational challenges in EU ecosystem condition accounts: the case of urban, agricultural and marine ecosystems

Following the amendment to the EU Regulation on environmental economic accounts, it is expected that the compilation of ecosystem conditions accounts by Member States would be a requirement in the near future. These accounts will follow the statistical framework for the System of Environmental Economic Accounting - Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) of the United Nations. However, potential operational issues of SEEA-EA, including those of specific groups of ecosystems should be solved before its practical implementation. Our presentation introduces operational challenges for anthropogenic ecosystems (urban ecosystems and agroecosystems) and marine ecosystems identified during the development of the upcoming EU Methodology. The latter is a guidance developed by the European Commission to map and assess the condition of all ecosystem types in the EU, including those not protected under EU Nature Directives. It provides an initial basis for the identification of good condition per ecosystem type, supporting restoration actions. Anthropogenic and marine ecosystems are illustrative cases of ecosystem types that do not always fulfil assumptions valid for other ecosystems, which are useful to highlight ecosystem specific issues of SEEA-EA implementation at national and EU levels. In fact, the EU Methodology represents a first attempt to translate the concept of restoration in a harmonised method applicable to all ecosystem types, requiring to deal with a great number of challenges. For example, the difficulty of identifying suitable reference levels for anthropogenic ecosystems, or the need to guarantee the self-regenerative capacity of ecosystems, or the problem of keeping pressures originating/impacting the ecosystems into account. Some of these challenges are shared with other ecosystem types and lines will be drawn to them. Potential solutions investigated will be also introduced. Both challenges and potential solutions will contribute as inputs for the open round table discussions anticipated in the second part of this session.