Second mission to China for the project NCAVES

As part of the project “Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services” funded by the European Union, UNSD undertakes the second assessment mission to China together with the UN Environment from 21-29 May to provide technical assistance to the National Bureau Statistics (NBS) of China on 1) strengthening the national compilation of natural resource balance sheet on land, forestry and water, and 2) piloting ecosystem accounting in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province.

The project team visited the Guangxi and Guizhou from 21-25 May to assess policy priority and existing work on ecosystem assessment, address technical issues and discuss the initial programme of work to implement ecosystem accountings at the provincial level using the SEEA approach. The project team also held a stakeholder meeting and conducted a series of bilateral meetings in Beijing from 27-29 September to discuss the national work programme and address methodological issue related to natural resource balance sheet and pilot ecosystem accounting program. A 3-year national plan for the project implementation from 2018-2020 has been agreed upon. It is expected the project will strengthen the capacity of NBS to measure and value environmental assets and ecosystem services, and contribute to the development of ecological compensation standards for policy making in China.