The Uses of the SEEA for Policy Webinar Series: The SEEA and the Global Biodiversity Framework
Earlier this year, the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting with the support of UNSD, launched a new webinar series, the Uses of the SEEA for Policy. The webinar series aims to highlight various priority and/or emerging policy areas that can be informed by the SEEA. The first two webinars highlighted the use of the SEEA for the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and had a combined reach of approximately 600 people.
Nearly 250 participants attended the first webinar, Using the SEEA for Monitoring and Informing the Global Biodiversity Framework, which took place online on 15 April 2024. The webinar brought together representatives from national statistical offices, line ministries and focal points to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The objectives of the webinar were to explain how the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting—Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) is being used for the monitoring framework of the Kunming-Montreal GBF, and the challenges and opportunities in applying the SEEA EA for national level monitoring of biodiversity. The webinar started with a presentation from the Secretariat to the CBD on the GBF monitoring framework and headline indicators, followed by an introduction to the SEEA EA by UNSD and a presentation by a member of the UNCEEA on the headline indicators on ecosystem extent and services that are based on the SEEA EA. This was followed by presentations by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Statistics Canada and the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity of Mexico. The presentations and ensuing panel discussion emphasized the importance of interinstitutional collaboration between national statistical offices, line ministries and others when compiling SEEA EA accounts.
Nearly 200 participants attended the second webinar, Implementation of the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting: Recent country experiences and the pathway to synergies with the Global Biodiversity Framework, which took place online on 20 May 2024. The objectives of the webinar were to share country experiences in the compilation of the SEEA EA. The webinar started with an introduction to the SEEA EA by UNSD, followed by presentations from India, Ireland, South Africa and the United Kingdom on their diverse experiences in compiling SEEA EA accounts. The country presentations focused on the data sources, institutional environment, resources and methods used to compile SEEA EA accounts. Importantly, the presentations emphasized the importance of interinstitutional collaboration between national statistical offices, line ministries and others when compiling SEEA EA accounts and implementing the GBF monitoring framework.
The recording and presentations from the webinars can be found here: