Senegal Takes Steps Towards SEEA Accounts with the release of Land Cover Accounts and a National Plan

From 13 to 15 February, the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD) of Senegal hosted the Technical Workshop on the Compilation of Ecosystem Extent Accounts in its offices in Dakar, Senegal.  The workshop focused on providing technical training on the compilation of ecosystem extent accounts in conformity with the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) and advancing the development of an agreed map for Senegal. Participants to this workshop included representatives from 10 agencies that make up the national technical committee on the compilation of SEEA accounts, as well as representatives from academia.  The national land cover map, developed under the project "Environmental-Economic Accounting for Evidence-Based Policy in Senegal", together with several ecological variables, was used to model the first ecosystem extent account and map for Senegal.

To support the development of the ecosystem extent accounts for Senegal, the ARIES tool was used to bring together various maps developed by the National Agency for Land Use Planning (ANAT), the Centre de Suivi Ecologique (CSE) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  Technical assistance was provided by the United Nations Statistics Division and the Basque Center for Climate Change, which developed the ARIES for SEEA tool.

The ecosystem extent accounts developed during the workshop will be further refined with additional data and will be published later this year. Overall, the Technical Workshop was an important step towards the development of ecosystem extent accounts for Senegal, and it demonstrates the importance of collaboration and technical assistance in this process.

The results of the Land Cover accounts and the National Plan for the Advancement of Environmental-Economic Accounting in Senegal  were launched during the Dissemination Workshop on the Land Cover Account and the National Plan.  The event took on 16 February and was widely covered by the national media. This important event was opened by the Secretary-General from the Ministry of Economy, the Director-General of the ANSD and the United Nations Resident Coordinator and attended by more than 40 participants from various environmental agencies, as well as representatives from the ministries of finance and planning and other stakeholders.

Participants emphasized the importance of releasing the first agreed land cover accounts under the leadership and coordination of ANSD and pointed out the need to institutionalize this exercise to ensure regular production and dissemination. These accounts show the changes in land cover over time, they will be used to report on SDG indicators and will inform policies on forest conservation and land management.  The National Plan will help to forge partnership within the government and advocate for investment in strengthening the statistical system and in particular environmental accounting.

The land cover account and the national plan were developed during the project "Environmental-Economic Accounting for Evidence-Based Policy in Senegal" as a collaborative effort between the ANSD and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), which focused on the implementation of the System of Economic and Environmental Accounts (SEEA) in Senegal.

Watch the media covering of this event in the Senegalese TV Channel RTS here.