Dr. Emer N? Dh?ill:

On the starting point of ecosystem accounts and understanding what we have, there are projects already going on in Ireland between Trinity, UCD and in Galway. They are looking at different scales. The Irish national capital accounting for sustainable environments, INCASE, project, which was funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, was just completed this year and good learnings came out of it. It is working on data that are already there - for example, it could be the water framework or habitats directives - but it is limited data. However, we have to start somewhere. We work with the data we have.

There is also a forestry ecosystem services project ongoing that is looking at developing a tool for foresters to make transparent decisions on how they forest. That is with Coillte and Trinity College.

There are definitely projects that are getting us to get this understanding. There are projects on wind farms and carbon farming as well. It is happening. We cannot wait to have everything perfect; we have to start now.

A number of countries are already doing national natural capital accounts. The UK and the Netherlands are good examples of that, and they take slightly different ways of doing it. Both are using the system of environmental economic accounting – ecosystem accounting – methodology. The UK looks more at the ecosystem services and giving a monetary value for that, which is important, but it is not accounting for the condition and extent. The vulnerability there is that we do not know what condition these ecosystems are in. The UK has it strongly linked with policy, so natural capital accounts are part of the planning development as well.

The Netherlands takes a more holistic view. It looks at the ecosystem accounts, extend condition and ecosystem services. It would be beneficial to be able to touch base with these countries that are already delivering to discover what challenges and successes they have had. We are not waiting for everything to be perfect. It is already starting so it is about continuing the momentum.