​UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre has launched an initial step-by-step approach to enable specialist agencies, research institutes and other organizations to develop spatial accounts of species status, an important component of Natural Capital.

Exploring approaches for constructing Species Accounts in the context of the SEEA-EEA describes this process of planning and constructing such Species Accounts at national or sub-national levels. The document builds on a UNEP-WCMC (2015) report on the state of knowledge on biodiversity accounting, produced as an output of a project to advance the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting - Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EEA, 2014).

The SEEA-EEA is a multipurpose statistical framework that aims to quantify the relationships between the environment and people. It is designed to allow the integration of information on ecosystems and the services they provide with information on economic and other human activity.

Biodiversity accounting features as a key thematic component of the SEEA-EEA. As a component of biodiversity, species form the biotic elements of ecosystems and have an important role in how ecosystems function and deliver ecosystem services such as food, climate regulation and cultural benefits that support economic activity and human well-being.

In this context, Species Accounts can deliver multiple benefits, not only for informing sustainable development, but also for biodiversity conservation. The approach to compiling Species Accounts will be tested in different situations to gain further knowledge on its applicability and inform its development.