The planet’s sustainable future, and humanity's sustainable development, relies on us being able to understand, quantify and recognize the multiple values of biodiversity. However, natural capital and ecosystem services are often neglected in traditional assessments of economic progress and development planning. This is where Natural Capital Accounts (NCA) are a useful tool: they quantify the stocks of ecosystems and other natural resources and flows of services they provide, helping decision-makers to accurately value how societies and industries benefit from nature and incorporate environmental and economic prosperity into their plans.

Since 2015, UNEP-WCMC has supported international efforts to integrate biodiversity into national accounting processes. One of our flagship projects “Integrating Natural Capital Accounting into Sustainable Development in Uganda” has recently been completed. This Darwin Initiative-funded work builds on experimental accounts produced with Uganda in 2017. Here we reflect on the three and a half years of work UNEP-WCMC has undertaken with the Government of Uganda and international partners to better integrate biodiversity into NCA in the country. We also highlight how this project ultimately supported green growth, alleviating poverty and accelerating progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and ongoing global targets for nature.

Project Overview

“Integrating Natural Capital Accounting into Sustainable Development Decision-Making in Uganda” was implemented by the Government of Uganda in collaboration with UNEP-WCMC. In July 2018, the Centre received a GBP355,000 grant to lead this work with three Ugandan partners – the National Environment Management Authority, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, and the National Planning Authority – as well as two international partners, the Institute for Development of Environmental-Economic Accounting and the International Institute for Environment and Development. To further increase its potential impact and provide opportunities for shared learning and support, the work was aligned with various regional and global initiatives on NCA, including the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainable in Africa, the World Bank WAVES partnership and the UN Environment Programme and UN Statistics Division project on Natural Capital Accounting.

The work focussed in four key areas:  

Key findings across the accounts

Three novel sets of biodiversity-related natural capital accounts were developed on the following themes: Biodiversity and Tourism, Fisheries Resources and Land and Soil Improvement. These accounts - which can be found here - were compiled in accordance with the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework and the recently adopted SEEA Ecosystem Accounting framework, produced under the auspices of the UN Statistics Division.  
 
Key findings and recommendations from the accounts include: 

Biodiversity and Tourism: 

Fisheries Resources: 

Land and Soil Improvement: 

Achievements

In 2021, these three thematic natural capital accounts werevalidated and endorsed by the Ugandan Bureau of Statistics, with support and assent from government as well as non-governmental, academic and international stakeholders. 

The findings and many resources developed during the work have provided opportunities for shared learning and support for other countries and practitioners interested in developing natural capital accounting for mainstreaming biodiversity into development planning. In addition to the three sets of accounts, the resources produced include: 

Since the conclusion of this work, the Ugandan government has been working with local stakeholders and industry leads to implement the accounts’ recommendations to reduce poverty and support a green post-COVID economic recovery. We hope that this work will inspire the wider uptake of natural capital assessments as a tool to support the integration of environmental considerations into development planning and thereby realize a more sustainable future for people and for nature.