The SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting framework : Structure , Challenges , and Links with the Nature Index

Integrating Ecological and Economical Sciences within an accounting framework is an important step to include environmental considerations in the various decision-making processes carried out at national and international level by political, economic and financial institutions and that are usually mostly based on monetary aspects. The purpose of the SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (thereafter SEEA-EEA) is to be able to synthesize information on ecosystem in the form of “assets” in a way that respect fundamental properties but should ultimately allows the conversion of ecosystem services into monetary terms. In practice, the framework is strongly influenced by the work on land use in terrestrial systems supported by satellite-derived and GIS-processed information.