Thank you to all who joined our webinar on 17th June. If you couldn't join, you can watch the recording below and slides are attached.
There were many fantastic questions asked on the call, and we didn't have time to answer all of them fully. If you have thoughts, responses or additional questions to add, please do so below. We will ask our panellists to do the same!
Slides attached here.
African Forum on Green Economy_Data_17 June_FINAL 96 ppi
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Question from: Harriet Matsaert
Hi. I’m interested in the way we represent and share data. Do the panelists have examples of best practice in sharing data in an accessible and useful way?
Answer from Arsene Sanon: With regards to our initiatives at IUCN-PACO, all the data that will be generated from NCA, protected areas performance analyses, etc. will go to feed a Regional Reference Information System (RRIS) that will in turn also feed a Regional Observatory that we will make accessible by various stakeholders (decision and policymakers, PA managers, Research & universities, NGOs, donors, etc.) in the region (and beyond). People will then access to data but also share their own data to be integrated in the observatory and thus create a robust source of data and knowledge.
Answer from Philippe P:
Dear Harriet, A number of relevant datasets are available online. They can be used to calculate new metrics or GIS layers. Depending on the topic, specific web-portals provide GIS datasets. For example IBAT provides spatial information about the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, Protected areas, Key Biodiversity Areas. See: https://www.ibat-alliance.org/ and https://conservation.ibat-alliance.org/
Our main concern is about the availability of national data. In some cases, global data are not accurate enough.
Question from: Abisha Mapendembe
My question to Ronald Kaggwa: How strong is natural capital in the new national development plan in Uganda -i.e. in the NDP3 problem statement and its framing, objectives, action plan, M & E and budget allocation?
Answer from Ronald Kaggwa: Natural capital is reflected in the goal and theme of NDP III i.e. Sustainable industrilisation for inclusive growth, employment and wealth creation. It is embeded in atleast three objectives and can contribute to their attainment. There are many natural capital based programmes in NDP III and is specifically mentioned in the Water resource, Land and ENR programme and strategic interventions are in this programme. The NDP III monitoring and results framework has natural capital related targets and indicators.
Question from Najma Mohamed
Thank you for the excellent insights, and concrete examples shared. What are the other opportunities for cross-country learning on natural capital accounting, data and mainstreaming nature in economic policy - great example shared by Dr. Sanon on establishing a regional coordination mechanism in West Africa.
Question from Najma Mohamed
Is there a role for citizen science in strengthening biodiversity data collection and monitoring capacity at national level?
Answer from Arsene Sanon: For my perspective, Citizen Science should also have a great contribution in gathering biodiversity data as long as these data are reliable.
Contribution from Bruno (VITO) - project partner with Arsene Sanon: Data collection through citizen science provides certainly benefit, specifically on biodiversity or any observation that require field information. The data gathering should preferably be done in a reliable and consistent way, hence some specific smartphone apps or shared web platform could help (i.e. https://natura-alert.net/).
Answer from Philippe P:
Dear Najma,
Citizen Science could be very valuable to strengthen biodiversity data collection. We have some interesting examples. http://www.vigienature.fr/fr/tous-2932 Vigie nature is an interesting example in France.
Question from Sonigitu Ekpe
How can we address the weakness of solid waste management policy and enforcement as it impacts Natural resources and human health ? If NCA framework are harmonized within regions, how do we account for the impact of pollutions on aquatic and terrestrial environment?
Contribution from Bruno (VITO) - project partner with Arsene Sanon: Inappropriate solid-waste management would typically lead into pollution of the environment and hence be reflected in ecosystem degradation. Either they could be captured in land-cover changes (i.e. waste deposal on the large) or water quality. Investigating in more detail the different sources of waste (i.e. residential, industrial, agriculture, etc.) and management of theirs i.e. (recycling, compositing, etc.) would however require the availability of local datasets. If such datasets are made available over time and being reliable, they could be mapped into a flow to link it to the ecosystem account components (i.e. NLEP, Carbon, Water, …).
Question from Abisha Mapendembe
Question to all panelist: All the work that has been presented so far on natural capital accounting seems to be supply driven. Are there any examples where it is demand driven or at least where it started as supply driven and later became demand driven?
Contribution from Bruno (VITO) - project partner with Arsene Sanon:Good question, I think natural capital accounting is currently still in a stage where we want to show policy decision makers the impact of their policies across the previous decade and convince them using tools as NCA to better make a trade-off of such decisions in the future as well as to calculate the costs for restoring the damage of the past. Everybody knows GDP is only one part and we only have one planet, so something needs to be done. The NCA SEEA-EEA standard is currently only experimental but in 2021 it is expected to become an official international ISO standard. Once that’s done, economic organizations (for instance ECOWAS, can pave the way and enforce their States members to include NCA in their yearly national accounts. NGOcan be an independent observer to check the impact of policy decisions on nature across country borders (as nature does not just stop at a country border) and put social pressure on governments.
Answer from Ulrike: The case studies of the Green Value initiative were chosen through the GIZ network of conservation projects. GOZ together with local partners expressed interest in natural capital assessments in (and around) protected areas they work in. This interest stems (among other) from previous work of GIZ fostering the ecosystem services perspective for development decisions. The role of the initiative in these processes is threefold: moderating exchanges between stakeholders in the landscapes around protected areas; guide the scooping of the study and help formulate the research question with regards to policy questions and to some extend in relation to available data and research capacities (technical and financial); and to backstop the study activities/ the research and to advice on the use of the results based on previous experiences.
Answer from Philippe P:
Dear Abisha,
The ENCA approach makes the link between supply and demand. The method aims at assessing whether the demand is higher than supply or the opposite. This is key in a strong sustainability approach. It is essential to compare demand and supply. In the Gabon project, we are planning to assess how development projects (demand) will affect the accounts (potential of supply).
Question from Sue Snyman
Is the GiZ report available?
Answer from Ulrike: Thanks for the interest. The report will be available only later this year. Covid-19 delayed a number of our processes. We will make sure to launch it publicly and share via various networks such as this one. We hope to be able to present and discuss it at the IUCN WCC in January.
Question from Tumuhaise Deogratias
Thanks for the nice presentations to you all and thanks Evelyn for the moderator. My question goes to Mr. Ronald, is there something being done to provide data in waste Management? This is hardly talked about.
Secondly, use of data is very important for entrepreneurs in applying the principles of design thinking for example it could be used to understand the kind of waste and where it is originating, is there an initiative of providing this info to them?
Question from Holly Dublin
Philippe, can you please put the link for the methodology in the Q&A here? And is the case study available online? Thanks.
Answer from Philippe P:
Dear Holly,
The case study is still underway, so not yet available online. We are planning to integrate the impact assessment of the mining project in the Belinga region (North-Est of Gabon). This specific analysis will be important to assess the sensibility of ENCA tool to a development project. We would like to see, if we are able to assess the changes affecting the values of the three accounts (water, carbon and ecological infrastructures). At this stage, we have a map of this development project (we had to realize the map, using information from various categories of actors). Now we use this map to model land use changes and then to re-calculate all the natural capital accounts.
Here is the link to ENCA:
https://www.cbd.int/doc/publications/cbd-ts-77-en.pdf
And more at:
http://www.ecosystemaccounting.net/
Question from Holly Dublin
And, have you been able to access data from private sector actors - for example in the forestry and mining sectors?
Contribution from Bruno (VITO) - project partner with Arsene Sanon: Not yet. We try to first use public datasets to have an ‘independent’ view on the status of the ecosystems. The results of these would show perhaps not yet the exact precise figures, but show the trends. Thereafter we try to integrate local datasets from governments or private sector actors to precise the figures and simultaneously check if the trends hold, which could indicate how reliable the local datasets are. Getting access to these local datasets is very difficult, but there is a growing awareness also in private sector actors that showing such NCA results for their business is beneficial, so I’m personally convinced that within a few years the industry will ask for such accounts and make their data more easily available.
Question from Bruno Smets
My question to Philippe Puydarrieux: How did the national administrations in Gabon verified / created trust in the actual outcome numbers of the created accounts ?
Answer from Philippe P:
Dear Bruno,
We started the project with a workshop and interviews with the national administrations in Gabon. We had planned two workshops with the administration to discuss and refine the results. Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus crisis, we were not able to organize these workshops. We are planning to organize online workshops in order to get the buy-in of national actors. This is the key next step of our project.
Question from Bruno Smets
My question to Ulrike: The benefits of hydrams are clearly demonstrated, but was also analyzed the potential degradation of the downstream area on i.e. biodiversity impact ?
Answer from Ulrike: I couldn’t agree more that the effects of hydro need to be carefully assessed and monitored in order to be socially beneficially, relevant from a development perspectives and not environmentally harmful. The trade-offs need to be discussed and decided upon in a participatory manner. I personally see a lot of potential in smaller scale, decentralized electricity production which includes different sources of renewable energy. The development of such systems - which are hardly practiced in the global north - requires new ways of thinking, education, governance and more.
Question from Johannes Kruse
Is the ENCA aligned with the SEEA standard?
Answer from Philippe P:
Dear Johannes,
ENCA and SEEA are clearly not the same approach. They are complementary. ENCA is a quick approach that have several advantages: quick, low cost, easily replicable. ENCA is very operational and can be implemented easily by consultants.
However, ENCA is coherent with the SEEA standard.
Contribution from Bruno (VITO) - project partner with Arsene Sanon: ENCA is aligned with the SEEA-EEA standard (https://seea.un.org/sites/seea.un.org/files/seea_eea_final_en_1.pdf). Based on this standard several experiments have been developed by Worldbank, UNSD, UNEP and the UN Convention of Biological Diversity (CDB). The CDB has responded with ENCA, and has been published in 2014. In general two main approaches are presently developed: one targets ecosystem services, their benefits and the monetary value of the natural capital; the other targets the measurement of ecosystem capital degradation in physical terms and ultimately capital depreciation in money. ENCA belongs to the latter category which is a more integrated approach of dealing with NCA. The SEEA-EEA standard is currently in revision, with target to publish a new version of the standard in 2021. We’re investigating which changes are to be done in ENCA to align it with the revised standard.
Question from Souleymane Tiemtore:
My question to Philippe : I want to know if they have used satellite image, land use map to realize carbon account in Gabon. Can you share your experience on the data gathering for the implementation of carbon account
Answer from Philippe P:
Dear Souleymane,
To develop the Land Account we have used the European Space Agency Land Cover global maps (2000 and 2010).
To develop the Carbon account, we have used a set of global datasets, including for example FAO data (http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QC ). We have used https://www.ntsg.umt.edu/project/modis/mod17.php to assess the global primary production (GPP) https://www.ntsg.umt.edu/project/modis/mod17.php for net primary production (NPP); several layer have been calculated specifically using those kinds of global datasets.
From my experience, national data sets (specifically land use maps) would be more accurate than global datasets. However, mobilizing global datasets available online is easier and quicker.
I will be happy to pursuit the discussion.