Beyond valuation. Monetary aggregates for the SEEA-EA. The Italian proposal

Abstract

After years of experimentation, documents, meetings, consultations and negotiations, the SEEA EA re-ignited the debate on the monetary quantification of the value of nature. Now more than ever, there is a need for an original approach, able to align the SEEA EA to the principles of national accounting, to the relevant economic theory and to 'strong sustainability'. In this article, we outline a technically sound alternative to the currently dominant approach, namely "valuation" of ecosystem services (ESs). The basic idea is to recognise the specific meaning and usefulness of each of the numerous monetary estimates proposed for valuation, starting with those included in the SEEA EA, without forcing national accounting principles: we promote the transition from the narrow concept of "monetary value of ecosystem service" to the wider one of “monetary values connected to/dependent on ESs”. Nothing new in terms of evaluation techniques; only a simple, but rich in implications, innovation in terms of interpretation and conceptualisation of the values generated by existing monetary values estimation methods.

Keywords

• ecosystem accounting
• ecosystem service
• monetary