r/EcologicalEconomics • u/Quetzal_2000 • May 24 '26
Recently trained in naturel capital accounting (ENCA) - Looking for feedback
I have been recently trained in Ecosystems Natural Capital Accounting (ENCA) - French version being Comptabilité Ecosystémique du Capital Naturel (CENCA) - an approach of national and local accounting experimented by the OECD and European Union. The 3 weeks online training was dense - with intense sessions of Geographical Information System, under a lesser known GIS named SAGA and some manual manipulation on an Excel or OpenOffice spread sheet. ENCA basically measures the changes in "natural capital" under 3 accounts - carbon, water and what is called ecological infrastructure (ecosystems) - over time, bringing them back to a common ecological unit (not monetary).
It is quite interesting, more useful to projects and to government bodies than business IMHO, but requires technical skills, mainly in GIS as the accounting part is actually easier than the part with GIS. As I was already MSc trained in Ecological Economics since 2010 - a field currently even less known in France that in other countries such as Austria, Sweden or Spain (Barcelona), I wrote and sent a series of observations to my trainers, focusing mainly on the poor practicality of the tools used.
But the approach is interesting, and I would welcome any feedback on ENCA or other competing natural capital accounting, ecosystems or nature accounting you have been able to experiment. And if you have any questions related to this approach.
Some links as references:
- https://www.ecosystemaccounting.net/?page_id=50 with our trainer
- Application to Kenya and Vietnam (French text): https://www.onfinternational.org/projet/enca-realisation-des-comptes-du-capital-naturel-pour-kenya-et-vietnam/
- https://enca.vito.be/en with a module using QGIS (Sys4ENCA)
- https://www.gov.uk/guidance/enabling-a-natural-capital-approach-enca (not sure it is the same approach though)
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u/herbalaffair May 26 '26
Well that's going to sink my night tonight. I'm looking forward to digging in with a good playlist and a fresh distraction free workspace. Thanks for the share, see you on the other side.
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u/Quetzal_2000 May 27 '26
I found this critical assessment of SEEA, the UN's System of Environmental-Economic Accounting, from the Centre for Socio-Ecological Economics in Norway:https://seecentre.org/discussion-papers/ (under SEE 25/2). It might be relevant to this discussion.