CONCEPT NOTE on NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NATURAL CAPITAL ACCOUNTING IN THE PHILIPPINES
9-10 March 2017 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES

 

I. Background

The Global Partnership Program on Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES GPP) led by the World Bank aims to promote sustainable development by integrating natural resources in development planning through natural capital accounting based on the United Nation’s System of Environmental-Economic Accounting of 2012 (UN-SEEA 2012) that measures the physical and monetary values of stocks and flows of natural assets and services. Natural capital accounts provide detailed statistics that determine the relationship of the environment and the economy to guide policy decisions on the management and use of natural resources that would not only maximize their contribution to economic growth but also ensure that such growth is more inclusive.

For a country like the Philippines which is rich in minerals, timber, cropland, and coastal and marine resources, the implementation of natural capital accounting (NCA) is critical in pursuing sustainable, inclusive, and resilient growth that could be the foundation of achieving the long term goals of matatag (deeply rooted), maginhawa (prosperous and comfortable) and panatag (secured/safe) life for all.  It is for this reason that attempts to develop an accounting structure that organized data to support the Philippine government in its environmental management decisions and policies were made as early as the 1990s through the Philippine Environmental and Natural Resources Accounting Project (ENRAP). Its becoming a pilot site and a partner in the World Bank-led global program on Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystems Services in 2010 (together with other countries like Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Madagascar, and Rwanda) once again renewed the country’s interest to pursue efforts in NCA.

To date, the Phil-WAVES technical assistance through the partnership of National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)/Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) and the World Bank has produced the following milestones: (i) national accounts and policy analysis on minerals – particularly for gold, copper, chromite, and nickel; (ii) ecosystem accounts and policy analysis for the Southern Palawan and Laguna Lake Basin composed of land cover account, ecosystem condition account, carbon account, water account, and ecosystem service supply and use account and ecosystem asset account; (iii) human resource capacity enhancement on ecosystem and environmental accounting and valuation tools and concepts; and (iv) development of institutionalization roadmap and dissemination of communication materials to popularize NCA to various stakeholders including  policy makers.

II. Rationale and Objectives of the Conference

 Considering the critical role of natural resources and their ecosystem services in achieving the country’s long-term goals, efforts to further develop capacities in NCA and its application will have to be enhanced and sustained. Hence, the objective of the proposed conference is to primarily present what has been accomplished and arouse greater interest on NCA towards paving its way for its mainstreaming in development agenda.

More specifically, the conference aims to achieve the following objectives:

• improve the scientific and policy aspects of natural capital accounting in the Philippines through exchange of knowledge, insights and experience among policy makers, scientists, practitioners and advocates;
• provide a platform to disseminate results of researches and current undertakings among key actors in NCA and related subject matter;
• collate and synthesize available technical analyses relevant for the implementation of natural capital accounting in the Philippines, highlight major issues and concerns, identify data gaps and impact pathways, and discuss policy directions at local and national levels; and
• identify effective modes of collaboration towards further strengthening capabilities in NCA and other related methodologies and tools.

III. Expected Outputs

1. Compendium of submitted abstracts, full papers, and posters on NCA;
2. Documentation report on the discussions from the plenary sessions and open forum; and,
3. Oral and poster presentations from the selected participants.

IV. Target Participants

 The activity will be participated by about 150-200 representatives from government, private sector, academe, CSOs, and the media:

• Key note speakers: Secretaries/heads of agencies, and legislators;
• Panelists: Representatives from NEDA, PSA, DENR, DOF, DBM the World Bank, select developed and WAVES partners and Academe (tbc);
• Oral Presenters: Government Agencies, Academe, CSOs, Private Sectors; and
• About 10 Members of the media for the press briefing 

V. Methodology 

A. Pre-Conference: Call for Papers 

Call for paper and poster will start on 19 December. The submission should be on natural capital accounting (NCA) and related topics covering the theories and concepts; methodologies, tools and techniques; data structure, organization and management; and data analysis and imputations for policy decisions across different levels.  In particular, the conference will cover the following themes:

• Theme 1: Integrated frameworks and tools in natural capital accounting. This theme aims to highlight the various theoretical and conceptual frameworks in the analysis of benefits from natural resources and environment (e.g. SEEA, Total Economic Value, Payments for Ecosystem Services, Ecosystem-based approaches, etc). It will showcase results of current efforts in natural capital accounting as well as innovations in relation to managing impact on natural capital. Valuable lessons from the use of different methodologies and approaches will be shared to identify opportunities and improve strategic management and decision making.

• Theme 2: Re-thinking the importance of natural capital. Pressures on natural capital are ever increasing, exacerbated by population growth, economic growth and urbanization, climate change and a number of other factors. This theme will explore the risks associated with mismanagement of natural capital and the economic, social and ecological opportunities to be gained from more intelligent management and restoration of ecosystems at different scales. It will provide learnings from the full range of risks associated with mismanagement of natural capital and what government and policy-makers are doing to address this. Experiences and innovations in mainstreaming natural capital into decision-making across various scales, data interpretation and imputations, data for citizen sciences and partnerships, capacity building, sensitivity analysis for decision making, poverty and distribution of ecosystem services, etc.

• Theme 3: Financing, Investment and Natural Capital Accounting. This theme will try to show why results of natural capital accounting are now being considered seriously by financial institutions and how these results are being integrated in investment decisions. What are the emerging trends in terms of lending, investment and insurance.

• Theme 4: Data and data management in natural capital accounting. This includes tools and approaches in data analysis and modeling, spatial econometrics, application of GIS and remote sensing techniques, value-transfer, meta-analysis, integration of multidisciplinary and multi-scale data for environmental assessment.

The schedule of deadlines and presenter registration is as follows:

• Deadline for the submission of abstracts for paper and poster presentation on 31 January 2017.
• Notification of selected abstracts on 10 February 2017.
• Deadline for submission of full paper of selected abstracts, together with revised abstracts (for those with edits or comments) and posters on or before 28 February 2017.

B. National Conference

The conference will be a two-day event which will include a plenary session with panel discussions, open forum/Q&A, oral and poster presentations, and a media briefing. Programme of Activities will be finalized upon receipt of submissions from interested participants.