E-Learning course on the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) 

To strengthen Ghana’s current national accounting system to integrate biodiversity-related natural capital into development planning, the Ghana Statistical Services (GSS), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) and the United Nations Environment Program-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) are implementing the project: Capacity for Natural Capital Accounting for Sustainable Development in Ghana. The project is being funded by the UK Darwin Initiative and will be completed in March 2024.

The project will be implemented using the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) framework. The SEEA EA is a statistical standard to organise information on the state of ecosystems and the services they deliver to the economy and society. It has been produced under the auspices of the United Nations Statistics Division to complement the System of National Accounts and was adopted as an international statistical standard in 2021.

This e-learning course introduces the main concepts underpinning the SEEA EA, how the SEEA EA accounts are compiled and what are the applications of the SEEA EA for better integration of nature into development planning. The e-learning course is designed for those with no prior knowledge of natural capital accounting. It is aimed at those who want to know more about natural capital accounting and to understand how accounts are compiled, analysed and used.

The course has seven modules. The first two are very introductory and the following five explore the individual accounts and applications of the SEEA EA in more detail.

Module 1: Background to the SEEA – 21 slides, approximately 25 minutes

Module 2: Ecosystem Accounting 101 – an introduction to SEEA ecosystem accounting – 37 slides, approximately 40 minutes

Module 3: Ecosystem Extent and Condition Accounts – 31 slides, approximately 35 minutes

Module 4a: Accounting for Ecosystem Services Part 1 – 22 slides, approximately 25 minutes

Module 4b: Accounting for Ecosystem Services Part 2 – 19 slides, approximately 20 minutes

Module 5: Thematic Accounting in the SEEA– 18 slides, approximately 20 minutes

Module 6: SNA Goods and Services – 17 slides, approximately 20 minutes

Module 7: Integrated Analyses – 17 slides, approximately 20 minutes

Navigating the modules

Each e-learning module will launch in your browser. Please use the arrows in the bottom right-hand corner to move from one slide to the next, or back to the previous slide. Alternatively, you can use the headings in the navigation pane on the left-hand side to navigate directly to a slide of interest.

Within each slide, there may be various interactive parts. You can click on any text that is underlined to take you to further information, either through a hyperlink to another webpage or a pop-up box within the slide. Click on blue boxes for further information on a given topic. Some slides have text boxes with scroll bars on the right-hand side – use these to scroll down to read the rest of the text.

Some modules have one or more ‘knowledge reviews’, which are designed to test your knowledge based on the information provided in the module. On these slides, once you have completed the exercise, click on the ‘tick’ box in the bottom right-hand corner to submit your answers and see if they are correct or incorrect. Knowledge review scores are not recorded, and you do not have to get the exercise correct before moving on, but of course we recommend you review any incorrect answers and perhaps revisit relevant slides. Some modules also contain ‘questions for reflection’. In these, you are encouraged to think about the question presented and what it means for your context. Again, your answers will not be recorded, so please do copy and paste your responses before navigating away from the slide if you would like to keep them.

Please note that Module 1 has an audio track which requires speakers or headphones.

This e-learning course was produced under the previous Darwin Initiative-funded project ‘Integrating Natural Capital Accounting into Sustainable Development Decision Making in Uganda’, with additional support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the ‘Connect’ Project.