Description

This paper reviews and discusses the literature on natural capital accounts for Chile, considering the two approaches to measure natural capital from the United Nations’ System of Economic and Environmental Accounting: the central framework of the year 2012 for natural assets (SEEA CF) and the ecosystem services framework of the year 2021 (SEEA EA). The analysis of methodologies, experiences and data availability shows that is feasible to compile SEEA CF in Chile. On the other hand, the compilation of the SEEA EA proves to be more challenging due to the lack of direct measurements for the regulating ecosystem services. These estimates require locally calibrated biophysical modeling that can project the ecosystem services under different climate conditions. While the approach to the monetary valuation of natural assets and provisioning ecosystem services seems straightforward, this is more complex for the case of regulating ecosystem services because of methodological and data issues related to its geospatial nature. From an institutional perspective, coordination and collaborative work among stakeholders is key for the implementation of natural capital accounts.