Building national partners’ capacity in Ecosystem Natural Capital Accounting.

Building national partners’ capacity in Ecosystem Natural Capital Accounting.

The second training and information workshop on Ecosystem Natural Capital Accounting (ENCA) started on March 12, 2024 in Tunis, Tunisia.

Co-organized by the General Directorate of the Environment and Quality of Life of the Ministry of the Environment and the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), this event brought together representatives of the Central Technical Cell, the National Institute of Statistics (NIS), the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries (MAHRF), the Tunisian Observatory of the Environment and Sustainable Development (TOESD), the National Agency for the Protection of the Environment (ANPE), as well as the Ministry of Tourism and Handicraft (MTH), the Coastal Protection and Development Agency (APAL), the Ministry of Finance, the National Institute of Meteorology (INM) and the Tunisian National Tourism Office (ONTT).

The workshop places particular emphasis on the ENCA methodology and aims to explain its usefulness and prospects with a view to building the capacities of national actors in ecosystem accounting, and to promote experience sharing and the creation of synergies between the relevant national actors.

Thanks to the meeting, participants shall have the knowledge necessary to master this methodology, while promoting the gradual integration of tourism sector partners into this approach. Participants shall have a better understanding of the ENCA concept, including the collection of input data and the production of national accounts with a focus on the ecosystem infrastructure account.

The regional platform for managing and disseminating ENCA data and information is at the heart of the practical aspects of the training, and will allow participants to familiarize with the analysis of ENCA results and indicators. This will foster the production and validation of national ecosystem accounts.

Copernicea is a pilot project financed by the French Development Agency and aims to establish a national and regional network for sharing and exchanging information and data useful to the ENCA. All entities holding or producing information and data will have to share them and make them easily accessible for a wide variety of users. These data will be harmonized and available for integration into ecosystem accounts in the appropriate formats.