Here are some facts that you might not know: Over the last 60 years, Guatemala has lost almost half of its forests, much of it due to illegal logging. Built-up area around Lake Laguna in the Philippines has more than doubled between 2003 and 2010. The mining sector accounts for 10-15 percent of total water use in Botswana. Do these numbers just seem like bits of trivia? In fact, these are all important results that came out of natural capital accounting (NCA) – a system for generating data on natural resources, such as forests, energy and water, which are not included in traditional statistics. NCA follows standards approved by the United Nations to ensure trust, consistency and comparison across time and countries. The results above are among the numerous NCA findings that are being generated every year, with support from a World Bank-led global partnership called Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES). In response to the growing appetite for information on NCA, WAVES has set up a new Knowledge Center bringing together resources on this topic.
Source: Natural Capital Accounting: Going beyond the numbers