Enviromental Accounts
The Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) has compiled the first Costa Rican Environmental Accounts for Water, Forest and Energy. With these accounts, the physical and economic value of natural resources, as well as their relevance for national wealth, can be quantified in an integral manner. They likewise generate a series of indicators to analyze the supply and uses of natural resources and their interactions with various economic activities in the country, contributing to decision making in public policies.
The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) is the international statistical standard officially recognized in 2012 as an internationally validated conceptual framework to measure interactions between the economy and the environment. There is a direct relationship between the SEEA and the System of National Accounts of 2008 (SNA). The SNA is the main source of concepts, definitions and accounting norms on which the SEEA is based. It is a satellite accounting system which revolves around the SNA foundations. The SEEA includes the Energy, Water, Fishery Resources, Land and Ecosystems, and Agricultural sub-systems.
The development of the first accounts has been carried out with support from the World Bank through the WAVES (Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services) initiative. In addition, support was received from a National Excecutive Committee (CDN) made up of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), the Ministry of Finance (MH), the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy (MIDEPLAN) and the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC).
The Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) has created an Area of Environmental Statistics in its Economic Division which will continue to prepare Environmental Accounts, which will be updated and published every year.
Statistical tables and working documents with the first results of the accounts are published in this site. This information will be useful for designing policies and strategies for sustainable development in areas such as energy management and water resources, monitoring of forests and their services, and their interrelation with the economy.
• Environmental Accounts Presentation
Water AccountsThe water accounts available for CostaRica show the interaction of the economy with the environment in terms ofthe use of water for human consumption and for incorporation into thedifferent productive processes.
The accounts include supply and usetables in physical and monetary terms, which show the different uses ofwater within the economy. Theyalso include an asset account which accounts for changes in the country'sstock of internal renewable water resources. From these tables a sequenceof accounts and key indicators are derived as tools to support decisionmaking processes related to the integral management of the waterresource.
• Water Accounts [PBI]