Piloting SEEA EEA in the Kyrgyz Republic: Implementation Guide

The Implementation Guide (IG) is the main outcome of the project “Sharing of Czech Experience: Piloting SEEA EEA in the Kyrgyz Republic”. The project was led by the Department of Human Dimensions of Global Change, Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, and was supported by the Czech-UNDP Trust Fund (CTF). This 6-month project worked closely with several key stakeholders in the Kyrgyz Republic (KR) including primarily: The National Statistical Committee (NSC), The State Agency for Environment Protection and Forestry (SAEPF) and the United Nations Development Programme-United Nations Environmental Programme Poverty-Environment Initiative (UNDP-UNEP PEI).

The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012: Central Framework (SEEA CF, UN 2014a) was adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) at its 43^rd session in 2012 as the international statistical standard for environmental-economic accounting. Subsequently, at its 44^th session in 2013, the UNSC endorsed System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012: Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EEA; UN 2014b). SEEA EEA presents a coherent and integrated approach to the assessment of the environment through the measurement of ecosystems, and measurement of the flows of services from ecosystems into economic activity and human well-being. Furthermore, SEEA EEA aims to assess the role of ecosystems in the economy and the contribution of ecosystem services to final products and services that are part of the economic activities recorded in the System of National Accounts (SNA). The SEEA EEA framework enables to associate the ecosystems and their services with economic sectors that are benefiting from them.

As agreed with project partners and the main stakeholders during the course of the project, the IG primarily reflects the compilation of SEEA EEA for a forest-ecosystem case study (in the Kyzyl Unkur leshoz, specifically), with the potential to be scaled up to the national level. Thus, while this guide is of relevance for SEEA EEA efforts at the national scale and provides methodological advice on the compilation and integration of experimental ecosystem accounts, it focuses specifically on forest ecosystems in KR, vital for local as well as national economy. The IG is in a line with the international accounting standards by the UN, described in SEEA CF (UN 2014a) and SEEA EEA (UN 2014b).

The main aim of this IG is to facilitate the process of compiling the environmental-economic accounts in KR by identifying the key challenges and relevant recommendations, as well as providing methodological and technical guidance on SEEA EEA.

The content of the IG is structured according to the following issues:

1. Key challenges in the process of compiling the experimental ecosystem accounts in KR and relevant recommendations to address them.
2. Introductory step-by-step technical guidance to compile the experimental ecosystem accounts, focusing specifically on forest ecosystems.
3. Links of SEEA EEA to other initiatives and policies in KR, especially the implementation of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This guide is structured into three parts. Chapter 1 describes major barriers to the SEEA EEA process in KR and provides recommendations how to mitigate them. This chapter is targeted at broad audience, including multiple project partners in KR. Chapter 2 and the Supplementary Material: Technical Guidance provide introductory technical guidance on methods and approaches applicable to compile different types of SEEA EEA accounts. These parts are supposed to be most relevant for experts from the NSC, SAEPF and other partners involved in SEEA EEA in KR. Chapter 3 discusses the relevance and timeliness of SEEA EEA in KR as well as links to other initiatives, and concludes this guide. Finally, the Further reading section provides related resources relevant for SEEA EEA (e.g. research articles, reports and web portals). The Glossary summarizes the most important terms in relation to SEEA EEA.

It is important to note that this guide is not necessary to be read as a whole; quite the contrary, each stakeholder is invited to consult the part that is most relevant for their interests and activities related to SEEA EEA. At all times, further detailed guidance to SEEA EEA is provided in the following materials:

• SEEA: Central Framework (UN 2014a),
• SEEA: EEA (UN 2014b),
• SEEA EEA: Technical Recommendations (UN 2015),
• SEEA EEA piloting Short Guide – introductory compilation on the basic principles of SEEA EEA elaborated within this project (CzechGlobe 2016).