Post-doctorate : Adrien Comte, post-doctoral fellow (CIRED)
Chair researcher: Harold Levrel (AgroParisTech, CIRED)
Period: 2019-2021
Project Summary
The MAIA project (Mapping and Assessment for Integrated ecosystem Accounting) is a European research project that aims to test ecosystem and natural capital accounts and to make them sustainable in the national accounting systems of the member countries of the European Union.
MAIA is a European research project H2020, which starts in 2019 for a duration of 4 years. Coordinated by Wageningen University in the Netherlands, it brings together partners from 10 European countries, including research organisations, but also statistical institutes and European organisations (e.g. Eurostat). The aim of the project is to carry out experiments with the methodology developed by the United Nations, the SEEA-EEA (System for Environment-Economic Accounting - Experimental Ecosystem Accounts) in order to refine this methodology to better connect ecosystem assessments to traditional economic accounting. This goal has four objectives:
1) To establish national and international networks between statistical institutes, other branches of government, and experts working on ecological economics and ecosystems.
2) To test and evaluate the approaches being developed to compile accounts under the UN SEEA-EEA.
3) To produce technical documents and share experiences to improve the development of ecosystem accounts.
4) To improve access to databases necessary for the development of ecosystem accounting.
Case studies in partner countries will be carried out to achieve these four objectives. In France, AgroParisTech, as part of a collaboration between the CIRED laboratory, the Ministry for Ecological and Solidarity Transition, as well as other academic and public partners, will carry out a study on the accounting of marine ecosystems. This will involve developing accounts of the extent of marine ecosystems, their condition, and the economic cost of degrading these ecosystems.
The kick-off meeting of the project took place at Wageningen University, in the Netherlands, from January 30 to 31, 2019. This meeting allowed all the European partners to meet, to plan the project activities, to coordinate between the teams to collaborate effectively, and to exchange on the experiments in progress in the various member countries of the European Union.
Deepen the question of natural capital, in the case of the Sesame project and thus