BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Barbados-based Caribbean Improvement Financial institution (CDB) is looking for the stronger integration of pure capital accounting into improvement planning and coverage to advance sustainable progress and resilience within the area.
CDB’s Performing Vice President for Finance and Company Companies, Ian Durant, informed a workshop on Ecosystem Accounting being hosted by the financial institution that the lack of pure property, together with amongst others forests, coral reefs and wetlands, is a slow-onset however existential menace to the Caribbean’s individuals, economies, and cultural heritage.
“Greater than 70 p.c of our inhabitants lives on the coast, and the ocean accounts for almost 20 p.c of our GDP (gross home product),” he informed individuals attending the workshop, which ends in a while Tuesday.
“But, previously 4 a long time, we’ve misplaced as much as 80 p.c of our coral reefs. This isn’t simply an environmental concern, it’s a matter of meals safety, financial alternative, and nationwide resilience,” Durant added.
The workshop, held in partnership with the Barbados authorities, the Blue Marine Basis, and Economics for the Surroundings Consultancy, focuses on constructing nationwide capability in pure capital accounting to assist marine spatial planning and sustainable useful resource administration, notably in Barbados.
Durant stated that whereas the impacts of local weather change usually dominate world discussions, the lack of pure capital, together with important ecosystems resembling mangroves, reefs, and seashores, is a silent but extreme menace, notably for Small Island Creating States (SIDS).
He known as for systemic approaches to quantify, monitor, and incorporate environmental information into coverage planning by means of globally acknowledged frameworks, such because the UN System of Environmental-Financial Accounting (SEEA).
“It’s not a matter of whether or not we must always safeguard our pure capital, however how we’ll accomplish that. That’s the way it begins with constructing nationwide statistical techniques that may precisely measure and replicate the true worth of our pure assets,” Durant stated.
He acknowledged the continued challenges confronted by Caribbean international locations, together with under-resourced statistical businesses, inadequate financing for information techniques, and fragmented information governance.
In response, the CDB stated it’s working with its member international locations to handle structural gaps, improve administrative information, and strengthen regional partnerships.
Nonetheless, Durant stated governments, improvement companions, and civil society should collaborate to spend money on pure capital accounting.
He stated now’s the time to modernise nationwide statistics techniques, finance data-driven environmental governance, and mainstream ecosystem valuation into planning frameworks.
