The 3rd Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) Europe Regional Conference took place in Tartu, Estonia from 7-10 June 2021. The three-day hybrid event was part of the bi-annual cycle of ESP regional conferences around the globe, where this time around the theme was “Ecosystem Services Science, Policy and Practice in the face of Global Changes.”

The event has been divided in a number of thematic sessions, one of which has been led by MAIA partners, titled “From assessment to accounting: how countries experience the development of NCA. Insights from applications.” Natural Capital Accounts (NCA) are meant to complement the System of National Accounts (SNA), which represents the main source of information to assess the wealth of a country. To make NCA operational within and together with SNA, accounting mechanisms and rules have to be consistently applied. An evolution is foreseen from pure ecosystem and ecosystem services assessment to their structured accounting.

Divided into three slots, the session has been hosted by Alessandra La Notte (Joint Research Centre (JRC)), Ioanna Grammatikopoulou (Luke - Natural Resource Institute, Finland) and Sylvie Campagne (CNRS and the Sorbonne University, Paris). Throughout the whole online discussion, the past, present and future MAIA progress and efforts were brought up by various project members and partners. During the session, ideas on criteria-based frameworks for evaluating ecosystem accounts were shared, as well as general information and specific insights on the System of Environmental Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) and accounting case studies. Next to the progress of the MAIA project, the recent and upcoming efforts of the KIP INCA project were also highlighted. Overall, the session can be considered as a very successful example in terms of the dissemination of knowledge, scientific exchange and general communication between MAIA and the external NCA community.