Biodiversity accounts

Within the natural capital accounts, a number of additional thematic accounts could be compiled that focus on specific environmental topics. Biodiversity is one of these thematic accounts.

Biodiversity refers to the variety of life on Earth. It includes different species of plants and animals, their genetic diversity, and the ecosystems in which they live. The thematic biodiversity account brings together information on biodiversity and is structured in a comparable way to the core ecosystem accounts. This helps to improve our understanding of the relationship between the size, quality, and use of ecosystems, and their impacts on biodiversity. It also allows biodiversity information to be used more effectively in economic decision-making.

The account includes data on species diversity across different ecosystems, as well as information on the level of threat to species. It also tracks the number and distribution of selected plant and animal groups. The biodiversity account compiles data at two levels: ecosystem and species. In addition, a detailed study has examined how butterfly diversity relates to landscape structure.