DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCE: “An Introduction to the Ecological Accounting Process (EAP)”, released at the Parksville 2019 Symposium (April 2019)
NOTE TO READER:
Funded by the governments of Canada and BC, the capacity-building program branded as Sustainable Watershed Systems, through Asset Management is designed to inform and educate local governments and stakeholders about the whole-system, water balance approach. The program includes the Ecological Accounting Process (EAP) to value the ‘water balance services’ provided by nature.
At the Parksville 2019 Symposium, the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC released a 4-page booklet titled An Introduction to the Ecological Accounting Process (EAP). This handout supported a panel presentation by Tim Pringle, EAP Chair.
What is EAP?
“The ecological accounting process (EAP) provides metrics that enable communities to appreciate the worth of natural assets. These resources provide numerous public benefits in the form of ecological services,” explains Tim Pringle, Chair, EAP Initiative.
“EAP also calculates the dollar value of the land occupied by the natural commons, thus providing a basis for budgeting maintenance and enhancement expenditures. The natural commons has a corollary – the constructed commons.”
Why We Need EAP
“EAP provides a means to measure the worth and value of ecological services which communities draw or expect to secure from the natural commons,” continues Tim Pringle.
“Water pathways, hydrology, is the engine that powers ecological services. Thus, maintenance (prevent degradation) and management (enhancement) of ecological services requires a watershed or creekshed view. Nature cannot be sliced and diced to suit land development.”
TO LEARN MORE:
To download a copy of the booklet that was released at the Parksville Water Stewardship Symposium in April 2019, click on An Introduction to the Ecological Accounting Process (EAP).
To view the presentation by Tim Pringle, click on YOUTUBE VIDEOS: Worth of Ecological Services – “What are the commons? Those are places in the community that everyone has a right to access, and draw value from. There are two kinds of commons – natural and constructed,” stated Tim Pringle, Chair of the Ecological Accounting Process (EAP) Initiative, at the Parksville 2019 Symposium
