Ecosystems provide vital support for human activities, yet they are often undervalued, which leads to their degradation. To overcome it, Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) exists as a tool to create evidence-based decisions to support sustainable development. To develop the NCA compilation in the Republic of Maldives, UNSW Law & Justice and Rekam Nusantara Foundation unit Fisheries Resource Center of Indonesia (FRCI) as members of the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership (GOAP) facilitated the National Capital Accounting Inception Workshop in Maldives.

The workshop was held in the SHE Building, Malé, Maldives over the course of 2 days, on March 13-14th 2023. This event was attended by the representatives of various government institutions such as the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Development, Auditor General’s Office, Maldives Marine Research Institute, Maldives Bureau of Statistics, and the Laamu Atoll Council. Representatives from industry and NGOs also attended. 

A presentation on the Ocean Accounts of Indonesia (Doc: FRCI).

The session on day one raised the theme of “the importance of integrated knowledge in ocean decision making”. The material presented was divided into several sessions, which include why natural capital, how do we measure and manage natural capital, the frameworks that the NCA could inform, as well as the global progress in case study in Indonesia. The theme on day two was “scaling action on NCA within the Republic of Maldives”. The materials included the global progress and Indonesian case study, initiating Ocean Accounts from pilot to a national approach using geographic information system, data inventory and data collection across NCA. 

Through this event, FRCI wishes that all the attending participants could build more understanding on NCA, including ecosystem assets, services, benefits, and economic valuation for ecosystem services, as well as gaining insight from the global progress on Ocean Accounts, and learning from Indonesia on how we develop it.