@misc{37237,
title = {Advancing Ecosystem Accounting for Financing Protected Areas in Colombia: Final Report},
author = {Angarita, Héctor and Goldstein, Jesse and Mandle, Lisa and Miranda-Moreno, Luis and Vargas Rayo, Orlando and Díaz Giraldo, Carolina and Villalba Pardo, Fabián Dario and Diaz Campos, Camilo  and Barbosa Rodriguez, Lina Vanessa},
editor = {Callau, Vanessa and Kimbrell, Elana and Llaguno, Duval and Ruckelshaus, Mary and Watson, Gregory and Wilson, Zoe },
year = {2025},
doi = {10.18235/0013736},
abstract = {This document outlines the activities and results of the Colombian pilot project under the Regional Technical Cooperation (TC), “Transforming Policy and Investment through Mainstreaming Rapid Approaches for Natural Capital Assessment and Accounting.” This TC was funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), implemented by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and executed by Stanford University The main beneficiaries and co-designers of this TC are the Colombian Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, the National Department of Statistics (DANE), and  he National Planning Department (DNP), and the technical work led by the Natural Capital Project team (Stanford University). This work also received funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

The pilot project in Colombia aimed at integrating natural capital assessments and economic valuation for the advancement of two policies: the strengthening of the National System of Protected Areas and the implementation of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting  Ecosystem Accounting (SEEAEA) in Colombia. Results from this work are informing the design of an innovative, cross-sectoral eco-compensation scheme to support stewardship of the projected areas and equitable distribution of benefits from them.

The project evaluated the ecosystem services provided by Colombia's system of protected areas in the Northeastern Andes region to three higher-income, higher-population municipalities  Tunja, Sogamoso, and Duitama  and quantified natures contributions to people as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and other societal benefit measures. This approach highlights the roles that benefits flowing from natural ecosystems and protected areas play in local economies, including maintaining water quantity and quality, which are essential for water-dependent economic sectors.

Novel analytical workflows were developed to characterize and value ecosystem services flows, aligning with SEEA-EA standards. These workflows integrated local data, biophysical models, and economic valuation techniques to implement Accounts 3 and 4 of the SEEA-EA, showing value in both physical and monetary units. This alignment with SEEA-EA standards enhances the legitimacy and relevance of the results, facilitating their incorporation into financial compensation mechanisms (such as payments for ecosystem services, in which beneficiaries of ecosystem services make payments to those protecting the ecosystems, thus internalizing the costs of nature protection) and planning processes, and furthering Colombia's SEEA-EA implementation. These data and modeling showing the connections from ecosystems to economic valuation also are applicable to other countries around the world.

The document also includes a series of policy applications and capacity development recommendations to support the next steps in integrating natural capital assessments into decision making processes. These recommendations aim to strengthen the National System of Protected Areas and ensure that ecosystem services valuation supports financing for sustainable economic development.},
url = {https://doi.org/10.18235/0013736}
}