Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of the Ecosystem Services (NCAVES) India Forum-2021

Context

• NCAVES India Forum 2021 is being organised by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).

What is about the NCAVES Project?

• This project has been jointly implemented by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Secretariat of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD). 
• India is one of the five countries taking part in this project - the other countries being Brazil, China, South Africa and Mexico.  
• This project is funded by EU.

Who will be the implementing agency in India?

• In India, the NCAVES project is being implemented by the MoSPI in close collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC).

What are the objectives of the project?

• It is a tool giving a snapshot of the values of various ecosystem services in the different States of the country, based on about 80 studies conducted across the country.
• It provides a critical view on the literature that is available and the applicability of estimates spatially across India according to bio-geographical areas.
• It will bring the international agencies in the domain of natural capital accounting and valuation of ecosystem services.
• The Forum aims to build a stronger awareness about the different perspective to Environment and to show a way forward towards realizing the contribution of the natural capital to achieve a “better environment, better tomorrow”.