Towards natural capital accounting in Guatemala. Synthesis report : wealth accounting and the valuation of ecosystem services (WAVES) program in Guatemala

Publicación que presenta los resultados a la fecha de la implementación de la contabilidad natural en Guatemala, así como el estado y tendencias del capital natural del país.
The continuous pressures to the environment are affecting Guatemala’s natural capital base. Guatemala is one of the most ecologically diverse countries on the planet, with 14 different eco-regions and great biological and cultural diversity. However, the country’s environment is threatened by deforestation, over- exploitation of natural resources, and pollution. The annual rate of deforestation was 1.7% (more than three times the average rate in Latin America and the Caribbean).1 About 10% of land was highly degraded and 63% could become highly degraded in the near future. The annual cost of soil and land degradation amounts to 0.55% of GDP.1 Therefore, assessing and valuing natural capital through Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) allows both environmental and economic information to be mainstreamed into development policy and planning decisions to ensure sustainable economic growth in the long run. Guatemala has a long history of developing NCA, using the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting framework (SEEA),2 which contributed to the policy dialogue. The SEEA provides a framework for measuring the link between the environment and the economy, the stocks of natural capital assets and its changes. Before the arrival of the World Bank led WAVES Partnership3 SEEA institutionalization was fragile in Guatemala and required additional support. WAVES aimed at mainstreaming natural capital in development planning and national economic accounting systems. Initial efforts focused primarily on accounts compilation and it was later recognized that there was a strong need to better link the production of the accounts to their use in policy analysis and dialogue. The program of work was divided in three main areas of work: (i) updating and strengthening accounts developed in the past, (ii) adding new accounts to complete a set relevant for the country, (iii) use the accounts in policy dialogue.This report presents the results to date of the implementation of NCA in Guatemala, with attention to those interventions related to the WAVES program. This report is divided in six sections: Section 1 is an introduction to the development context in Guatemala, and Section 2 focuses on the state and trends of natural capital. Section 3 describes the measuring rod for environmental-economic linkages, and Section 4 reveals key findings and provides further detail of each account under WAVES. Section 5 outlines the policy dialogue going forward.