Anguilla Ecosystem Account Summary

Anguilla Ecosystem

Account Summary

2019 ecosystem account

July 2021

4 City Road

London EC1Y 2AA

[phone] [e-mail] eftec.co.uk

2019 Ecosystem account

At 35 square miles (Government of Anguilla, 2021a) with a population of 15,117 (World Population Review, 2021), the island nation of Anguilla is largely dependent on its wealth of environmental assets, in fact the environment contributes at least 90 million XCD annual value to Anguilla in 2019 (Table 3), which is 9% of its GDP1 (Statistics Department of Anguilla, 2020a). These environmental assets provide an abundance of benefit to the people of Anguilla, including: the attraction of some of the world's most beautiful beaches for tourists (71m XCD/ year); marine ecosystems that support the fishing industry (17m XCD/ year); terrestrial and marine ecosystems sequestering carbon (1.68m XCD/ year); and other more difficult to measure values such as the biodiversity that makes life richer to both local inhabitants and visitors. The economic prosperity and wellbeing of the people of Anguilla are fundamentally linked to effective management of the environment, and an understanding of the value that it provides.

Ecosystem accounts provide economic evidence that supports the delivery of sustainable value from environmental assets. Effective management of the environment must consider the extent and underlying condition of ecosystems over time, as well as the range of benefits they provide and the economic value of those benefits to different stakeholder groups. Specifically, the data in ecosystem accounts can help address several fundamental questions for policy and planning:

• What environmental assets are present and what state are they in? How does this change over time?
• What benefits does the environment provide? How are these received by beneficiaries?
• What is the economic value of these benefits? How is this value distributed across the population?

The environmental and socioeconomic data produced within ecosystem accounts provide a basis for answering these questions. Their importance is reflected in the development of the United Nations Statistics Standard System of Environmental Economic Accounting - Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA_EA)2. Officially adopted by the UN as a statistical standard in March 2021, the SEEA-EA supports the implementation of ecosystem accounting as a part of National Accounts by National Statistics Offices around the world. Ecosystem accounts provide indicators that compliment national economic and social indicators (such as GDP and demographic trends), and this evidence can support policy development and decision making, such as:

• Effective decisions which impact on the environment and the benefits it provides;
• Action on climate change, including mitigation, adaptation and resilience to impact;
• Delivery of international initiatives, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)3; and
• A green post-COVID economic recovery, and in particular a sustainable tourism sector.

For ecosystem accounts to be a valuable addition to government and organisational policy and planning strategy, they should be embedded into the decision-making process, and updated on an annual basis both to provide current data and to monitor trends over time. A partnership of eftec, the UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the New Economics Foundation, and Anguilla's Department of Natural Resources (DNaR), with Darwin Plus funding from the UK Government, have initiated this process in Anguilla. The aim is for full ownership of the accounting process to be handed over to the Government of Anguilla by

1. GDP at market prices is estimated at 1,024 million XCD in 2019 (Statistics Department of Anguilla, 2020a).
2. More information is available at:https://seea.un.org/ecosystem-accounting
3. More information is available at:https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Anguilla Ecosystem Account

Q1 2022.

Physical flow and monetary flow

A range of benefits have been assessed within the ecosystem account, with estimated annual physical flow and monetary values given a confidence rating, as described in Table 1. The confidence rating is based on the robustness of the evidence and assumptions used. The summary of the ecosystem account is presented in Table 2. The annual physical flow and monetary flow are divided between those measured in accordance with the SEEA-EA standard, and those measured by supplementary methods. The present values (the sum over 25 years), of the benefits are also shown.

Table 1: Description of confidence

Confidence	Symbol	Description
Low	●	Evidence is partial and significant assumptions are made so that the data provides only order of
magnitude estimates of value to inform decisions and spending choices.
		Science-based assumptions and published data are used but there is some uncertainty in
Medium	●	combining them, resulting in reasonable confidence in using the data to guide decisions and
		spending choices.
High	●	Evidence is peer reviewed or based on published guidance so there is good confidence in using
the data to support specific decisions and spending choices.
No colour	●	Not assessed

2019 ecosystem account | July 2021

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Anguilla Ecosystem Account

Table 2: Summary of Anguilla ecosystem account

Annual overview

Physical flow (unit/yr)

Monetary value (XCDm/yr)

Present

Value 25

Produced at: July 2021

Reporting

Confidence

Units

Value

Confidence

Valuation metric

yr

(XCDm)

Ecosystem service flow

account (SEEA-EA)

Fisheries

1,502,256

●

Total volume of fish landings (lbs/yr)

17.30

●

Total value of fish

295

Agriculture

176,274

●

Total weight of agricultural

1.01

●

Total value of agricultural

17

production (lbs/yr)

production

Carbon sequestration

11,611

●

Total volume of CO2e sequestered

1.68

●

Total value of CO2e sequestered

41

(tCO2e/yr)

Coastal hazard protection

96,295.7

●

Total area of avoided infrastructure

-

●

Total avoided infrastructure

10

damage (sqft)

damage cost

Tourism

756,761

●

Total number of visits (visits/yr)

71

●

Total value added to tourism

1,206

industry attributed to ecosystems

Total value

91

●

Mix of values

1,569

Supplementary information

Other exchange values

Tourism

0.8

●

Total number of visits (visits/yr)

212.0

●

Remaining visitor expenditure

attributed to ecosystems

3,616.8

Welfare values

Local cultural services

0.0014

●

Total number of tour attendees

0.1

●

Total WTP for cultural services for

2

(adult and children)

local population

Non-monetised benefits

Volume of water supplied from

151,126,976

●

brackish water reverse osmosis

●

Water supply

plant (US gal./yr)

Volume of water supplied from

294,178,397

●

seawater reverse osmosis plant (US

●

gal./yr)

Surface hydrology regulation

●

●

0.00057

●

Total number of people within 200m

●

Heritage salt pond

of salt heritage ponds (no.)

0.00005

●

Salt picking tour attendees

●

(attendees/yr.)

2019 ecosystem account | July 2021

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