Accounting for the environment

What is environmental-economic accounting?

Environmental-economic accounting is an integrating framework to report on the inventory of environmental assets and the services they provide in our society and economy over time, along with transactions involving spending on the environment.

Since Biodiversity 2037 was released, DEECA has applied environmental-economic accounting to support key government policy, planning and investment decisions affecting the environment, including recent assessment of the value of our forests.

What are our forests worth?

Two Victorian reports have been published on the value our forests provide.

The first report estimated the value from forest ecosystem assets and services. These include timber, providing water and regulating flows, stored carbon and climate regulation, preventing erosion, as well as recreational and cultural value.

The second report looked at the impact of the 2019–20 bushfires on these values.

This work informed the modernisation of Regional Forest Agreements, and provided new, Victoria-specific information on how bushfires can impact natural capital.

In 2023 the Victorian Government announced a cessation of timber harvesting in native forests from 1 January 2024.

DEECA will work with Commonwealth agencies to support a formal, ongoing approach to environmental-economic accounting at the national level.

To read the reports or for more information on DEECA’s approach to environmental-economic accounting, please visit accounting for the environment.