About:

• Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of the Ecosystem Services (NCAVES) India Forum-2021 is being organised by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
• India is one of the five countries taking part in this project – the other countries being Brazil, China, South Africa and Mexico. 

About NCAVES Project

• The Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (NCAVES) project seeks to advance the theory and practice of environmental and ecosystem accounting in Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.
• The 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).

• It aims to assist the five participating partner countries, to advance the knowledge agenda on environmental-economic accounting, in particular ecosystem accounting.
• The project will have a duration until the end of 2021.
• The project is funded by the European Union through its Partnership Instrument (PI).

Objectives:

The objectives of the National Forum would be:

• To present India’s achievements in the domain of Natural Capital Accounting (NCA);
• To prioritize the emerging opportunities for NCA in India;
• To familiarize stakeholders with the work undertaken by the different international agencies in the area of NCA; and
• To provide a platform to selected Research Institutions to present their research conducted in the valuation of ecosystem services.

About NCAVES India Forum 2021

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

Why in News?

The NCAVES India Forum 2021, organised by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in a virtual format, with live sessions on January 14, 21 and 28, 2021,concluded on January 28, 2021. The event covered a wide range of topics pertaining to the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA).

Reference:

1. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1692989