Larson, Silva, Jarvis, Diane, Ewamian People Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC and the Ewamian Ltd, -, Tagalaka Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC, -, Barrowei, Ryan, Grainger, Daniel, Finau, Glenn, Stoeckl, Natalie, and Douglas, Michael (2025) Ecosystem accounting through first nations’ lenses: Integrating the SEEA-EA and Indigenous knowledge systems. Ambio. (In Press)

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Abstract

The UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) provides a framework for integrating information about the environment and the economy, organising information about ecosystems, measuring ecosystem services, and tracking change. We explore how SEEA-EA can incorporate First Nations’ conceptualisation of nature and cultural connections to traditional lands. We identify multiple entry avenues, propose key principles and suggest steps to enhance relevance of the SEEA-EA to First Nations, principally: stock accounts should reflect aspects of Country that First Nations deem important; flow accounts should depict services they consider the most significant; and, stocks and flows should be measured using physical, subjective and monetary metrics that they deem appropriate. Respectful partnership with First Nations group(s) whose Country is being accounted for—centred on their priorities and values—would yield multiple benefits. We recommend that these ideas, alongside other possible approaches, be developed and tested with First Nations groups across diverse geographic and cultural contexts.

Item ID:	89640
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	0044-7447
Keywords:	Australia, Ecosystem services, Nature-based solutions, Natural capital accounting, SEEA EA, Traditional knowledge
Copyright Information:	© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Funders:	NESP Northern Australia Economics Resources Hub, NESP Resilient Landscapes Hub
Projects and Grants:	NESP Resilient Landscapes Project 5.1
Date Deposited:	17 Nov 2025 02:07
FoR Codes:	38 ECONOMICS > 3801 Applied economics > 380105 Environment and resource economics @ 50% 38 ECONOMICS > 3899 Other economics > 389902 Ecological economics @ 50%
SEO Codes:	15 ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK > 1599 Other economic framework > 159902 Ecological economics @ 45% 21 INDIGENOUS > 2104 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and culture > 210402 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander connection to land and environment @ 45% 15 ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK > 1505 Microeconomics > 150506 Market-based mechanisms @ 10%
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