Accountants could save the oceans

A new way of thinking about marine resources could spark a global revolution if China embraces the practice.

Laurence McCook is a Professorial Research Fellow at James Cook University and recently Director of Oceans Conservation for WWF Hong Kong and a Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Science’s South China Sea Institute of Oceanology.

He led a new study looking at how China could extend its leadership in environmental accountability on land to coastal and ocean ecosystems.

“The condition of China’s marine and coastal habitats has experienced serious degradation over recent decades.

“Despite extensive research and information available on the state of marine ecosystems it’s not driving sufficient changes in policy and management to protect and restore them,” said Professor McCook.

He said the value of healthy natural ecosystems has been well documented but those values are considered as ‘externalities’ in neoclassical economics, which treats their value as zero.

“Although the value of nature goes far beyond its monetary value, recognising even minimum monetary values can enable and motivate protection.

“Explicitly showing the benefits and avoided costs of caring for the environment is vital to changing the perception that conservation causes economic losses and to showing that environmental and economic sustainability are in fact complimentary,” said Professor McCook.

He said China is already a leader in the implementation of environmental accountability in terrestrial ecosystems, with responsible management of forests and grasslands bringing economic rewards to local governments, due to well-designed policy and governance.

“Our key message is to propose rapid, national-scale use of environmental accounting to improve management and conservation of marine ecosystems, closely parallel to the procedures in place in terrestrial systems,” said Professor McCook.

He said if this policy was adopted in China it would not only improve the condition of marine ecosystems, improve food security and help meet China’s international commitments, but would have an impact around the world.

“Given the huge scale of China’s ocean footprint - whether measured by economic activity, length of coastline, human population or seafood consumption - reducing the degradation of marine ecosystems would have globally significant benefits and provide a model for use in countries like Australia.

“With this new paper we’ve provided details of a concrete and feasible pathway for China to achieve this,” said Professor McCook.

Link to paper here.