Flanders Ecosystem Accounting (FLEA)

Flanders Ecosystem Accounting (FLEA) aims to bring together INBO expertise on all ecosystems in Flanders. The project develops a statistic (a set of ecosystem accounts) on the extent and condition of the ecosystems in Flanders, in accordance with the guidelines of the European Commission's proposal to amend EU Regulation 691/2011 on environmental-economic accounts, and the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting - Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA, 2021). The ecosystem extent account is area-wide for Flanders and is updated triennially on the basis of the land use database of the Environment Department. Among other things, FLEA is developing a repeatable method for validating the area data. Research on ecosystem condition accounts focuses on those ecosystem characteristics for which INBO has expertise and is collecting data. For forest ecosystems, data from the Flemish Forest Inventory are needed and for which we collaborate with the Agency for Nature and Forest (ANB). The entire project is also fed back to ANB, Department of Environment, Statistics Flanders and the Federal Planning Bureau.