Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

Experimental Statistics

About the publication - 2010/2017 Conditions of water bodies

Natural capital accounting is an accounting structure designed to measure and compare, over time, the contribution from natural resources and from ecosystems to the social and economic aspects of a given territory, thus providing dynamic and standardized statistics for planning and decision making, aiming at more efficient and sustainable choices in the management of resources.

The IBGE acknowledges the importance of integrating environmental data into the System of National Accounts – SCN, in a way as to consider the use of ecosystem services and observe how the flow of these services in the economic system interferes with biodiversity assets. Therefore, the Institute presents, in this publication, results from the Ecosystem Conditions Account, elaborated within the System of Environmental Economic Accounting, SEEC, with a focus on the fresh surface water ecosystem. The unit adopted for spatial analysis was the biome – Amazon, Cerrado, Atlantic Rainforest, Caatinga, Pampa and Pantanal, in accordance with the ecological concept of spatial units listed in the methodology of the United Nations Ecosystem Experimental Accounting - reference years 2010 to 2017.

Results are based on data from the National Water Agency – and are organized under two perspectives. The first approach shows direct abstraction of blue water in the biomes analyzed, in absolute and relative terms, by selected sectors of economic activity. The second approach deals with the conditions of water bodies by biome according to their abiotic and biotic factors. In this respect, the publication presents an evaluation of the good quality of is water resources based on pre-defined parameters; it shows the proportion of microbasins in these biomes, in both quantitative and qualitative terms; and quantifies fauna and flora existing in them considering information relative to 2014, from the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation and from the National Center for Conservation of Rio de Janeiro’s Botanic Garden Flora - CNCFlora/JBRJ, respectively.

The study adds to efforts towards the enforcement of international recommendations presented in the manual System of environmental-economic accounting 2012: experimental ecosystem accounting, SEEA-EEA, conceived by the United Nations within the project Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services – Ncaves, in partnership with the European Union.

It is worth of notice that the statistics released herein are experimental, that is, they are under evaluation since they have not yet reached complete levels in harmonization, coverage or methodology. Nevertheless, it is expected that this group of information add to advances in the identification of the interrelationships between biomes and to benefits in the production of non-food products.