Coastal-Marine Ecosystem Accounting to Support Integrated Coastal Zone Management

Significance Statement Coastal and marine ecosystems face historical deterioration worldwide. This negatively affects the provisioning of ecosystem services to society. The UN has recently approved a statistical standard for ecosystem accounting to measure the contribution of ecosystem services to the national economy and track changes in the value of naturel capital. It has been suggested that ecosystem accounting can also be used to support policy and management at regional and local level. This study presents an exploratory assessment of ecosystem accounting’s role in supporting integrated coastal zone planning using the Oslofjord in Norway as a case. We discuss how ecosystem accounting, and ecosystem service use and monetary accounts in particular, could be useful to support various aspects of integrated coastal zone planning, nature conservation and financing. Ecosystem accounting · Coastal and marine ecosystems · Integrated coastal zone management · Oslofjord