Ecosystem accounting for biodiversity surrounding windfarms

To ensure that climate action and biodiversity obligations are met, the rapid growth of the renewable energy industry must be accompanied by tools to monitor, protect and enhance the biodiversity surrounding renewable energy infrastructures. The United Nations System of Environmental Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) provides a statistical framework to measure and document positive and negative changes in ecosystem extent and quality. Using a spatially explicit approach, this framework can provide industries with a standardised, measurable, verifiable, and reportable approach to ecosystem management. However, accounting for biodiversity, particularly at smaller site-specific scales, is underdeveloped in the SEEA-EA. Here, we use the SEEA-EA to develop biodiversity-themed ecosystem extent and condition accounts for onshore windfarms and provide a management tool for operators, enabling them to understand the extent of the habitats present, and their ability to provide resources for biodiversity. We added a new step into the condition account process to facilitate the incorporation of variables for biodiversity. Application of the methodology highlighted considerable biodiversity potential of some habitats, particularly peatland, marsh, and freshwater systems. The spatially explicit methodology clearly identified locations where improved management could enhance biodiversity. Implementing the SEEA-EA framework is standardised and repeatable, and its flexibility allows for accounts to be built at site-scale for a variety of land-uses and habitats. The development of biodiversity-themed ecosystem accounts for the onshore wind energy industry demonstrates the utility of the SEEA-EA to inform local management decisions across a sector that is critical for climate change mitigation.