Knowledge hub information

As biodiversity continues to decline, nature’s contributions to people - including ecosystem functions and services - are also diminishing, leading to serious consequences for human well-being and social cohesion. To address this challenge, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has established Target 11 under the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), which aims to restore, maintain and enhance nature’s contributions to people by 2030. The headline indicator for this target is indicator B.1 Services provided by ecosystems.

The Knowledge hub on Target 11, hosted by Joint Research Centre’s ESINCA team and using the Integrated Natural Capital Accounting (INCA) project outcomes, plays a key role in achieving this target. The JRC ESINCA team is a multidisciplinary team with expertise in ecosystem services modelling in the context of ecosystem accounting. For over a decade, ESINCA team has been engaged in INCA project providing methodological guidelines and data to support the development of ecosystem services accounts.

How the Knowledge hub supports Target 11

It delivers, on a demand-driven basis, scientific and technical support to the 45 CBD Parties covered by the European subregional Technical and Scientific Cooperation support Centre (TSCC) as they implement the KMGBF. ESINCA team offers structured capacity-building and development resources that can be aligned to meet KMGBF Target 11 needs, including:

• Providing technical demand-driven and scientific support specific to the development of the relevant headline indicator under Target 11.
• Coordinating technical and scientific cooperation on IAS across European countries.
• Facilitating access to INCA-related tools and datasets.
• Providing guidance and best practices to support the production of ecosystem accounts.
• Supporting capacity-building through workshops/webinars, online resources, and engagement initiatives.

Explore available resources

Access to data resources, tools and technologies:

• Knowledge sharing through INCA reports.
• Access to open source data.
• Methodological guidelines.
• INCA tool (QGIS plugin) and accompanying Manual.
• Default input data.

Access to key references:

INCA Technical reports:

• Ecosystem services accounting: Part I - Outdoor recreation and crop pollination 
• Ecosystem services accounting - Part II Pilot accounts for crop and timber provision, global climate regulation and flood control
• Ecosystem Services Accounting – Part III - Pilot accounts for habitat and species maintenance, on-site soil retention and water purification
• Nature-based tourism accounting
• Urban Ecosystem accounts following the SEEA EA standard: A pilot application in Europe

For more information, please visit the INCA platform.