Experimenting marine extent and condition accounts in France

The development of an ecosystem accounting system to complete current wealth indicators is a core issue. Biophysical ecosystem accounts of the SEEA EA have been adopted as a statistical standard to bridge this gap. However, challenges remain as the specificities of marine ecosystems are poorly considered in the current standard, and link with policies is weak. This article aims at developing pilot biophysical ecosystem accounts in the European territory of France exclusive economic zone. We use available information from research and marine policy reporting databases to construct the extent and condition accounts. Remaining challenges include temporal and spatial issues of data availability, and several links between biophysical accounts and economic accounts.