QuestionsQuestions (Republic Act No. 11995)
RA 11995 is the “Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System (PENCAS) Act.” It institutionalizes the Philippine ecosystem and natural capital accounting system, mandates its use in policy and decision-making, designates responsible agencies for implementation arrangements, and appropriates funds for the system.
PENCAS is based on internationally accepted environmental-economic accounting frameworks, specifically adhering to the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA).
Natural capital is the stock of renewable and non-renewable resources—including plants, animals, air, water, soils, ores, and minerals—that provide a flow of benefits to people and living things, including ecosystem services such as filtration, flood protection, carbon sequestration, pollination, and habitats.
Ecosystem accounting is a coherent framework integrating measures of ecosystems and the flows of services from them with measures of economic and other human activity.
Major objectives include: supporting economic, environmental, and health policy development; providing a system for collecting and compiling physical and natural capital accounts for planning and policy analysis; serving as a data framework for integrating natural capital statistics into macroeconomic indicators; providing tools to protect/conserve/restore ecosystems; and providing valuation of ecosystem services.
The PSA Board oversees implementation. It directs relevant interagency committees under RA 10625 to assist PSA on natural capital account development concerns, such as methodologies, gaps/duplications, and improvements in data systems.
The Interagency Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Statistics (IACENRS) ensures that all concerned agencies generate the data requirements for NCA, adopts/implements/updates an NCA Roadmap for short-, medium-, and long-term activities, including budget support and monitoring and evaluation.
The TWG on NCA is established under IACENRS. PSA is the lead accounts compiler and serves as chair and secretariat support; DENR is main data producer; NEDA and DA are members.
The TWG: (1) supports priority activities in the NCA Roadmap and helps avoid duplication of funding through program convergence budgeting; (2) resolves issues in compilation/processing/dissemination regarding accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and relevance; (3) reviews and recommends enhancements on concepts/methodologies for conformity with standards; (4) identifies and recommends statistical measures/strategies/policies to improve natural capital and ecosystem statistics; (5) recommends methodology improvements and ensures data requirements are addressed by concerned agencies; (additional functions include prioritizing urgent outputs in PSDP and updating PSA Board/IACENRS on developments).
ENREAS is a service created by PSA under its Sectoral Statistics Office, necessary for implementing the Act, subject to evaluation and approval of DBM and compliance with civil service laws and rules.
DENR is responsible for providing NCA data to PSA, ensuring participation of its offices/bureaus/attached agencies, and spearheading site-specific ecosystem accounts. It also must frame natural environment/ecosystem services/natural capital as opportunities/benefits/assets potentially at risk in the EIA system, and ensure wide availability of frameworks/tools/methods and skills for EIA, including use of spatial and temporal NCA data.
NEDA ensures NCA is included in national and regional development priorities and provides strategic guidance on policy use uptake, institutional capacity building, and awareness/transparency.
DA assists PSA by generating/providing NCA information for agricultural areas and fisheries/aquatic resources, and coordinates with DENR on ecosystem NCA. BFAR focuses on fisheries valuation and accounting; NFRDI continues research (including fish stock profiling); BSWM ensures NCA considers soil fertility and hydrological stocks/services. DA bureaus/attached agencies may create “national capital units” with additional plantilla positions.
DILG consolidates and submits NCA-related data from local governments to PSA and DENR. DILG must ensure LGUs utilize and mainstream NCA into local policies, plans, and programs.
They must craft modules at all levels and modalities—basic, technical, vocational, and higher education—to capacitate the citizenry to avail of participatory mechanisms related to PENCAS.
Agencies must institute consultative mechanisms and popularize PENCAS for comprehension and usage. Citizens have the right to information on any account generated under the Act, have standing to compel performance of mandates under the Act, and may seek justification from agencies that ignored or neglected PENCAS accounts/indicators in policy or decision-making.
Major PENCAS accounts, nature’s wealth and ecosystem service economic value, and loss/damage associated with disasters or climate change must be released along with releases of national economic data such as GNI, GDP, and other often-released measures, and must highlight resources/ecosystems’ contribution to the economy, incomes, and employment.
Section 12 clarifies that nothing in the Act negates nature’s inherent and intrinsic value separate from economic value. It recognizes ecosystem limits to regenerate and requires sustainability with renewal/restoration. It also supports legal recognition of rights to protect endangered ecosystems and applying the precautionary principle where economic values cannot be estimated.