South Africa will hold its third in-person National Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) Forum on 7 and 8 August 2024, in the fourth year of implementation of the National NCA Strategy and just ahead of National Women’s Day. In line with the National NCA Strategy the National NCA Forum 2024 offers us an opportunity to reflect on our achievements thus far and look towards how we can chart a course for even greater impact. The event is being hosted by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) and organised in partnership with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). It is supported by the Ecological Infrastructure for Water Security (EI4WS) Project and the Water Research Commission (WRC). The outcomes of the National NCA Forum 2024 will feed into multiple pathways, including the review of the National NCA Strategy in 2026, reporting obligations, lessons learnt through the EI4WS Project, and insights from ongoing research on the impact of NCA in South Africa.

Documentation related to the Forum, can be accessed below.

Documents

• National NCA Forum 2024 final detailed programme
• National NCA Forum 2024 concept note
• National NCA Forum 2024 videos
• National NCA Strategy leaflet
• National NCA Strategy full document
• Strategic Water Source Areas (Fact sheet)
• What is NCA? (Fact sheet)
• EI4WS Project (Fact sheet)
• Stats SA Natural Capital series releases
• Biodiversity Sector Investment Portal
• SANBI NCA

Presentations 

• Session 1: Opening Ceremony
•  Youth in NCA (Mookho  Makanyane, SANBI)
  
• Session 2: Better Africa, Better World
• Africa NCA Community of Practice (Aimee Ginsburg, SANBI & Africa NCA CoP)
•  Global updates related to Natural Capital Accounting (Tsepang Makholela, DFFE)
• Session 3: Biodiversity economy in South Africa
• Advancing the Biodiversity Economy in South Africa (Preshanthie Naicker, DFFE)
• Pioneering Experimental Biodiversity-Based Tourism Estimates for South Africa (Riaan Grobler, Stats SA)
• Session 4: The latest in natural capital accounts: Parallel sessions on

Parallel Session A. Ecological infrastructure for water security accounts and data foundations

• Ecological Infrastructure and Water Security: insights and lessons from accounts (Nokuthula Mahlangu, SANBI)
• South Africa’s role in the Global Ecosystems Atlas Project (Anisha Dayaram, SANBI)
• The 2022 South African National Land Cover Data and its Operational Use (Zakariyyaa Oumar, DFFE)
• National Water Quantity Service (NWQS): An open data service supporting Government water resource management (Mark Thompson, GeoTerraImage)
• Advancing Ecosystem Accounting: Leveraging marine & coastal data (Nicole du Plessis, NRF-SAEON)
• Towards an expanded range of ecosystem accounts (Ziyanda Dyasi, SANBI)

Parallel Session B. Climate-related accounts and data foundations

• Update on G20 Data Gaps Initiative III to the National NCA forum (Barend de Beer, SARB)
• En route to the first Air Emission Accounts for South Africa (Riaan Grobler, Stats SA)
• Energy Accounting in SA: Taking stock of physical energy flows in our economy (Robert Parry, Stats SA) 
• Considerations when developing national accounts for biological carbon (Graham von Maltitz, SANBI)

• Session 5: A traditional health practitioner’s connection to biodiversity economy and NCA

• A traditional health practitioner’s connection to biodiversity economy and NCA (Gogo Nomsa Sibeko, Nature Speaks and Responds) (No presentation)

• Session 6: Mainstreaming biodiversity into the financial sector

• Panel discussion: Mainstreaming biodiversity into the financial sector in South Africa (No presentation)

• Session 7: Natural capital tools for private sector

• Introducing the TNFD Recommendations: Action-orientated insights (Candice Dott, TNFD Global)
• ENCORE and the TNFD: Nature-related Finance Risks Disclosures (Thomas van Viegen, ENCORE)
• Corporate Biodiversity Accounting – tools and links between business and national targets (Gabi Teren and Luvuyo Kani, EWT)
• Nature-related risks and opportunities: a macro-financial assessment (Martine Visser, UCT)

• Session 8. Policy relevance of natural capital approaches: Break-away discussions

• Nature-Related Risks in SA: Break-away discussions: 1, 2 & 3

• Session 9: Leveraging transformative potential of NCA

• Leveraging NCA for transformative impact (Rashieda Davids, UP)