Following negotiations between CIESM and the World Bank, the Mediterranean Science Commission and its new Program in Marine Economics have joined WAVES, thus allowing a Regional Sea – the Mediterranean – to become the first test-case for marine ecosystem accounting.

Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) is a global partnership that aims to promote sustainable development by ensuring that the national accounts used to measure and plan for economic growth include the value of natural resources. This global partnership brings together a coalition of UN agencies, selected governments and international institutes, nongovernment organizations and academics to implement environmental accounting where there are internationally agreed standards, and develop standard approaches for other ecosystem service accounts. WAVES was announced by the World Bank President, Robert B. Zoellick at the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in October 2010, and will unfold between 2012 and 2015.

CIESM Director General, Dr Frederic Briand, together with Dr Laura Onofri and Dr Paulo Nunes of the CIESM Marine Economics Program, are pictured above taking part in the WAVES Partners' meeting which was held in early April at World Bank Headquarters in Washington D.C.  The discussions reviewed advances in ecosystem accounting methodology and allowed the various partners to share concrete experiences. At that meeting it was agreed that Paulo Nunes would lead the Policy and Technical experts committee of WAVES.