The Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) developed from the work on environmental accounting undertaken by the European Environment Agency (EEA). It supports their contribution to the revision of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) which is currently being led by the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD).
Version 5.1 is now available and can be downloaded from the CICES website: www.cices.eu. It now replaces Version 4.3 which was published in 2013.
The work on ‘Version 5.1’ was informed by a review of the relevant scientific literature and the results of a user survey in 2016. It was also assisted by feedback from workshops held as part of the EU-funded ESMERALDA and OpenNESS Projects. Other key inputs for the revision were provided from the experience of using CICES gained in the EU-led work on Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES), and discussions led by the United Nations Statistical Division on the development of a multi-purpose international classification of ecosystem services to support implementation of ecosystem accounting as described in the SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EEA).
Guidance on using the new version is available on the website. Examples of each service class have been provided in the full CICES table, alongside example benefits; where possible examples are supported by reference to the literature (see ‘highlights of revision’ page on website). The revision has ensured that the new version is consistent with but extends CICES V4.3. The two versions are fully cross-referenced and consistent with SEEA Principles. Equivalences with the categories of ecosystem services used by the MA, TEEB and IPBES are also available.
Do contact CICES if you have difficulty in accessing the new version or if you have questions.