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ECOLOGICAL-ECONOMIC ACCOUNTS Towards Intemerate Values
8. CASE SCENARIOS To help clarify the intemerate baseline for the Ecological Accounting module, several potential case scenarios were presented at the REM meeting. While, on the one hand, the intemerate baseline is scalable and can be used to account for the region, state, islands or villages, it is not an accounting mechanism that can be used as a direct exchange for capital, meaning that the value of the baseline data should not be directly transferable to cash-in-hand payments for rendered services. This is not to say that payment services cannot be built into the intemerate system. The design of intemerate accounts is to allow for a variety of services to use this baseline in a way that will incentivize and financialize ecological economic growth. The intemerate baseline is designed to provide an incentive and rationale for creating new small and medium-sized enterprises that will stimulate ecological services for measuring data, restoring environments, creating climate mitigating technologies, and inventing new resilient infrastructure to help us stay in our island homes and maintain our ecological biodiversity. The case scenarios described below consider how intemerate accounting can be scaled down and provide a useful way for maintaining our ecological resources. Environmental Impact Assessments remain an important tool for navigating regulatory barriers against certain forms of development, and Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is a right that should be enshrined in international legal frameworks. Intemerate Accounting could provide alternative options for how communities choose to engage with industries and markets. The intemerate baseline is designed to provide a genuine alternative to what extractive industries, resource depletion and environmental degradation offer. While the intemerate baseline can be utilized for financing the restoration of the ecological biodiversity, EIAs and FPIC provide the regulatory barriers to prevent depletion and degradation to begin with. It is this harmonious interaction between regulatory regimes and ecological accounts that will provide for the robust ecological-economic incentives that raise the equity and wellbeing of the region.