With the advancement of ecological civilization reform, natural resource asset accounting has gradually become a hot topic of interest in both academia and practical fields in China. Establishing a system for accounting and evaluating natural resource assets is an important part of the reform of the property rights system for natural resource assets. Natural resource asset accounting serves the preparation of the natural resource balance sheet, evaluation of the realization of natural resource value, market-oriented allocation of natural resource elements, and other foundational management tasks. It serves as a reference for the valuation and preservation and appreciation of natural resources, as well as the basis for evaluating the performance of ecological civilization construction. However, so far, progress has only been made in physical quantity accounting at the practical level, and value measurement methods suitable for China's management system have yet to be established. The difficulty in accounting for the value of natural resource assets lies in the assessment of ecological resource asset value, especially regarding the accounting methods for ecosystem service value, which is highly controversial within the industry. The main accounting methods include the market approach, income method, and cost method. In practice, these methods are difficult to apply directly and require further exploration of applicable methods.

The Peking University-Lincoln Center has conducted related research on "ecological resource asset accounting," with results published in the State Council Development Research Center's "Survey Research Report" and the academic journal "Ecological Economy."

The study of accounting methods based on the replacement cost principle fully considers the current state of natural resource management, using local government investment in ecological construction to represent changes in ecological assets caused by departmental management. By combining this with satellite remote sensing technology, standardization, normalization, and unification of value accounting can be achieved. It is recommended that natural resources departments strengthen research on this method and apply it to natural resource asset audits as well as ecological compensation or compensation-related work.

References (you can click the link to download and read the article):

1. Wang Yufei, Liu Jingyi, Suggestions on Applying the Replacement Cost Principle to Ecological Resource Asset Accounting [R], Development Research Center of the State Council 'Survey Research Report' No. 85 of 2023 (Total No. 7034).

Proposal on Applying the Replacement Cost Principle to Ecological Resource Asset Accounting - Report .pdf by the Development Research Center of the State Council

2. Liu Jingyi, Wang Yufei, Wang Mengfei, et al. Ecological Asset Accounting Method Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Data and Its Application [J]. Ecological Economy, 2023, 39(08):136-144.

Ecological Asset Accounting Method Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Data and Its Application by Liu Jingyi.pdf