 readings, distinguished guests. I am from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and I'm very pleased to introduce you to Gross Ecosystem Product, or GEP. The content of my presentation will cover five dimensions shown here. To put it simply, I hope to answer the questions, what is GEP? How do we measure GEP? How do we apply GEP? First, allow me to describe why GEP has been proposed in its conceptual basis. In other words, what is GEP? A country, a region, or a city can be considered as a human natural system, which includes the subsystems of economy, society, and nature. Gross Domestic Product, or GEP, is widely used to assess the performance of economic systems. While the Human Development Index is used to assess the state of social systems. However, we lack an indicator to assess the contributions of nature to human well-being. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a way of measuring how nature benefits humanity. In order to advance the construction of ecological civilization in China, China's president, Xi Jinping, has proposed that lucid waters and lush mountains are worth their weight in gold and silver and emphasize the significant value of nature for human development. Realizing this goal requires, one, incorporating ecological benefits into the government's assessment and evaluation system. Two, establishing an ecosystem services-based financial compensation system, or eco-compensation. And three, establishing a natural capital accounting system. In order to account for the contributions of nature to humanity, we define GEP as the aggregate value of final ecosystem goods and services provided to people in a given area. Ecosystem assets are natural resources that provide ecosystem goods and services, including forests, grasslands, wetlands, marine ecosystems, human-managed ecosystems such as farmlands and urban parks. GEP and GDP are different indicators, but the two are also related. GDP covers mining, manufacturing, construction, transportation, communications, commerce, and finance, among other sectors. GEP primarily covers water retention, flood mitigation, soil retention, pollination, carbon sequestration, pollution filtration, and so on. However, some goods and services are included in the accounting of both GDP and GEP, such as agricultural products, forestry products, ecotourism, and leisure, and hydro pipe, among others. Now, let us move to GEP's accounting framework. GEP accounting guidelines mainly take into consideration the following five aspects. One, accounting for the monetary value of ecosystem goods and services in a specific location. Two, accounting for the use of ecosystem goods and services, including direct and indirect use value. Three, accounting for final ecosystem goods and services, including material goods, regulating services, and non-material services. Accounting first for the functional quantity of ecosystem goods and services, that is to say their biophysical value, and then determining the price of each ecosystem good or service, which together with the corresponding biophysical value provides the monetary value. The ecosystem goods and services indicators used in GEP accounting are shown here. Material goods include food, herbs for traditional Chinese medicine, water resources, nature-based energy sources, and raw material. Regulating services include water retention, carbon sequestration, pollination, water quality improvement, air quality improvement, soil retention, and flood mitigation. Non-material services, also known as cultural services, include recreation, ecotourism, and aesthetic experiences. In GEP accounting, the first step is to determine the list of ecosystem goods and services in the accounting area. Then, based on ecological and environmental monitoring and statistics from relevant sources, we can get the necessary data for GEP accounting. Next, we calculate the functional or biophysical quantities of ecosystem goods and services, and at the same time determine their associated prices. Finally, we calculate the account areas GEP, which is the sum of material goods value, EMV, regulating services value, ERV, and non-material services value, ECV. This table shows the specific methods used to calculate the functional quantity and monetary valuation of different ecosystem goods and services. For instance, food production values can be derived from the available statistics and market prices. Pollination values come from pollination model calculations. Water retention values are based on hydrological monitoring and water balance models, and ecotourism values can be calculated on the basis of tourist visits and the travel cost method. Now, I will introduce how GEP accounting pilot demonstrations have been carried out in China. At present, GEP accounting has been carried out in at least four provinces, more than 10 cities and over 100 counties in China. Provinces include Qinghai, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, and Hainan. Cities or prefectures include Shenzhen, Lishui, Fuzhou, Tu'er, Ganzhe, Tonghua, and Xin'an Banner. Counties include Youqing, Kaihua, and Xishui. In fact, every month, there are new cities or counties that adopt GEP accounting. Here, I introduce GEP accounting in Qinghai province. Qinghai is located in western China, on the eastern side of the Qinghai depending plateau. Qinghai is the headwaters of the Yellow, Yangtze, and Mekong rivers. It is known as east and southeast Asia's water tower. Qinghai covers an area of some 122,000 square kilometers and has a population of 5.8 million people. Grassland is the main ecosystem type, including alpine meadow, alpine steppe, and other grassland types. Qinghai is also a global biodiversity hotspot, home to many rare and endangered animals, such as Tibetan antelopes, snow lovers, wild yak, bacteria and camels, agiatic wild ass, and black-necked cranes. This table shows the types, functions, and economic values of ecosystem goods and services in Qinghai. These include material services, water supply, flood mitigation, soil retention, non-point pollution prevention, water purification, air purification, sandstone prevention, carbon sequestration, ecotourism, among others. The value of water-related ecosystem services accounts for 58% of Qinghai's GEP. In 2015, Qinghai's GEP was 185.5 billion RMB. The value of material goods accounted for 64.6%. The value of regulating services accounted for 23.7%, and the value of cultural services accounted for 11.7% of the total. We further assessed different ecosystem goods and services contributed by different areas of Qinghai. For instance, the value of agricultural goods, mainly came from Hubei and Haishi prefectures. The value of animal husbandry, mainly came from Yushu prefecture. The value of water resources, primarily came from Yushu, Guoluo, and Haidong. And the value of carbon sequestration came mainly from Haidong, Hubei, Guoluo, and so on. We also analyzed the other areas of China that benefit from Qinghai's ecosystem goods and services. We found that there were 16 provinces that benefited from Qinghai's water retention services, especially Ningxia, Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong, and other provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Additionally, more than 20 provinces and cities benefited from the ecotourism services offered by Qinghai, all provinces and urban regions in the Yangtze River basin benefited from Qinghai's flood mitigation services. We also analyzed the changes in Qinghai's GEP from 2000 to 2015, finding that the value of material goods increased by 82.6%, the value of regulating services increased by 9.8%, and the value of non-material services, mainly ecotourism increased by 408.8%. Now, let us move to the application of GEP accounting. This framework diagram shows the application of GEP to decision-making. First, GEP accounting can be used to help meet policy and administrative goals. Second, GEP accounting can be used for land use and infrastructure planning, allowing us to evaluate how changes impact ecosystem goods and services. Third, GEP accounting can be used to formulate eco-compensation policies, particularly in terms of determining reasonable payment amounts. Through these applications, we can promote ecological protection and restoration, improve ecosystem assets, enhance the supply of ecosystem goods and services, and grow GEP, leading to a greater ability for nature to contribute to human well-being. In China, government departments have actively promoted the application of GEP research. For instance, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has supported the research and development of GEP accounting methods and demonstrations of application. The Ministry of Science and Technology, the Standardization Administration, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment have supported the creation of technical standards for GEP accounting. The National Development and Reform Commission, or NDRC and the Asian Development Bank have backed methodology to apply GEP accounting to the evaluation of provincial, municipal, and county-level eco-compensation policies. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has also supported the organization of training for GEP accounting. Finally, local governments have supported the application of GEP accounting to evaluate the effectiveness of ecological protection and green development. The application of GEP accounting in China has five dimensions. First, it can be used to evaluate government and policy effectiveness, as has been the case with the NDRC, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the provinces of Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Qinghai, and Zhejiang, and cities such as Shenzhen, Shunde, and Tonghua, among others. Second, GEP accounting can be used to determine eco-compensation, as in Lishui, Puerh, and other cities. The amount of compensation payment is determined based on the level and associated changes of GEP. Third, it can be used to assess sustainable development, namely the coordinated development of nature and humanity. It's reflected in the changes of and relationship between GEP and GDP. This has been the case for the large cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai. Fourth, GEP accounting can be used for policy or corporate decision-making, as demonstrated by Zhejiang province, the cities of Lishui, Fuzhou, and Ant Forest. Fifth, GEP accounting can be used to assess the contributions of nature, the ecosystems to people, as in Qinghai province, and Ganzhou prefecture, among other places. Now, let us move to the main findings and challenges of GEP accounting and application. The application of GEP accounting in China has yielded five main findings. First, GEP provides an intuitive way to convert ecosystem services into monetary value and to understand the value of nature's contribution to humanity. Second, GEP provides policy makers with a clear and convincing indicator of the value of ecosystem services. Third, GEP can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of government and policies in terms of conservation, land use, and infrastructure planning. Fourth, GEP can provide the basis for determining reasonable eco-compensation levels. Finally, as shown by GEP accounting in Qinghai and other parts of China, the data methods already exist to enable GEP accounting to occur in different countries around the world. However, GEP accounting also faces several challenges. First, there are data limitations. For instance, existing environmental monitoring systems were not designed to carry out ecosystem service assessment and accounting, so monitoring data cannot meet the needs of GEP accounting. Second, many quantitative methods and models of ecosystem services are not completely accurate and need further refinement. Third, many ecosystem services lack market prices, which means other valuation methods are acquired, which then mean that this may influence applicability. Fourth, current accounting methods often make it difficult to distinguish the value-added contribution of nature from the value-added contribution of human input. Finally, in China's GEP accounting, ecosystem service indicators are not comprehensive, and there are many ecosystem services that have not yet been accounted for, such as the value of ecosystem-based oxygen provisioning in high-altitude environments like the Qinghai to Benton plateau, health-related ecosystem services, and the full value of cultural services. To address the problems faced by GEP accounting, we have three recommendations. First, the standardization of GEP accounting methods should be promoted so that comparable results can be obtained for different regions and from different researchers. Second, environmental monitoring systems should be upgraded to provide stable data sources for GEP accounting. Third, pilot projects for GEP accounting in different countries should promote development that is green and inclusive to improve applicability. The development of GEP accounting and its demonstration applications in China have been the products of international cooperation. Members of this collaborative team include those from the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Capital Project, China's National Bureau of Statistics, and other experts from the United States, the United Kingdom, and local governments across China. Our research has received support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Standardization Administration, and the Bureau of Statistics, as well as the support and collaboration with the Natural Capital Project, Asian Development Bank, the United Nations System for Environmental Economic Accounting, and other partners. This is the conclusion of my presentation. Thank you.