Global Ocean Accounts Partnership Secretariat · GOAP Technical Guidance on Ocean Accounting · circular
A reader’s guide to the full Technical Guidance. This circular maps TG-0.1 to specific circulars and provides role-based reading pathways. Read after TG-0.1.
Not sure where to start? Use Find the right circular: guided question flow, faceted topic browser, or free-text search.
Readers will identify the circulars relevant to their role, understand the dependency structure, and select an appropriate reading sequence.
Essential prerequisites:
Each circular carries a stability badge. Full definitions and update triggers are in TG-0.4 Section 3.3.
Version numbers appear in each circular’s frontmatter version field. Full revision policy is in TG-0.4 Section 6.
Edges from TG-0.1 Figure 0.1.2 mapped to their primary circulars. Edges E3, E4, and E11 are bidirectional.
Abbreviations: FG1 = Focal Group 1: Ocean Economy; FG2 = Focal Group 2: Ocean Society; FG3 = Focal Group 3: Intermediate Ecosystem Services; SG1 = Supporting Group 1: National Accounts (SNA framework); SG2 = Supporting Group 2: Social Conditions; SG3 = Supporting Group 3: Ocean Environment and Ecosystem. Full definitions in TG-0.1 Section 2.
Ten archetypes below with core sequences and extensions. For an interactive match, use Find the right circular. A Corporate Sustainability pathway (ESG/TNFD/CSRD) is under development.
Audience: Ministers, senior government officials, heads of agencies
Audience: NSO compilers, official statisticians building ocean accounts
Note: Focus on TG-3.1—3.4 before adding social or thematic modules.
Audience: Technical staff measuring ecosystem assets, condition, and services
Audience: Development banks, fund managers, sovereign debt offices, impact investors
Why this sequence: TG-3.1—3.2 establish the asset and flow accounts. TG-1.9 explains how to translate these into monetary values relevant to finance. TG-1.7—1.8 then demonstrate how those values inform multilateral and project-level instruments.
Audience: Spatial planners, marine park managers, coastal zone managers focused on spatial tools
Audience: Researchers on livelihoods, equity, governance, traditional knowledge
Audience: Country project managers, NSO leads, inter-ministerial task force chairs
Audience: Academics, methodologists extending ocean accounting state of the art
Audience: Provincial and municipal planning officers, sub-national resource managers
Audience: Traditional resource managers, community leaders, Indigenous data custodians, organisations working on Indigenous data sovereignty
Note: Not all sections are equally relevant to community-level practitioners: concentrate on the circulars above. Case studies from Fiji and Vanuatu demonstrate Pacific context applications.
The pathways above start from a reader’s role. Most compilers arrive the other way round — with a mangrove belt, a port, a fishery or a litter problem already in front of them — and need the thematic method first. Section 6 is the entry point for that route, and each of its circulars names the generic circulars it sits on.
Two cautions apply to this route. A thematic circular is not a substitute for the generic one it sits on: it assumes 3.1 Asset Accounts or 3.3 Economic Activity has been read. And where two thematic circulars can record the same entry, the boundary statement at the head of each names the owner — read both before compiling either.
Not every marine ecosystem has a circular in this edition. The M1 shelf types other than M1.1, M1.2, M1.3 and M1.6, together with M1.4 shellfish beds and reefs and the MT1 shoreline biome, have no dedicated circular; compile them under 3.1 with condition variables selected under 4.8 and 4.9, and document the departure.
Figure 0.5.1 illustrates the full prerequisite network across all active circulars. Nodes are coloured by section, and directed edges record which circulars depend on or enable others.
· Figure 0.5.1
Source TG circulars frontmatter prerequisites: and enables: fields, snapshot 2026-06-01 across src/circulars/section-{0,1,2,3,4,6}/.
Foundation chain: TG-0.1 → TG-0.2 → TG-0.5 (this circular). TG-0.1 is the universal entry point.
Accounts compilation chain: TG-0.1 + TG-0.2 → TG-3.1 → TG-3.2 → TG-3.3 → TG-3.4. TG-3.5—3.8 extend from this core.
Decision-making chain: TG-0.1 → Section 1 (accessible after TG-0.1). Section 2 indicators typically require TG-3.1 for context.
Data methods chain: Section 4 supports Section 3. Read it in parallel with or after TG-3.x.
Case study and thematic methods: Sections 5 and 6 draw on Sections 3 and 4. Read them after the relevant compilation circulars.
TG-0.7 and TG-0.8 may be read independently at any stage.
For a complete, up-to-date listing of all circulars with badge, status, and dependencies, see the Circulars Overview. Use Find the right circular for guided topic and audience-based navigation.
Authors: [To be confirmed]
Reviewers: [To be confirmed]
Cite this report
Navigating the Technical Guidance (2026) (GOAP Technical Guidance on Ocean Accounting, TG-0.5, v0.12.0). GOAP Secretariat. https://guidance.oceanaccounts.org/circulars/section-0/0-5-navigating/
guidance.oceanaccounts.org/circulars/section-0/0-5-navigating
© 2026 Global Ocean Accounts Partnership Secretariat · CC BY-NC 4.0 · The report, its PDF and this deck are built from the same source.
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