G.-M.Lange
3.2
Natural Resource Accounting
NRA record stocks of natural resources and changes in stocks as well as use of the
environment and resources and are linked to economic accounts through the use of a
common classification of economic activities; they are constructed as a set of satellite
accounts to the System of National Accounts (SNA) (United Nations 1993). The SNA are
particularly important because they constitute the primary source of information about
a country's economy. Though NRA are relatively new and a number of conceptual and
practical issues are not yet resolved, the use of NRA is spreading (Bartelmus et al. 1997).
NRA can be compiled in both physical and monetary units and used for the following
purposes:
1. To monitor the state of the environment and economy. The NRA as a monitoring
framework can provide both detailed and aggregate physical indicators and an improved indicator of macroeconomic performance, environmentally-adjusted domestic product, which adjusts for net degradation or depletion of natural capital. This
system represents economic activities, including households, that use resources or
cause environmental degradation as well as those activities that are affected by degradation.
2. For policy analysis and planning. NRA provide the environmental and natural resource input to economic tools and models for analysis at the regional and national
levels, or for sectoral and project management.
The emphasis of NRA, compared to other sorts of data about the environment, is
the direct linkage with economic accounts to facilitate integrated environmental-economic analysis (Lange and Duchin 1994). The contribution of NRA has been primarilyat the macroeconomic (either economy-wide or regional, including watershed or
coastal regions) and sectoral levels as a tool for coordinating policies in different Ministries, tracking cumulative impacts and upstream/downstream effects across sectors
and .over time, evaluating trade-offs, and setting policy that can only be determined at
the regional or national level.
In addition to the ability to address specific policy issues, the construction and use
of NRA has made several important contributions to the process of policy-making itself (Lange 1996a), which are relevant to the decision-making process of ICZM:
1. NRA require a way of thinking about resource management based on a systems approach in which the key feature is to understand the interdependence of activities,
of economic and environmental considerations, and consequently of trade-offs. In
addition, the use ofNRA is based on a pro-active approach to policy-making rather
than a reactive one, an approach to policy based on anticipation of possible future
situations through a series of "Whatif'?" scenario simulations.
2. NRA provide a transparent system of information about the state of the environment and relationships between human activities and the environment in situation.
The power of the SNA for economic information is that it has become an information system to which all parties agree (despite recognized limitations). The NRA
organizing framework could playa similar role in searching for common ground to
3.2
Natural Resource Accounting
NRA record stocks of natural resources and changes in stocks as well as use of the
environment and resources and are linked to economic accounts through the use of a
common classification of economic activities; they are constructed as a set of satellite
accounts to the System of National Accounts (SNA) (United Nations 1993). The SNA are
particularly important because they constitute the primary source of information about
a country's economy. Though NRA are relatively new and a number of conceptual and
practical issues are not yet resolved, the use of NRA is spreading (Bartelmus et al. 1997).
NRA can be compiled in both physical and monetary units and used for the following
purposes:
1. To monitor the state of the environment and economy. The NRA as a monitoring
framework can provide both detailed and aggregate physical indicators and an improved indicator of macroeconomic performance, environmentally-adjusted domestic product, which adjusts for net degradation or depletion of natural capital. This
system represents economic activities, including households, that use resources or
cause environmental degradation as well as those activities that are affected by degradation.
2. For policy analysis and planning. NRA provide the environmental and natural resource input to economic tools and models for analysis at the regional and national
levels, or for sectoral and project management.
The emphasis of NRA, compared to other sorts of data about the environment, is
the direct linkage with economic accounts to facilitate integrated environmental-economic analysis (Lange and Duchin 1994). The contribution of NRA has been primarilyat the macroeconomic (either economy-wide or regional, including watershed or
coastal regions) and sectoral levels as a tool for coordinating policies in different Ministries, tracking cumulative impacts and upstream/downstream effects across sectors
and .over time, evaluating trade-offs, and setting policy that can only be determined at
the regional or national level.
In addition to the ability to address specific policy issues, the construction and use
of NRA has made several important contributions to the process of policy-making itself (Lange 1996a), which are relevant to the decision-making process of ICZM:
1. NRA require a way of thinking about resource management based on a systems approach in which the key feature is to understand the interdependence of activities,
of economic and environmental considerations, and consequently of trade-offs. In
addition, the use ofNRA is based on a pro-active approach to policy-making rather
than a reactive one, an approach to policy based on anticipation of possible future
situations through a series of "Whatif'?" scenario simulations.
2. NRA provide a transparent system of information about the state of the environment and relationships between human activities and the environment in situation.
The power of the SNA for economic information is that it has become an information system to which all parties agree (despite recognized limitations). The NRA
organizing framework could playa similar role in searching for common ground to