Suchergebnisse

I consider that the field of environment and development economics (EDE) began with the publication of The Control of Resources by Partha Dasgupta (1982). Although he did not confine his focus to developing countries, Dasgupta (1982: 10) suggested that managing environmental resources was much broader than conventional resource stock depletion or pollution control:
To sum up: environmental discussions need to be conducted in the face of a clear recognition that, (a) these resource are often common property, (b) resolutions of environmental problems usually involve changes in the allocation of property rights, (c) resource use may well be irreversible (e.g. it may lead to their exhaustion when in fact this could have been avoided), (d) resource stocks often affect welfare directly, (e) the environmental impact of certain types of activity are cumulative and only become noticeable at some time in the future, and (f) the environmental impact of certain types of activity are uncertain. It is no wonder that environmental problems are formidable to analyse, let alone solve.

AbstractThis paper develops a methodology for including ecosystem services in a wealth accounting framework. Accounting for ecosystems and their services leads to adjusting net domestic product (NDP) for the direct benefits provided by the current stock of ecosystems but not for their indirect contributions in terms of protecting or supporting economic activity, property and human lives. When ecosystems are irreversibly converted for economic development, NDP must be further modified to reflect any capital revaluation that occurs with the current conversion of ecological capital to other land uses. The risk of collapse also requires adjustments to NDP, as any capital revaluation associated with ecosystem conversion must be adjusted for this risk, and the discounted minimum value of ecosystems associated with collapse must be subtracted from NDP. These various contributions of ecological capital to wealth accounts are illustrated with the example of mangroves in Thailand over the period 1970–2009.