Resource Depletion Damages
Third World - World Bank
Published Date: 15-09-2005
On precisely the same day both the World Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme have come out with reports which attempt to "revalue" natural (including mineral) resources, against the negative consequences of their continued depletion, and consequent environmental damage. Sceptics might consider it a bit ripe for the Bank to tout conservation while continuing to back projects that destroy "natural capital". Perhaps better late than never - but is it already too late?
Resource Depletion Damages
Third World - World Bank
Story by Ed Stoddard, Planet
Ark
September 15, 2005
JOHANNESBURG - Resource depletion
and surging population growth are draining the net "savings"
of the world's poorest countries and could cripple future generations,
according to a new World Bank study.
It said a new measure of wealth
-- which goes beyond the traditional gross domestic product yardstick --
showed many developing countries were sinking deeply into the red.
"Accounting for the actual
value of natural resources, including resource depletion and population
growth, shows that net savings per person are negative in the world's most
impoverished countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa," it said.
Entitled "Where is the
Wealth of Nations?", the study looks at resource extraction and other
variables not commonly used. "Current indicators used to guide development
decisions -- national accounts figures, such as Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) -- ignore depletion of resources and damage to the environment,"
the World Bank said in a statement.
"Where is the Wealth
of Nations? ... offers new estimates of total wealth, including produced
capital, natural resources, and the value of human skills and capabilities,
which show that many of the poorest countries ... are not on a sustainable
path."
Swiss on top, Ethopia bottom
The study offers a ranking
of 118 countries, with Switzerland topping the list with wealth per capita
of $648,241. At the bottom is Ethiopia at $1,965.
Also near the bottom is the
Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, which has rapid population growth, rampant
deforestation and is losing much of its soil through erosion.
Densely populated and ecologically
stressed Burundi -- also a powder-keg of ethnic conflict -- is second from
the bottom. The study says natural capital -- the value of minerals, energy,
forests, pastureland, cropland and protected areas -- is a much higher
share of total wealth in low-income countries than produced capital at
26 percent compared with 16 percent..
Produced capital is defined
as machinery, structures and urban land.
The study looks at "intangible
capital", which it says is calculated as the difference between total
wealth and the sum of produced and natural capital.
There are bright spots in
the developing world where resource wealth is being saved rather than squandered.
"Mauritania has improved
its development prospects through better management of fishery resources,
while Botswana has successfully used diamond resources to finance the schooling,
health care, and infrastructure which have supported its high rate of growth,"
says the World Bank.
"(A) sound combination
of macroeconomic and natural resource management has permitted Botswana
to avoid the 'resource curse' that has afflicted many oil producers,"
it says.
Many African economies are
heavily dependent on resources and critics say the cash generated in boom
times are often wasted, leaving little for the busts of the commodity cycle.
Spending on Environment Yields
Big Returns - Report
September 15, 2005
Story by Alister Doyle, Environment
Correspondent, Planet Ark
OSLO - Spending to protect
the environment, from coral reefs to forests, can bring big returns to
aid a worldwide assault on poverty, a UN-backed report said on Wednesday.
The study, coinciding with
a summit of world leaders in New York, even suggested that forests may
be more valuable when left standing rather than being cleared for crops
because trees can absorb the heat-trapping gases widely blamed for global
warming.
"The environment...is
not a luxury good, only affordable when all other problems have been solved,"
said Klaus Toepfer, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) which was
among 30 international groups behind the report.
The study estimated that annual
investments of $60-$90 billion in the environment over 10-15 years were
needed to reach a world goal of halving the proportion of humanity living
on less than a dollar a day, currently more than a billion people.
A further $80 billion a year
was needed to limit global warming, widely linked to gases from burning
fossil fuels in factories, cars and power plants, over the next 50 years.
Once invested, it said that
every dollar spent on clean water and sanitation in the Third World, for
instance, could bring $14 in benefits ranging from lower health care costs
to higher work productivity and school attendance.
"Conservation of habitats
and ecosystems are also cost effective when compared with the short-term
profits from environmentally damaging activities" including dynamite
fishing, mining or deforestation, it said.
Every dollar invested in fighting
land degradation and desertification, like building terraces to stop hillside
erosion, could generate at least $3 in benefits, the Poverty Environment
Partnership report estimated.
Corals beat dynamite
And every dollar invested
in protecting coral reefs could generate $5, ranging from scuba-diving
tourism to renewable fish stocks. Forests could play a role in slowing
climate change because trees absorb carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse
gas.
"The carbon storage or
'sequestration' potential of forests ranges between $360 and $2,200 per
hectare which makes them worth far more than if they are converted to grazing
or cropland," UNEP said.
And the study said that it
becomes far more cost effective to conserve forests than to clear them
once carbon prices exceed $30 a tonne.
In a European Union market,
launched this year as part of a UN plan to curb global warming, carbon
dioxide emission allowances trade at about 22 euros ($27.03) per tonne.
The report also pointed to
other ways to place a value on the environment. Brazilian farmers in parts
of the Amazon turned to forest nuts and berries when their crops failed,
for instance, making the forests a "nature-based insurance policy."
Regina Paz Lopez
Managing Director
ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc.
Managing Director
ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc.
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