With the commitment made last month by ten countries on the continent, Africa has taken the lead in persuading states to take into account the real economic value of natural resources in national accounts.

The heads of state and government of Botswana, Liberia, Mozambique and Namibia, accompanied by ministers from Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania, signed the 'Gaborone Declaration' at the African Sustainability Summit (24-25 May), organized jointly by Botswana and the non-governmental organization Conservation International.

Countries signing the Declaration commit to integrating the real value of forests, coral reefs, savannas, and other natural resources and ecosystems into state and business planning, and into their policies for developing national accounts. These countries agreed to report annually on the progress made.

The aim is to present from a financial point of view the 'invisible' benefits offered by natural resources and ecosystems, pollination services by bees, or even the purification of water by forests, thus allowing decision-makers to take into account the costs and benefits of maintaining or destroying these resources.

The Declaration also recognizes that the continent has failed to achieve sustainable development over the past 20 years.

The President of Botswana, Seretse Khama Ian Khama, said at the summit that “[he] is challenging all other countries, whether developed or developing, as well as the public and private sectors, to follow this example.”

More valid 'dead than alive'

At the summit, we learned that natural resource accounting could help countries take into account the real financial value of a resource in their national accounts, which would guide decisions about its conservation or destruction.

When it comes to the trade in raw wood, for example, the costs to countries in terms of soil erosion, water quality, and watershed disturbance due to deforestation will also be taken into account.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, believes that until these ecosystem services are reflected in national accounts, forests “will have more value dead than alive.”

During the meeting, Rachel Kyte, Vice President for Sustainable Development of the World Bank, cited the example of Thailand where, according to calculations, one hectare of mangrove provides protection against floods whose possible damage would cost 16,000 dollars. This figure can make it possible to decide whether it is worth destroying it for wood worth 850 dollars or earning 9,000 dollars by turning it into a shrimp farm.

The Global Partnership for Natural Resources Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) strengthens the capacities of countries such as Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, Madagascar or the Philippines to enable them to implement this accounting of natural capital.

WAVES uses the United Nations System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting, an internationally adopted method for calculating the economic value of “material” natural resources like wood, and is working to develop an internationally acceptable method for accounting for ecosystem services like pollination.

A step in the right direction

Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), believes that the Declaration reflects an orientation towards green development in Africa. It is also proof of the recognition of the importance of natural resources for development.

Namibia, for example, already uses natural capital accounting in its Ministry of Environment and Tourism, and is currently developing accounts for water and mines.

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In a report released on May 9 by the World Bank and entitled 'Green and inclusive growth: towards sustainable development', this institution maintains that over the past 250 years, growth has come at the expense of natural resources that are rapidly depleting, exposing us “to the risk of undermining the foundations on which this growth took place”.

In addition to accounting for natural capital, the Bank argues that other policy changes are needed, such as ending subsidies that encourage the waste of fuel and other resources.

In another report, entitled 'Beyond GDP', the World Bank says that research shows that, in 43 low-income countries, natural capital accounts for up to a third of total wealth.

“The daily survival of entire populations depends on forests, minerals and soil productivity,” the report highlights. As countries develop, pressures are placed on their natural resources, reducing their ability to cope with the degradation and disappearance of ecosystems, the report continues.

Natural capital at Rio+20

The World Bank now hopes to be able to persuade fifty countries and fifty private companies to support environmental accounting at the next Rio+20 summit — the United Nations conference on sustainable development to be held in Brazil from 20 to 22 June.

She promised to build on the Gaborone Declaration to obtain new commitments at this summit - of which the green economy will be one of the priorities.

Pavan Sukhdev, director of the report “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” (TEEB), a UNEP initiative that has experimented with some methods of accounting for natural capital, and managing director of the consulting firm Green Initiative of a Smart Tomorrow Advisory (TEEB), believes that the Declaration comes at the best time, before the “Rio+20 summit and politics” dehumanizing people don't occupy the scene.”

For him, this is proof that these ten countries consider natural capital “as their most important development asset” and if the rest of the G-77 countries followed suit, “the focus at the Rio Summit could ultimately depend on those who did very little for sustainable development, for example developed countries”.

However, lack of consensus Not

all developing countries and activists agree on this vision of accounting for natural resources. Some environmental defenders believe that “attributing pecuniary value” to natural resources whose access is free, such as wood from a forest and fish from a lake, risks, in the long run, allowing an outsider to appropriate them, or pushing the government, which is de facto its guardian, to make access to them chargeable.

Other critics argue that if natural resources were valued financially, poor countries could use them as collateral for their debts and thus run the risk of having them confiscated by creditors.

Nnimmo Bassey, Nigerian environmentalist and poet, president of the Nigerian branch of the NGO Friends of the Earth International, believes that: “this Declaration ignores the fact that the bait created by the revenues generated by natural capital is only a screen for continuing to plunder Africa's natural resources”.

“This declaration will serve the interests of businesses in Rio while impoverishing already disadvantaged populations, exacerbating land grabs and displacing the poor off their land.

“The important thing these countries could have done, and did not do, is to take stock of their performance on the Rio Principles [27 development principles set out in the Rio Declaration that endorsed the Earth Summit in 1992], twenty years after the first Rio Summit,” he said.

At the summit in Botswana, Steiner rejected these objections, saying that “if there is something in your economy that you don't value, that thing has no value in essence.”

Link to the Gaborone Declaration [322kB]

Link to the World Bank report 'Green and Inclusive Growth'

Link to the report, 'Beyond GDP' from the World Bank [11.5MB]