Year of publication 1998

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Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

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Pages 27

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Product type Book (stand-alone)

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Category Technical study

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Edition 1

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Synopsis (short abstract) Natural resource accounting methods are applied in a case study of fuelwood consumption in Zimbabwe. This study estimates values of economic depreciation of timber stocks from fuelwood consumption from 1990 to 1996. Fuelwood is an appropriate variable to study because of the country's high dependency on wood for energy, particularly in rural areas where most of the population lives. There is substantial criticism of the linkage between the environment and national accounts in most countries incl uding Zimbabwe. Traditional national income data such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) do not fully capture the total economic value of natural resource stocks such as forests. Distinct natural resource accounting methodologies for valuing fuelwood depletion are reviewed and applied to commercial/domestic consumption. The main difference in the various approaches commonly used is in the valuation of physical stocks. Most studies use average net price as a measure of economic rent while a more ref ined approach would use the marginal net price. Using average net price can increase bias in calculating net depreciation values of timber stocks. Using either method, the resulting depreciating values are then used to adjust the national accounts. This study demonstrates some of the advantages, disadvantages and practical data limitations inherent in trying to adjust national accounts for resource depletion in a developing country context. The study also demonstrates that natural resource accou nting can be used even where data constraints exist. However, to fully capture the benefits of more refined methods such as using marginal net price for resource consumption, better quality data are required.

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Language English

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