Sustainable Development of New Zealand Agriculture and Forestry
Success measures for sustainable development
Orthodox econometrics is an inadequate basis for measuring sustainable development. An indicator of prosperity is per capita gross national income (GNI). However, this and other proxies do not accommodate non-market work, nor depreciation of physical and human capital let alone of natural capital. Environmental resources typically go unrecorded in growth accounting16 and so increases in GNI can mask depletion of natural capital, for example, by mining of soil or deforestation, which results from under-pricing of environmental services and resources.17
An indicator of net inclusive wealth would be per capita GNI minus the depreciation of physical and human capital and minus the depreciation of natural capital and the social losses incurred due to increased pollution. The per capita share of this over time would be a useful sustainability measure. This "green" metric of real wealth includes the net human (including institutional and knowledge capital), physical and natural capital of a community over time, in short "net per capita socio-economic capital". This means that population trends impact substantially on a country's ability to achieve sustainable development. That is, when population rises, economic growth, technological change and the use of resources have to rise to maintain the same level of net per capita benefits. Greater stress is also placed on the biophysical environment's ability to deliver the required natural resources and services for a given level of technological and institutional capability.
Given the above, a sustainable development framework is successful for a society when:
- the fulfilment of per capita socio-economic needs and aspirations at least does not fall over time;
- net per capita socio-economic capital (including natural capital) does not fall over time;
- the life-sustaining capabilities of the biophysical environment to provide services and resources on a per capita basis are at least maintained.
Contact for Enquiries
Peter Winsley
Director
Strategy Development
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Tel: +64 4 894 0682
Fax: +64 4 894 0746
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