Wealth, Natural Capital, and Sustainable Development: Contrasting Examples from Botswana and Namibia

摘要: Theoretical work has demonstrated that sustainable development requires non-declining per capita wealth, where wealth is defined to include produced, natural, human and social capital. Several studies have attempted measure total national or changes in but been seriously hampered by a lack of data, especially for natural To address this problem, the UN other international statistical agencies developed standardized framework environmental accounts, System integrated Environmental Economic Accounts (SEEA). Using newly available asset accounts capital, are constructed used assess contrasting paths Botswana Namibia. Botswana, with an explicit policy reinvestment resource rents, roughly tripled income over past two decades. Namibia, no use build seen decline.