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STRENGTHENING INDICATORS AND ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS FOR NATURAL CAPITAL
3Strengthening indicators and
accounting systems for natural capital
Chapter 3 highlights the importance of measurement
of ecosystems and biodiversity for the proper stewardship
of our ‘natural capital’. 3.1 introduces the key
issues, underlining the predominance of GDP and
economic measurement in political decisions, and
argues that this needs to be complemented by other
measures. 3.2 looks at useful types of measurement –
e.g. in the policy cycle, where they help develop and
communicate an understanding of the relationship
between drivers and effect – and then in more depth
at the role of biodiversity indicators and tools for
measuring ecosystem services. 3.3 shows how such
“The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred
from a measurement of national income”.
Simon Kuznets, principle architect of the GDP concept, in 1934.
indicators feed into mainstream economic aggregates:
it focuses on macro and societal indicators and indices
to ‘measure the true wealth of nations’, comparing
traditional tools with available equivalent indicators that
take nature into account. 3.4 presents indicators and
aggregate measures as an integral component of
accounts: it explains the current System of National
Accounts and shows what can usefully be done to
improve its ability to measure nature systematically in
a national framework. 3.5 completes the picture
by discussing ways to better measure the social
dimension – by looking at ‘GDP of the Poor’.
TEEB FOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLICY MAKERS - CHAPTER 3: PAGE 4
In 1962, he added
“Distinctions must be kept in mind between quantity and quality of growth,
between its costs and return, and between the short and the long term.
Goals for more growth should specify more growth of what and for what.”