International Symposium
"In Pursuit of Statistics for Sustainable Development in Asia"
THE DEPLETION OF NATURAL RESOURCES
AS EARLY WARNING
FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
by
La Ode Syafiuddin
Director
Statistical Analysis and Development
Central Bireau of Statistics
Indonesia
ABSTRACT
The progress and welfare of a country is measured by per capita income based on national income data. The national income has provided the most used indicators for the economic performance and the trend of economic growth. However, the current System of National Account (SNA) does not reflect the issues on depletion of natural resources and the degradation of environmental quality. The scare of natural resources in particular will hamper the sustainability of development.
There are main points of sustainability that are social sustainability, ecological sustainability and economic sustainability. The United Nations Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainable development as a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This definition provides a kind of warning zone that the quantity and quality of the natural resources should be left for coming generations.
Depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation have increased economic activities and the level of GDP. The countries that depend on natural resources to push economic growth need management of natural resources and the efficiency in using them.
To an economist, they can treat it as capital. They are factor production, input which combined with labour, capital and materials produced good and services to be used for consumption or in production processes. Natural resources can be distinguished to two that are renewable which exist on a continual basis whether it is used or not, and non renewable resources with a finite stock, once use up is gone. According to its economic function also, they are natural assets, and can be classified as biological assets, land including ecosystem, subsoil (mineral assets), water, and air.
Every country has different natural resources endowments. Some of them have a significant role in country's economy, like oil and gas in Indonesia which contribute around 15 per cent in GDP (1995). Natural resources which are taken account in SNA called economic assets.
