THE DEPLETION OF NATURAL RESOURCES
AS EARLY WARNING
FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
by
La Ode Syafiuddin
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. General
Environmental awareness has increasingly become the subject of mainstream policies in each country, particularly after the world summit held at Rio de Janairo in June 1992. The discussion of environmentally sound and sustainable socioeconomic development received increased attention from the international community and the domestic community as well.
The Progress and welfare of a country is measured by per capita income based on national income data. The national incomes have provided the most widely used indicators for the economic performance, trend of economic growth and of the economic counterpart of social welfare. However, in the current of system of national account (SNA) does not reflect the issues for natural resources depletions which threaten the sustained productivity of the economy, and the degradation of environmental quality from pollution which affects on human health and welfare. These issues have raised doubts about the usefulness of national accounts data for the measurement of long term sustainable economic growth and socioeconomic development.
As natural resources become increasingly scarce and environment increasingly degraded, the cost of development will become more expensive, which in turn hamper future development. To ensure sustainable development, natural resources must be maintained and environmental pollution needs to be prevented.
