Natural Resource Accounting in Kenya:a Case Study of Forestry Sector
Abstract
The use of natural resource in Kenya while undoubtedly enhances our economic growth,
has not left the state of our natural resource and the environment at large, unaltered
because of an increasing pressure on natural resource from the economic and population
expansion which has led to environmental degradation and natural resource depletion.
This study therefore applies some of the theoretical adjustments suggested in the natural
resource accounting literature to the forestry sector in Kenya.
The problem is that the macroeconomic policy making in Kenya is highly insensitive to
the reality of natural resource depletion and degradation. While SNA would capture the
annual depreciation of harvesting and processing equipment used to manufacture
commercial wood products and commercial logging of fuel wood, it does not capture the
depreciation of natural capital.
This paper will enhance an appreciation of the need to improve SNA by incorporating
natural resource degradation and depletion through coming up with the framework for the
natural resource accounting in the commercial forestry sector through the use of ,satellite
account. In this study an attempt will be made to use the net price method for the net
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accumulation as it is much applicable to the existing data in the country despite the
weaknesses it faces.
The results of this study show very clearly how forest can be mismanaged and
overexploited leading to resource depletion and degradation as a result of excluding or
underestimating the true contribution of such resources to human well being.
Sponsorhip
The University of NairobiPublisher
Department of Economics