Assessing natural resource management through integrated environmental and social-economic accounting

The case of a Namibian conservancy

authored by

Huon Morton, Etti Winter, Ulrike Grote

Abstract

Local natural resource management in its diverse manifestations holds core to its principles that the marginal and vulnerable households are empowered to manage valuable natural resources to improve social and economic equality and conserve biodiversity. Yet studies aiming to identify the impacts often show inconsistent results. Through constructing an integrated Environmental and Social Accounting Matrix (ESAM), we aim to assess how natural resources are used in different sectors and by different livelihoods, thus delivering different direct and indirect benefits to the community. The study was conducted in Namibia’s Sikunga Conservancy, which manages wildlife and fish resources in the Zambezi region. Our village-level ESAM shows an economic structure that strongly disadvantages remote households and identifies a small sector of the economy that benefits significantly from the use of natural resources. The ESAM approach is able to isolate undesirable socioeconomic developments such as unequal benefit sharing, which hinders community development.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Environmental Economics and World Trade

Type

Article

Journal

Journal of Environment and Development

Volume

25

Pages

396-425

No. of pages

30

ISSN

1070-4965

Publication date

01.12.2016

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development, Development, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1177/1070496516664385 (Access: Closed)