Download Natural Capital Accounting - Madagascar

NATURAL CAPITAL
ACCOUNTING (NCA):
MADAGASCAR
Conference on the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in
Africa, Gaborone, Botswana, 7-8 October 2013
Initiating NCA in Madagascar
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Strong interest and commitment from the Government of
Madagascar
 Endorsement of Gaborone Declaration
 Cabinet approval to join WAVES Partnership
 WAVES National Steering Committee establishment
 Recruitment of national WAVES coordinator
 Co-financing of US$0.5 million
Detailed and participative scoping exercise involving Government,
civil society & donors to reach consensus on priorities
Development of agreed ‘Context’, ‘Vision’ and ‘Objectives’ for
WAVES Madagascar
The context…why are we doing this?
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Natural capital represents the largest proportion of Madagascar’s
total wealth (> 50%)
The value of natural capital can be increased by public policies for
efficient management
The transformation of natural capital into other forms of capital can
also increase the national wealth if the transformation is managed
well
The policy framework should therefore reflect:
 (i) an understanding of the value of natural capital;
 (ii) measures that aim to increase the value of this capital; and
 (iii) approaches to capture, reinvestment and distribution of
resource rents.
Vision and Objectives
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Vision: Public and
private sector discourse
and decisions related to
development policies
are based on an
understanding of the
true physical and
economic value of
natural capital
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Objectives: To generate
information on the value of
natural capital so as to
inform decision making and
the policy framework in
Madagascar and, in so
doing, to provide an
example of good practice
in policy making to the
region and globally
Process for WAVES Madagascar
1. Policy questions
& entry points
2. Identification of
accounts
3. Data collection
plans
4. Account
preparation
•Review of
documented strategy
/ policy / legislation
•Emerging issues and
problems
•Stock and / or flow
accounts?
•Physical and /or
monetary accounts?
•Sector and national
indicators
•Identification of data
needs
•Data inventory & gap
analysis
•Data collection
and/or estimation
methods
•Collection / estimation
of missing data
•Account compilation
•Indicator development
WE ARE HERE
5. Policy use
•Diffusion of accounts
and indicators
•Awareness raising
•Technical support to
illustrate use in policy
development
WAVES Madagascar workplan
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Based on brainstorming of
documented and emerging
policy questions, NCA
focuses on three natural
resource sectors and
macro-economic indicator
development
4 year, US$2 million
workplan was developed
to implement NCA
activities
Mining
sector
accounts
Macroeconomic
indicators
Water
resources
accounts
Forestry /
protected
area
accounts
Institutional set-up
Mining Sector
Policy questions
Growth of contribution of mining sector in Madagascar to economic
development
Equitable sharing of benefits of mining revenues
Balance between development of the mining sector and environmental
management
Priority accounts
Physical and monetary stock accounts for industrial mining by large
scale enterprises (nickel, cobalt, chrome, mineral sands, coal etc.)
Secondary accounts
(based upon data
availability)
Physical and monetary stock accounts for precious stones and gold
Challenges
Limited data is collected by the national statistics agency on mining
activity
Large companies hesitant to share information because of
confidentiality concerns
Most precious stone and gold mining informal, small scale or illegal
and data hard to come by – but very important for sector and
economy
Forestry Sector
Policy questions
Contribution of the forestry sector to national wealth
Satisfaction of needs in terms of environmental goods and services
Sustainable financing of the protected area network
Priority accounts
Physical and monetary stock accounts for timber in non-protected
forests
Physical accounts for protected areas
Secondary accounts
(based upon data
availability)
Monetary accounts for selected services provided by protected
areas (e.g. tourism, carbon?)
Challenges
Data is abundant but very dispersed and incoherent both spatially
and temporally
Much of the timber exploitation activity in the sector is informal or
illegal
Methods for accounting of monetary values of protected area
services are in their infancy
Water Resources Sector
Policy questions
Efficient management of water – i.e. the balance between the
availability and use of water resources
Priority accounts
Physical flow accounts for water resources in Madagascar’s
northern river basin
Secondary accounts
(based upon data
availability)
Physical stock accounts for renewed water resources in
Madagascar’s northern river basin
Replication of accounts in other river basins
Challenges
Compromise between geographical scale and level of detail in
the accounts and thus their use for policy purposes
Need to rely on hydrological modeling for stock accounts =>
questions of accuracy because of input data quality
Widely dispersed data sources between different Government
ministries, NGOs and private sector
Macro-economic Indicators
Policy questions
Contribution of natural capital to total wealth
Is natural capital being sustainably used?
How can the total wealth of the country be managed in an
integrated manner
Priority indicators
Natural wealth (mining and forestry)
Volume index of depletion of natural capital (mining and forestry)
Secondary indicators
(based upon data
availability in SNA)
Adjusted net savings
Challenges
Need to facilitate shift in thinking of Government from traditional
development planning concepts to managing the different
components of the country’s total wealth in an integrated manner
Communications and awareness raising challenge
Quality of country’s national accounts
Experiences & Lessons…
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Government needs to be in the driver’s seat – need
clear commitments to dedicate the needed resources
and to use the results
The process itself can be an important trigger for
discussions on approaches to national development
planning
Accounts are only useful when they are needed to
answer policy questions
A modest approach is recommended
Experiences & Lessons…
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Spend time getting the institutional set-up right
Find ways to reinforce the essential role of the
national statistics agency in NCA
Manage expectations from the beginning
Don’t be afraid to try (and fail) new methodological
approaches
Experiences & Lessons…
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Data will always be a challenge so don’t give up
Always keep the future sustainability of the process in
mind
Benefit from opportunities to network regionally and
internationally
COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE!