MANILA -- The Philippines is
restarting efforts to do an accounting
of its natural resources through a
World Bank-backed program that
would help to unlock the potential
of the sector for economic growth
and address environmental issues –
particularly in the mining industry. The Philippines is one of the eight
countries that are implementing
WAVES, or Wealth Accounting and
the Valuation of Ecosystem Services,
World Bank Phil-WAVES task team
leader Stefanie Sieber said in a briefi ng
in Pasig City.
Other countries implementing the
program are Botswana, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia,
Madagascar and Rwanda.
WAVES is a global partnership
that aims to promote sustainable
development by ensuring that natural
resources are mainstreamed in
development planning and national
economic accounts.
Citing a 2006 World Bank
Application that looked at produced
capital, intangible capital and natural
capital, Sieber said natural capital is
the most important for low income
countries but is not measured.
"[WAVES will] help countries
adopt and implement accounts that
are relevant for policies," she said.
"You can think of many natural capital
accounts we could produce, but the
main purpose is really to do something
that policy issues are suppressing in
individual countries."
Nothing new
But compiling a natural capital
account (NCA) is nothing new to the
Philippines since it has been done
in the 1990s, National Economic
and Development Authority Deputy
Director-General Emmanuel Esguerra
said in the same briefi ng.
However, it was not fully
institutionalized due to the lack of
budget as well as global standards in
measuring natural resources, he said.
"Reasons alluded to was there was
no standard methodology. There were
also challenges to institutional capacity
and resources for agencies that were
supposed to take the responsibility for
natural capital accounting," Esguerra
noted.
But early in 2014, the Philippine
Statistics Authority (PSA) was give a
small funding by the government to
restart environmental accounting –
even prior to the approval of WAVES
– interim assistant national statistician
Raymundo Talento said.
In April 2014, the Phil-WAVES
project was signed with the World
Bank, and was offi cially launched in
September. From then on, the PSA has
started gathering data for the NCA.
Among the data being collated were
gold, copper, nickel and chromium.
"These are the major metal
minerals we have... Simply because
of the data and time constraint...
we're not doing any extra survey but
only relying on data from the NSO
[National Statistics Office] and MGB
[Mining and Geosciences Bureau],"
Talento said.
"But what we notice is we need to
do more labor since we discovered
there are a lot of data sitting around
in the bureau that needed to be
processed," he added.
The PSA hopes to come out with
initial data after the fi rst semester, after
which it will hold several consultative
forums with mining companies and
the public, Talento noted.
A useful tool
Esguerra said the NCA is a useful
tool for development planning that
can serve as a guide to formulating
plans and policies for sustainable
development.
"If we're able to measure changes
in natural capital, that gives us an idea
about sustainability of development
and design policies in order to address
those issues," he said.
One issue that can be addressed
with the program is in the mining
industry. "I think it's still going on and
they have to do with sustainability of
these operations," Esguerra said.
Confl icting land and water use,
particularly in Palawan and in Laguna
Lake, can also be addressed through
the Phil-WAVES, project consultant
Elisea Gozun said.
But the acceptance of NCA in
relation to policy development and
economic planning will take some
time to get traction, Esguerra said.
"It’s not easy to change behaviors
or mindsets...
"If it took years for GDP (gross
domestic product) accounting to
take hold and to be appreciated and
for a standard to be adopted across
countries, now you’re introducing
national capital accounts for a system
that’s been there for generations, let
alone getting budgets for this effort to
be supported," he added. (MNS)
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