ABSTRACT
Concern about the use, depletion, and degradation of natural resources has been a fundamental driver of the development of environmental accounts. This chapter reviews resource accounting in general, covering issues that are common to all natural resources. With this framework, subsequent chapters then examine how the general principles are applied to build accounts for specific resources. Chapter 9 considers forests, and Chapter 10 looks at subsoil assets—the two resources that have received by far the most attention among statisticians, economists, and environmentalists. Chapter 11 considers fisheries, land, and water, assets that raise particular problems and require much future work.
