Evolution of macro-information systems for sustainable development

Abstract

The changing perception of the ‘environmental problem’, as articulated in the Brundtland Report, has shifted the issue of environment information from an almost exclusive focus on pollution towards changes in natural productivity and resource depletion. This has reorientated environmental data needs towards the macro-perspective of national accounting as reflected in natural resource stocks and flows, indicators of the state of environment and ‘sustainable development’. The Stockholm Conference (1972) raised the question of the need for a system of environment statistics, complementary to, and integratible with, the body of social and economic statistics. We propose here a conceptual framework which tracks stocks and flows of natural resources, incorporates a critical set of indicators of ecological integrity at the eco-region level, and has the capacity to integrate certain parameters in the System of National Accounts (SNA), with those found in Natural Resource Accounts (NRA), and State of Environment Reporting (SOE Reports). The emphasis is on the applied side of macro-information systems of ‘ecological economics’ as it has so far evolved from the experience of ‘official government statistics’. The final section briefly reviews developments in Canada and suggests some future directions.