Role Of Natural Capital Research Articles

Natural Capital and Natural Asset Management in the Hospitality Industry

There has been some recent interest in the role that natural capital can play in the transition to a more sustainable hospitality industry. However, little work has been published in the academic literature on the role of natural capital in the hospitality industry and how it can be assessed, and this represents a gap in that literature. With this in mind, this short exploratory paper outlines the origins and definition of natural capital, looks at some of the ways in which the hospitality industry benefits from natural capital, explores the relationship between natural capital and natural asset management, and provides an illustrative cameo case study of how one of the leading companies in the hospitality industry, namely Marriott international, has addressed natural capital in their most recent environmental, social and governance report. The paper concludes that there is, as yet, very limited universal recognition of natural capital as an element of sustainability strategy in the hospitality industry. Indeed, even where it is in evidence, natural capital is still viewed within the idiom of economic growth and the continuing expansion of the hospitality industry. The paper suggests, however, that the adoption and adaptation of asset management practices may provide a more realistic way of assessing and measuring the current and evolving value and condition of natural capital. Keywords: hospitality industry, tourism, natural capital, natural asset management, Marriott International

The Role of Natural Capital in Surviving Periods of Crisis: A Case Study of the Nglanggeran Village Community

The sustainability of tourism-based livelihoods can be threatened when a crisis occurs. Thus, people’s resilience during crisis is a significant factor for people to maintain livelihoods as it is a contributing mechanism for people to escape from crisis. This research examines how the Nglanggeran community sustains their livelihoods by utilizing their natural resources as a strategy to survive Covid-19 pandemic between 2020 to 2021. This study uses an ethnographic approach. The data collection process was carried out through participant observation and in-depth interviews with 14 former migrant workers and who now live in Nglanggeran village. The focus of the analysis in this study is the strategy of the Nglanggeran community in maintaining their livelihoods by utilizing their land. The analysis process uses thematic analysis. People who own paddy fields are more likely to survive than those who plant trees for timber on their land. What the Nglanggeran community does is important in maintaining their resilience and as a survival strategy for the local community. Tourism activities do not have to displace traditional livelihood activities on local people's land, rather land use can be optimized to support sustainable livelihoods. While they can optimalise land use, this does not increase their quality of life. They have survived but their livelihoods remain vulnerable.

The effect of exports on a wealth of a country: a comment on the role of natural capital in the Amazon basin

This article examines the relevance of natural capital in a country's economy and what is the impact caused by exports, especially in natural resources, can have on the health of the economy and its accumulation of wealth. Natural capital, in this way, is of double significance, as it contributes to a country's set of fixed capital, also understood as part of its assets, in addition to assisting in the calculation of the impacts in the environment, that is not always reversible. The discussion is performed through the rescue of the main scientific articles related to the theme. This study is relevant given the current moment when natural resources are proven to be scarcer and their impacts are felt both in the economy and in the well-being of society.

Modifying national accounts for sustainable ocean development

Sustainable development of the ocean economy requires a system for measuring progress. The standard system of national accounting provides a solid foundation for doing so, though the scope requires expansion to adequately cover household-produced services; for example, ocean-based leisure, and the role of natural capital in the ocean economy. The accounts summary needs indicators beyond gross domestic product that enable users to choose what is included. New technologies make digital dashboards of indicators easy to produce. Such dashboards facilitate rapid comparison of indicators that cannot be aggregated into a single metric, which enables national ocean accounts to coherently present physical and monetary data. The authors propose that a dashboard of indicators should be used to monitor progress toward a sustainable ocean economy.

The role of natural capital in supporting national income and social welfare

ABSTRACTUsing life satisfaction as a proxy for social welfare, this study contributes to the extant literature by empirically demonstrating that natural capital contributes to social welfare, functioning in part through increasing national income and in part through its direct effect on life satisfaction; the direct effect is approximately 40% greater than the indirect effect. This suggests that the true welfare benefits of natural capital may not be adequately reflected in conventional economic data and, therefore, studies seeking to evaluate the contribution of natural capital to human well-being should consider employing data sets that capture subjective elements of welfare. The magnitudes of the reported marginal effects of natural capital on social welfare, however, are small. This is perhaps due to the fact that (1) there are shortcomings in the measure of natural capital; (2) life satisfaction effects are unlikely to reflect the poorly understood benefits that natural capital provides; and (3) keystone species (such as mosquitoes) and integral ecosystems (such as wetlands) may be negatively associated with life satisfaction, even though such components of natural capital are vitally important to sustaining ecosystems and human life

The role of natural capital in sustaining livelihoods in remote mountainous regions: The case of Upper Svaneti, Republic of Georgia

In the Greater Caucasus of the Republic of Georgia, proponents of a new ski tourism zone and long-term timber concessions claim that new wage opportunities will benefit households. These developments will also limit access to common-pool resources (CPRs). This study uses the sustainable livelihoods framework to identify the conditions under which a development strategy will improve livelihood outcomes in the region. Analysis of original household survey data, in-depth interviews, and field observation reveals that households depend on CPRs for a range of market and non-market benefits. Low-income households depend on CPRs for up to 60% of their total income. OLS regression estimates show that households in villages farthest from market centers have a higher income dependence on CPRs and are more likely to participate in forest use activities. A majority of households report that there are few available substitutes. To improve livelihood outcomes, a development strategy should secure access to market benefits from CPRs, or wage income must increase in proportion to lost CPR income and affordable substitutes must be provided. Access to non-substitutable components of CPRs must be secured, and the distribution of changes in access to natural capital and new wage opportunities must be accounted for.

The Role of Natural Capital on the Pursuit and Implementation of Economic Development

An increasing amount of research has been dedicated to studying various society-environment relations. Although much research exists that studies the impact of economic development on environmental degradation, there is a paucity of sociological literature that examines the impact that the natural environment has on community-level economic development activities. Using survey data collected from 101 communities in Oregon and Washington, the author examines the relationship of natural capital on the pursuit and implementation of two types of economic development: industrial recruitment and self-development. Results suggest that the pursuit and implementation of economic development are related to several components of natural capital. However, natural capital affects industrial recruitment and self-development in opposite ways, particularly when implementing these two strategies. Moreover, it shows that while the natural surroundings of communities affect the pursuit of economic development, the impact becomes more important for the implementation of economic development strategies, net of other social and demographic factors. These findings illustrate the need for researchers, policymakers, and community activists to heavily consider the role that the natural environment plays when looking at social phenomena such as economic development.

The Role of Natural Resources in Economic Development

Economists now recognize that, along with physical and human capital, environmental resources should be viewed as important economic assets, which can be called natural capital. Three recent debates have emerged over the role of natural capital in economic development. First, as many ecological services are unique, does the environment have an “essential” role in sustaining human welfare, and if so, are special “compensation rules” required to ensure that future welfare is not worsened by natural capital depletion today? Second, the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis has fostered empirical estimations of an “inverted U” shaped relationship between a variety of indicators of environmental pollution or resource depletion and the level of per capita income. Does the existence of such EKC relationships suggest that environmental degradation will eventually decline with growth? Finally, recent economic theories and empirical evidence have questioned whether lower income economies that are endowed with abundant natural resources develop more rapidly than economies that are relatively resource poor. Is it possible that resource abundant economies are not reinvesting the rents generated from natural resource exploitation into productive assets, or that resource booms actually divert economic resources from more productive and innovative sectors?