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Abstract

The Brundtland Commission report, Our Common Future, defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Although the idea of sustainable development has been widely accepted, it has proved difficult to identify and implement policies and practices that promote sustainable economic growth. Some economists, environmental scientists and policy analysts believe that they can transform the consensus about sustainability into manageable practices. They propose to accomplish this feat with a set of new ideas about the relationships between the economy and the environment offered under the banner of 'natural capital'. An ideal account of natural capital would be one or more standard measures or models that would allow the direct comparison of environmental goods, like forests, fresh water and clean air, with economic goods, like money, capital and productivity. By bringing economic science and environmental science to an objective common ground, a natural capital model has the potential to provide a concrete means of comparing the economic and ecological costs and benefits of particular policies and programmes. This paper offers a survey and analysis of several new contributions to the formation of the natural capital concept from economists, ecologists, policy analysts, biometricians, foresters and a philosopher. The paper concludes that existing microeconomic theory may be 'ungreenable', if it is not reformulated. While macroeconomic approaches to natural capital have beenmore successful, they share the limitation that ecosystems and species are valued solely in monetary terms. These problems are taken to suggest that the development of a successful natural capital model may require economic theory to be recast to include non-monetary social preferences and values.

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

“…Missemer (2018) affirms that Auguste and Léon Walras in 1833 were one of the first to use the term "capital naturel", referring to original productive forces: land and labour, supported by Inhis Théorie that, in 1848, defined "capital naturel" as a synonym of primitive capital ("capital primitif") to refer to the value of the land. Fenech et al (2003), in this context, affirms that the concept of natural capital is an attempt to integrate economics and ecology by conceiving the idea of 'nature' as 'capital'.…”

“…Sustainable development was defined then as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The critical principle underwriting sustainable development was that technology and social organization can both be managed and improved to allow ongoing economic growth that was within the planet's ecological means (Fenech et al, 2003). According to Barbier (2009), the economic development today must ensure that future generations are left no worse off than present generations or that per capita welfare should not be declining over time.…”

“…The impacts of changes in the flow of ecosystem services on the constituents of well-being are complex and involve causal relationships that reinforce each other, mainly due to the interdependence of the processes of generating ecosystem services and between the very dimensions of well-being. Natural capital therefore includes all elements of the natural environment that provide benefits to people now and in future (Mace et al, 2015) and because they produce goods and services that support economic activity and enhance human welfare, those services are viewed as economic assets-or ecological capital (Barbier, 2019), and also are being recognized as the most significant political and scientific problem (Fenech et al, 2003).…”

“…Two are the general approaches to the theoretical integration of economic and ecological systems: first, an approach where the ecological systems are identified as being entrenched within the economy; and second, an approach in which the economy is understood as being rooted in ecological systems (Fenech et al, 2003). Thomas Malthus, who is credited with the famous relationship between population growth and food supply, can be considered the starting point of economic concerns about the scarcity of natural resources (Andrade et al, 2012).…”

“…Thomas Malthus, who is credited with the famous relationship between population growth and food supply, can be considered the starting point of economic concerns about the scarcity of natural resources (Andrade et al, 2012). That concern comes from the higher position humans have in the nature's food chain, that is a complex part of ecosystems that, combined with collective human interests, leads to the ecological imperative of sustainability of the complex ecosystem (Fenech et al, 2003). Howe-PRACS: Revista Eletrônica de Humanidades do Curso de Ciências Sociais da UNIFAP https://periodicos.unifap.br/index.php/ pracs ISSN 1984-4352 Macapá, v. 13, n. 2, p. 17-30, jul./dez.…”