Title: Integrating forest resources into national accounts in Karnataka, India

Authors: M. Balasubramanian

Addresses: Centre for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore 560072, India

Abstract: The effort to correct the national accounts in order to calculate NNP or related 'Green GDP' concepts, known as natural resource accounting, has been a lively research area recently. Natural resource accounting aims to provide indicators for the sustainability of current economic activity. The objective of the paper is an integrated economic and natural resource by compiling forest resources and integrating into the national accounts in the state of Karnataka, India. Results from the forest asset account for volume of standing timber indicate an increase of 5.056 million tones in biomass in accounting period. When the omitted contribution of natural forests were included in the official GDP for 2010, they include an increase in value add from the forest of 0.93 million of NSDP and the value depletion is 1.5 million of the estimated value added. The result of the study has justified the need for development and indicators for sustainable forest management in Karnataka.

Keywords: green GDP; welfare; sustainability; forest resources; national accounts; India; green economics; natural resource accounting; sustainable development; forest assets; biomass; forest management; forestry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGE.2013.058150

International Journal of Green Economics, 2013 Vol.7 No.3, pp.276 - 298

Published online: 13 Sep 2014 *

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