Payal

Natural Resource Accounting System for Sustainable Management Of land resources, property rights and tenure

The Standard National Accounts

The systems of national accounts (SNA) view the relationship between the environment and the economy from economic perspective only (System of National Accounts, United Nations, 1968). The national income accounts are grouped under three categories: current accounts, accumulation accounts and balance sheets. Current accounts deal with production, income and use of income, accumulation accounts cover changes in assets and liabilities and changes in net worth; Balance sheets present stock of assets and liabilities and net worth. The most familiar of the three accounts are the current accounts

(the supply and use accounts). The supply and use accounts compute income in three ways: 1) the sum of value added (revenue minus intermediate consumption) across all industries (i.e., the production account); 2) the sum of final consumption and savings (disposable income) (i.e., the use of income account), and 3) the sum of employee compensation and operating surplus (i.e., the distribution of income account). Production in SNA mainly covers only those goods and services that are bought and sold in markets (there are few exceptions). The supply and use accounts reflect three basic national accounts identities:

1) The supply-use identity

Production + imports = intermediate consumption + exports + final consumption + gross capital formation; (1)

2) The value - added identity

Net Value added = output - intermediate consumption - consumption of fixed capital; (2)

3) The domestic product identity

Gross domestic product = final consumption + gross capital formation + (export - imports) (3)

In addition to the supply and use accounts, there are also asset accounts. The 1993 SNA includes natural assets in the asset accounts only if ownership rights exist and natural assets bestow economic benefits to their owners. Some examples of produced...