Natural Capital Accounting for Land in Rwanda

Grace Nishimwe, Didier Milindi Rugema, Claudine Uwera, Cor Graveland, Jesper Stage, Swaib Munyawera and Gabriel Ngabirame
Additional contact information
Grace Nishimwe: Rwanda Land Management and Use Authority, P.O. Box 433 Kigali, Rwanda
Didier Milindi Rugema: Institute of Land Administration, Bahir Dar University, P.O. Box 79 Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
Claudine Uwera: Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, P.O. Box 158 Kigali, Rwanda
Cor Graveland: Environmental Accounts Team, Department of National Accounts, Statistics Netherlands, P.O. Box 24500, 2490 HA The Hague, The Netherlands
Swaib Munyawera: Rwanda Natural Capital Accounting, National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, P.O. Box 6139 Kigali, Rwanda
Gabriel Ngabirame: Rwanda Natural Capital Accounting, National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, P.O. Box 6139 Kigali, Rwanda

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-25

Abstract: Land, as a valuable natural resource, is an important pillar of Rwanda’s sustainable development. The majority of Rwanda’s 80% rural population rely on agriculture for their livelihood, and land is crucial for agriculture. However, since a high population density has made land a scarce commodity, growth in the agricultural sector and plans for rapid urbanisation are being constrained, and cross-sectoral trade-offs are becoming increasingly important, with a risk that long-term sustainability may be threatened if these trade-offs are not considered. To help track land value trends and assess trade-offs, and to help assess the sustainability of trends in land use and land cover, Rwanda has begun developing natural capital accounts for land in keeping with the United Nations’ System of Environmental-Economic Accounting. This paper reports on Rwanda’s progress with these accounts. The accounting approach adopted in our study measures changes in land use and land cover and quantifies stocks for the period under study (2014–2015). Rwanda is one of the first developing countries to develop natural capital accounts for land, but the wide range of possible uses in policy analysis suggests that such accounts could be useful for other countries as well.

Keywords: agriculture; land; natural capital accounts; Rwanda; system of environmental-economic accounting; wealth accounting and the valuation of ecosystem services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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