| This study presents a natural resource accounting framework at the community level that captures non-marketed components and natural resource exploitation not captured by conventional accounts. The conceptual framework consists of a rural/community-households' economic system, a natural resource system simulation model, and a social accounting matrix (SAM). The empirical study was conducted in five communities bordering the Bicol National Park in Region V, Bicol Region, in the Philippines. Focus group discussions and face-to-face interviews of households elicited data on consumption and production activities. The household survey sampled 20% of households in the five communities. Empirical data consisted mostly of consumption and production activities, transformed to monetary terms, and structured in the SAM framework. Non-marketed outputs comprised 21.3% of total production. Forest resources represented 27.1% of the total production. Natural resources data in the SAM became the basis for developing the simulation model for evaluating resource sustainability. Current wood consumption would cause natural resources depreciation by 0.07% per year while the proposed harvest would cause depreciation by 4.21%. The developed framework captures the rural economic system and is useful for policy evaluation and decision-making at the local level. The natural resource accounting structure supplements the national accounts by providing both marketed and non-marketed transactions at the community level. The natural resource modeled in the study focused on timber. Future study could incorporate sustainability models for other non-timber resources such as rattan, bamboo, medicinal plants. |
