Development of Environment Statistics in DMCs: Issues and Problems

Chapter 2
Development of
Environment Statistics in DMCs:
Issues and Problems
This chapter reviews some common issues and problems that are
likely to occur during the process of developing environment
statistics in DMCs. It starts by giving a generalized picture of the
different forms of environment data so as to facilitate a description
of these forms in their common setting. The objective of the whole
exercise is to delineate the role and possible contents of environment
statistics as well as provide some insight into the derived uses of
environment data.
Types and Uses of Environmental Data and Statistics
The major users of environment data and statistics are policy makers,
planners, scientists, students, and the general public.
State-of-the-Environment Report
The position of environment statistics might be better
appreciated by contrasting it with state-of-environment reports
(SOERs). SOERs are not neutral instruments as they are explicitly
meant to assess the condition of the environment, and determine the
causes of the condition and possible cures. The text of an SOER gives
an interpretation of existing data and knowledge so as to suggest
what should be main trends. An example is ESCAP’s SOE Report
(ESCAP 1992). UNCED country reports can also be regarded as such
(UNCED 1992).
Reporting on the state of the environment is becoming very
common. Two types of products are usually produced by governments:
SOERs and environmental statistical publications. The main distinc-

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22 DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENT STATISTICS
tion between the two is that environmental statistical publications
are largely numerical, whereas SOERs contain substantial
explanatory text. Scientists’ need for detailed environmental statistics
is obvious. But what is the purpose of the more general SOERs?
Policy makers need basic references on the state of the
environment. Because SOERs are abstracted from a huge mass of
reports and data, they do not normally contain all the environmental
information available for a particular geographical region. However,
they do provide a general picture of the state of the environment,
from which progress in dealing with environmental issues can be
deduced. In some countries, such as Italy, simply having to produce
such a report has galvanized governments into action. SOERs also
allow the environmental record of governments to be open to scrutiny.
In developing countries, SOERs often represent the main source of
information on the environment. Presently, many countries have
environmental administrations, but not all publish regular SOERs.
Of course, producing an SOER does not necessarily indicate that
prudent environmental policies are being followed.
SOERs indicate where urgent problems may lie or where
“unfinished business” remains. SOERs can also help policy makers
to identify opportunities for improving the environment and to set
priorities.
In essence, the SOER divides the big environmental problems
into coherent specific problems and links them with significant actors
(called target groups). Themes have been formulated for specific
environmental problems such as the greenhouse effect, ozone
depletion (global level), acidification (continental level),
eutrophication (regional level), noise (local level), and target groups
have been identified: households, energy plants, industry, agriculture,
and car owners, groups to which more or less uniform measures can
be applied. Further policies might be applied to specific areas, e.g.,
mountainous areas prone to erosion. Needless to say, an SOER for
such an environment tends to lead toward a more specific and precise
assessment of the goals laid out in the EPP.
Forms of Environment Statistics
The primary audience of environment statistics (and statistics
in general, for that matter) is the policy makers. For the needs of this

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Development of Environment Statistics in DMCs 23
audience, basic, straightforward environmental data are presented
in derived forms. To clarify the importance of environment statistics,
the most important forms (statistics, indicators, and indices), from
basic to derived, for presenting environmental data are discussed.
In practice, the forms are not mutually exclusive.
Environment statistics, briefly defined, refers to statistics on
the state of the environment, as influenced by man’s doings and
natural causes, thereby showing causes, consequences, and remedial
measures.
Such a definition is as broad as it is vague. In practice,
environment statistics are a system of selected data organized on
the basis of some framework so as to reflect certain natural or logical
connections. Thus, all published environment statistics indicate some
explicit or implicit framework due to the assumed connection and
selection of items. The UN Framework for the Development of
Environment Statistics (FDES) sketches the generalized traits of
country publications (UN 1984). A unique feature of environment
statistics is that they combine data from the natural sphere with those
from the social and economic realms. For example, air pollution is
presented as a chemical and physical phenomenon that is caused
by man’s economic activities and has impacts on man, plants, and
animals alike.
A framework should be seen as a tool for organizing and
interpreting data statistics and, therefore, a framework cannot be a
neutral device. Although a carefully developed framework is very
important and useful for organizing and highlighting a country’s
special needs, it should be borne in mind that there is no ideal
framework.3 A very general framework is reproduced in Figure 2.1.
The framework basically describes the cause-effect chain.
Environmental indicators
Environmental indicators are an efficient way of measuring
the environment issues in a country. Properly derived indicators can
serve to highlight changes in environmental conditions that warrant
3 In contrast to economic statistics, which are guided by the system of national
accounts and whose framework is based on a set of rigorougly tested economic
principles.

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24 DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENT STATISTICS
Figure 2.1
A General Framework for Environment Statistics
Population/
Activities/
Emissions/
geography
natural
land use
Æ
Æ
Æ
disasters
changes
Altered SOE/
Responses by
Concentrations
economic
individuals
Æ
Æ
losses
and society
Note: Reactions may be directed at any step discerned in the first line. It seems evident that
contributions toward sustainability are best directed toward “population” and
“activities,” being the fundamental variables. Abatement of emissions consists mostly
of end-of-pipe measures (e.g., flue gas scrubbing) and less of fundamental changes
in production methods (nonwasting; non- or low-polluted river sludge).
further investigations. Potentially, indicators can signal the health
of the environment and can help in formulating actions to serve the
long-term needs of the environment and the community. Environ-
mental indicators can be classified into three groups: pressure, state,
and response indicators. Pressure indicators show the causes of
environmental problems. Certain flow quantities such as emissions,
use of raw materials, products, and energy, or interventions in the
environment, for instance, infrastructural activities that place a burden
on the environment, are charted by means of pressure or stress
indicators. State indicators reflect the quality of the environment in
relation to the effects of human action. Response indicators pertain
to measures taken by society to improve the environment. These
indicators can tell whether things are getting better or worse, whether
problems are growing, or whether current policies are achieving the
desired goals.
It is not always possible to define an ideal state or norm for
each indicator. Nonetheless, the indicator still provides useful insights
into the trend of the state of an environmental resource and associated

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Development of Environment Statistics in DMCs 25
concerns, if any. For example, it is difficult to establish how much
ambient concentration of carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas) is
acceptable. However, the increase or decrease in ambient carbon
dioxide concentration gives an indication about global warming. By
restricting the definition of an indicator to a simple structure as
discussed, information provided by indicators would be objective.
However, this information would be relevant to only one aspect of
an environmental resource. Fragmented information provided by
indicators may help in making environmental decisions, but does
not provide a comprehensive view of the various dimensions of the
environment for decision making. Environment indices attempt to
overcome this particular limitation of environmental indicators.
Environmental indicators are not easy to formulate, and the
amount of work involved in developing an agreed-upon set of
indicators for a country should not be underestimated. The United
Nations Commission on Environment and Sustainable Development
(UNCESD), together with the UNSD, has already achieved some
progress in identifying key indicators on the environment and
sustainable development for the benefit of the member countries.
Therefore, it is advisable that developing countries instead of
reinventing the wheel should start developing indicators specific to
their countries, proceeding from the work already done at the
international level.
Environmental indices
An index combines a number of variables into a single value.
The ability of an index to provide information at a level that
encompasses information on a number of variables in the form of a
single value makes the concept of an index attractive for a number
of functions. An environmental index is necessary to reflect the state
of an environmental resource; to understand the dynamics of an
environmental system or the relationship between different
environmental components as part of scientific investigation; to
facilitate the analysis of trade-offs between objectives, i.e., develop-
ment and environmental protection; and to assist in making resource
allocation and policy decisions.
The components of an environmental index vary with the
purpose or use of the index. If the task is a simple ranking of countries,

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26 DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENT STATISTICS
fewer problems are encountered than if the index is to be used for
detailed comparisons. On the other hand, if one wants to compare
the level of one country’s environment quality with another’s, then
accurate and appropriate measurement techniques are critical. For
an index to capture the environmental quality of a country,
methodologies that take into account the discrepancies caused by
differences in population, area, and income, among other factors,
must be developed. Most important, however, is the selection of the
set of environmental quality indicators that will be used in the index.
Although the parameters that are chosen should be good indicators
of environmental quality, it is most important that the availability of
data be taken into consideration.
The Asian Development Bank has been promoting policies
and programs to enhance the environment performance of its DMCs.
The Bank’s recent policies for reflecting the growing emphasis on
environmental and social considerations in its funded technical
assistance have brought about the need for new methods in assessing
the environmental repercussions and the sustainability of economic
development. The Bank therefore initiated a study in 1994 to develop
tools for monitoring environmental change in the DMCs. A set of
environmental indices, namely, cost of remediation, environmental
elasticity, and the environmental diamond, were developed and tested
in six selected countries of the region. All three indices were developed
on the basis of four principal environmental components, i.e., air,
water, land, and the ecosystem, using principal component analysis
techniques. Each of the three new indices is designed to characterize
different aspects of environmental quality. Each has different
implications for data requirements. Without good-quality environment
data, it would not be possible to make any judgment on the usefulness
of these indices. In addition, the technical complexities and methods
for constructing the indices also vary. The ultimate test for these
indices is, however, their usefulness as tools for conducting future
environment planning and devising effective policies.
Environmental accounting
The environmental degradation associated with economic
development and population growth is visible in many countries of
the Asian and Pacific region. The change in quality of land, air, and

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Development of Environment Statistics in DMCs 27
water as well as the loss of flora and fauna makes one concerned
about the costs of progress. Questions about the desirability of
untrammelled economic development initially elicited the response
“poverty is the worst pollutant.” While there is much truth in this
observation, our understanding of environment issues has become
somewhat more sophisticated over the past few years. The
environmental outlook of the developing countries of the region would
be gloomy indeed had countries not been alerted now to the need
to protect their environment and natural resources. While the
significance and the degree of severity of these environmental
problems vary from country to country, their mitigation inevitably
requires the integration of environmental considerations into the
planning process and developmental activities.
The preparation of environmental accounts and their regular
publication could bring a much greater degree of accountability in
public policy. Environmental accounting aims at measuring the real
income of a nation, which takes into account how much nations borrow
(or take) from nature. Changes in environmental quality and stocks
of natural resources that occur as a result of economic and social
development must be taken into consideration so that development
decisions can satisfy the needs of present and future generations.
The ongoing exploration of the usefulness of accounting
techniques for the organization and compilation of aggregate
environment statistics gives rise to a multitude of different approaches.
These can be classified into either physical or monetary accounting
schemes, but many countries in the region appear to be faced with
the need to advance in both types of accounting frameworks. It seems
that the demand for monetary accounting primarily emanates from
political quarters and some economists and environmentalists, while
the more technically oriented subject-matter experts appear to be
sceptical of the possibilities for aggregation, for monetary valuation,
or for both. Demands for the compilation of accounting aggregates
are more often than not associated with quests for developing statistics
permitting the conceptualization of sustainable development.
The conventional system of national accounting does not
adequately reflect the effects of a degrading environment on the
economy, or of depleting stocks of natural resources; indeed it is not
designed to. Various approaches to environmental and resource
accounting have been proposed to deal with the shortcomings

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28 DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENT STATISTICS
identified in national accounting systems with respect to the
environment. The revised 1993 System of National Accounts (SNA)
considers environment as a “satellite account,” separate from the
core accounts, but developed in a framework entirely compatible with
the SNA. The UNSD has prepared the Handbook of Integrated
Environmental and Economic Accounting (United Nations 1993),
which provides guidelines for producing “satellite” integrated
environmental accounts. The handbook describes a system of
integrated environmental and economic accounting (SEEA) that was
tested and revised following case studies in Mexico, Papua New
Guinea, and Thailand. Essentially, the new satellite system provides
guidance in the treatment of natural capital depletion (land, water,
air). For goods and services that have no market prices, alternative
valuation methods are suggested to impute the cost of depletion or
degradation. Using SEEA, planners incorporate environmental
information into production, income, and balance sheet accounts. It
explicitly allocates all environmental impacts to the separate economic
activities that cause (or bear) them. Environmental information is
thus made available for integration into the entire array of economic
policy and management analyses that the national accounting system
serves.
The UN satellite environmental accounts will certainly
encourage interested countries to begin constructing environmental
accounts that can easily be integrated into the core system, but they
are yet to be fully tested. The few case studies undertaken were based
on far-from-perfect data — sometimes only rough estimates, though
reasonably comprehensive — focusing on minerals, forests, and some
pollution charges. As the countries where the methodology is tested
come to some agreement about what the international standard of
green accounting should be, the possibility of reforming the core
UN system to include environmental information will grow.
Contents of Environment Statistics
UN-FDES wisely abstains from presenting model contents
for environment statistics, but restricts itself to presenting a general
framework within which actual concerns are listed. But for one faced
with the problem of devising a handbook, breaking up the field into
definite chapters is inevitable. Furthermore, as people are unfailingly

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Development of Environment Statistics in DMCs 29
bewildered about the possible scope of environment statistics, a
broad sketch of the contents of environment statistics may be
helpful. It should be stressed that the following is not in any way
meant to be a prescription, but is merely a tool to provide clarity
on the subject.
Core statistics
Core statistics, which are considered the main subject matter
of environment statistics, comprise the physical statistics describing
emissions from human society into nature as well as changes in land
use and their consequences. They cover the following areas of
concern:
(i) emissions to, concentrations in, or effects on air, water,
soil
(ii) land use, soil degradation, deforestation, agriculture, or
salinization
(iii) natural environment: plants, animals, or ecosystems
At present, the best developed methodology is for emissions
and concentrations, the latter often referred to as quality data.4
Probably for historical and institutional reasons, emission and
concentration monitoring developed independently. Thus the
opportunity to link the two and thereby provide policy makers with
more coherent data was lost. For example, one may know that a river
is polluted, but if one cannot identify and quantify the relevant
pollution sources, corrective measures are bound to be vague and
probably even misguided.
At a later stage, when sufficient data are available, data for
different media (air, water, soil) could be integrated by following the
fate of specific substances in so-called substance balance sheets.
Many effects can be readily measured, but their relation to causes
can often be stated in general terms only. One example is the
incidence of lung diseases and air pollution.
4 Between emissions and ambient concentrations, dispersion and emission can be
interposed. Dispersion is the way emitted substances are distributed from their
point of release. Emission is the process in which substances pass over to an-
other medium where they may reside for some time, e.g., air emissions to soil,
water emissions to soils.

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30 DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENT STATISTICS
As most developing countries are still highly dependent on
agriculture, the importance of land use or land cover statistics in
connection with soil degradation and other soil-related problems can
hardly be underrated. In countries poor in minerals, oil, gas, and the
like, soil is the most precious resource. Unfortunately, no unified
methodology has been developed for assembling reliable data in a
common framework. However, efforts being exerted by FAO and
others appear promising (Earthwatch/GEMS 1994).
Statistics on the natural environment are strongly related to
land use statistics (in this case, formulated in terms of habitat and
ecosystems) as a consequence of changing land use patterns rather
than of pollution. And much like effect statistics, many data can be
produced (e.g., abundance and distribution of plant and animal
species) without their making much sense for lack of an appropriate
framework, even on a national or subnational scale. Meanwhile,
species inventories and reed lists seem to have less meaning in the
tropics than in the higher latitudes, as there are simply too many
species to count. Ecosystem protection might be a better option in
this case. The most important questions then are (i) Do current
protected areas match the threatened ecosystem? (ii) Have boundaries
of protected areas been suitably delineated? (iii) Are enough areas
under protection? (Braatz 1992).
Explanatory and background statistics
Starting from the assumption that environmental problems
are caused by man and his actions or activities (Figure 2.1) and
modified by natural circumstances and wealth (amount of production
and consumption), the following statistics should provide explanatory
variables to emissions, concentration, or land use statistics:
(i) population (absolute level, density, rate of change);
(ii) activities (including transport, energy, and elements of
SNA); and
(iii) geography and climate (including natural disasters).
The methodology for these statistics has already been
established (e.g., population statistics, SNA). The statistical processes
consist mainly of selecting and restructuring existing data, in the
light of some framework for environment statistics. The same applies

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