The Changing Wealth of Nations Report has disclosed that Ghana’s natural capital per capita reached a peak of $9,000 in 2014 before declining by more than 30% to $6,000 in 2018.

Similarly, as stated by the report, in 2017, the cost of environmental degradation brought on by the unsustainable use of land alone was 2.8% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

According to the World Bank, if this trend continues, it will amplify destruction of the natural resource base, disproportionately impacting the poor and increasing exposure to climate risk.

The report said the Government of Ghana (GoG) acknowledged that, despite the country’s excellent GDP growth, the destruction of the environment will have an impact on the future they wish for their citizens.

As a result, Government of Ghana has revealed its plans to taking strategic action, in cooperation with the Global Program on Sustainability (GPS) and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), to implement the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting in order to integrate the value of nature and its services into development and investment planning.

To successfully mainstream natural capital accounting, the report said the GoG found it was not necessary to start from scratch.

“It was possible to build on existing alliances by first identifying active tools, structures and partnerships that were already working well, like the Cost of Environmental Degradation Working Group.
“They then boosted collaboration across institutions to help spread best practices and leverage knowledge among ministries. This made it possible to build capacity more quickly among the technical officers inside the different ministries.”
The Changing Wealth of Nations Report

The next phase for Ghana, according to the report, will be to increase the timeliness and reliability of data, which will serve as the foundation for the indicators needed for planning, policy, and implementation programs.

Making A Transition To A Sustainable Future

According to the report, there are several promising results as Ghana is developing land and ecosystem extent accounts, ecosystem services accounts and deriving environmentally adjusted macroeconomic indicators.

“As a result, GoG will be able to better target landscape restoration interventions, inform land-use planning and conservation policies, and derive key indicators for monitoring and reporting.”
The Changing Wealth of Nations Report

The report went on to assert that the institutional ability to produce quantitative and qualitative information is having an impact on policy decisions at all levels, as Ghana continues to make steady progress.

“It is also contributing to the success of other projects like the Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small-Scale Mining Project, financed by the World Bank, with funding from IDA, PROGREEN and EGPS.”
The Changing Wealth of Nations Report