This study made an attempt to account for the true contribution of forest and
woodland resources to economic wellbeing in Swaziland. A natural resource and
environmental accounting approach was used to correct national accounts for the
missing values of forest resource stocks and flow benefits. As the produce of
cultivated plantations and their forward processing industries is commercially
exploited and sold in markets, their contribution to national income is captured in the
formal national accounts. However, the value of net accumulation in their asset stocks
is not part of the assets’ accounts’ balance sheets. This study established the timber
and carbon assets’ values of cultivated plantations for the 1988-99 period. When
assets’ accounts were corrected for the net accumulation in timber and carbon stocks
of plantations, gross domestic savings, a measure of genuine welfare improved by
more than 2.3%. The study however, did not correct for the environmental externality
costs of plantations in terms of their impacts on ecosystem’s functions such as stream
flow reduction and erosion of biodiversity.
On the other hand, natural forests and woodlands support the livelihood of large
segments of the population of Swaziland, especially in rural areas where 75% of the
population reside and where poverty is very high. It has been estimated that 55% of
the rural population in Swaziland (estimated at approximately 88,000 households) are
classified as poor living on a per capita income of E 76 per year at 1998 prices. The
vast majority of the rural poor highly depends on and derives many direct and indirect
use and non-use benefits from natural forest and woodland resources. Unlike the case
of cultivated forests where only asset values are not accounted for, both flow benefits
and asset values of natural forests and woodlands are not captured in the SNA. This is
mainly due to the fact that most of the direct and indirect benefits derived from these
resources are not commercially supplied and traded in the market.