4.5.3. Environment quality and resource depletion
Another macroeconomic question concerns the impact or economic
growth on environmental quality. Do high rate of growth that is, increase in
GDP of Rwanda, implies greater environmental degradation or might the opposite
be true? It is to note that «some pollution increases during the early
stages of a country's development and then begins to diminish as country gain
adequate resources to tackle pollution problems». This happen because at
low incomes' people tend to value development over environmental quality, but
as the country achieves greater wealth it willing to devote greater resources
to environmental quality improvements. This is a matter of greater
importance for Rwanda.
Rwanda however, was thought to have fewer environmental
problems because their reindustrialized technology was more environmental
benign, and it had no yet committed itself to a materialistic style of life.
Ideas have changed, however. For one thing, it has become clear that massive
environmental degradation has occurred in Rwanda; rural areas have seen
large-scale soil erosion and water-quality deterioration, deforestation and
declining in soil productivity. But the government of Rwanda is trying to
rehabilitate all those constraints towards sustainable economic
developments.
A number of efforts have been made to incorporate factors like
air quality and resource depletion into a comprehensive measure of GDP. Doing
so has been difficult, since it often involves placing a monetary unit value on
intangibles, like having clean river as it is the policy of Rwanda by
eradicating erosion, planting bamboos at least in 50 m from rives or lakes and
resource conservation are hard to measure even though forests conservations are
being developed by creating Nation Park to promote Tourism in Rwanda.
Table 4.3. Environmental
Indicators
|
Environment
|
|
Threatened species
|
2009
|
53
|
|
Forested area (% of land area)
|
2007
|
21.7
|
|
CO2 emission estimates (000 metric tons and metric tons per
capita)
|
2006
|
795/0.1
|
|
Energy consumption per capita (kilograms oil equivalent)
|
2007
|
19
|
|
Rainfall, total mean (millimetres)
|
|
1028
|
Source: NISR: Statistical Yearbook 2009
Edition: 64-66.
4.5.4. Tourism
The movement of population across national borders is another
mark of integration and development. In Rwanda some of expenditures on tourism
sector are captured by GDP through investment or gross fixed capital formation
induced by private sector or government. And some others are captured in
Tourism satellite accounts.
Receipts from tourisms were 6.5% of export in 20009. The
receipts from tourists has increased the capacity of Rwanda's economy and
improved also the Rwanda's rest of the world account. More further, due to
development of tourism Rwanda's gross saving had increased from 25 billion Frw
in 1999 to reach 404 billion Frw in 2009 (Republic of Rwanda, NISR: Statistical
Yearbook 2009: 64-66).
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