However, we will discuss conditions for the attainment of sustainable development can be achieved by adopting the following mean:
(i) Measuring Natural Capital Stock:
The stock of natural assets includes soil fertility, forests and fisheries.
The required condition for sustainable development is that natural stock should be conserved and improved. It means that natural capital stock should remain constant.
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(ii) Natural Resources:
The condition of sustainable development is green accounting. It allows the computation of income for a nation by taking into account the economic damage and depletion in natural resource base of a country. It is a measure of sustainable income level that can be secured without decreasing the stock of natural assets.
(iii) Measuring environmental values:
It concerns comparing the benefits of environmental protection with the costs incurred on it.
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Economists has suggested 4 approaches:
(а) Market Price:
In case of adverse health effects and loss in productivity due to environmental damage, market prices are to evaluate them. The procedure is to evaluate damages due to soil erosion, deforestation and air and water pollution.
(b) Cost of Replacement:
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People and firms invest in installing alternative devices to avert environmental damage of air, water and land. These investments can provide as estimate of environmental damage.
(c) Surrogate Markets:
The effects of environmental damages on other markets like property values and wages of workers are also taken into account. Generally, jobs with high environmental risks will have high wages with high risk premium.
(d) Surveys:
Surveys is another method which is used to evaluate environmental damage. This method is adopted to know the effects of environment in developing countries.
(iv) Social Discount Rate:
It is believed that environmental degradation leads to costs. It also improves benefits on resource users. But the problem is how to measure costs and benefits of environmental effects on the present and the future generation. For this purpose a rate of discount is needed for discounting all costs and benefits. Concluding some acceptable measure is to be evolved to measure sustainable development.