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Search in WDR 2003 Web: Search WDR 2003 Search Documents Search All Resources         Purchase a hardcopy >>       -How to Order     -Geographic Discounts Chapter 2: Managing a Broader Portfolio of Assets <<--- Previous Section: A system of indicators --->> Next Section: Why the need to manage a broader portfolio of assets? The importance of a range of assets Action to improve asset management need not await resolution of debates on how to define and measure sustainability, but does require a clear understanding of what assets matter and why. The capacity of any society to meet the "requirements" of individual well-being depends on the level and quality of a range of assets-and on how society deploys them Broadly, these assets consist of the following: 10 Human assets-the innate skills, talents, competencies, and abilities of individuals, as well as the effects of education and health. Natural assets-both renewable and nonrenewable. These assets have source functions that enter as inputs into production and utility-forests, fisheries, mineral ores, and natural forces (such as air and water currents). They also have sink functions to accommodate the unusable outputs of production and consumption-air, water, and soil receiving pollution and waste generated by human activities.11 More fundamentally, nature performs critical life-support services on which the well-being of all life depends. So far-despite all the technological advances-no way has been found to fully replace these services through human-made alternatives (box 2.1). Human-made assets-created physical products, particularly those used in production, such as machinery, equipment, buildings, and physical networks, as well as financial assets. Knowledge assets-"codified knowledge," which is easily transferable across space and time (unlike "tacit" knowledge, which entails an individual's experience and learned judgment and thus cannot be easily transferred until codified). Social (or relational) assets-interpersonal trust12 and networks,13 plus the understanding and shared values that these give rise to-which facilitate cooperation within or among groups.14 The importance of managing human, physical, and financial assets is well known, but how they interact with other assets is less well developed. Social, and environmental assets enhance human well-being directly through their very existence (e.g., the ability to trust another person or enjoy a natural setting).15 They also enhance human well-being indirectly through their contribution to production and material well-being (figure 2.2). A tropical forest provides cut lumber as an input into the production of furniture and houses. A standing forest's environmental services-such as flood control and storm protection-can also improve the production of crops. And a forest's complex ecological functions support life for many species-that are important for the functioning and survival of the forest, which provides humans with material and aesthetic pleasures. <<--- Previous Section: A system of indicators --->> Next Section: Why the need to manage a broader portfolio of assets?

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