ASi" kUCTURE FlOR DEVELOPMENT

Wnter. For most countries, the percentage of the agreed on. Nor are the measures shown in this table
- - population with access to safe water either by intended to be final indicators of natural resource
standpipe. or house connection is the measure of wealtlh, environmental health, or resource deple-
: coverage and is drawn primarily from tle World tion. They have been chosen because they are avail-
Health Organization's Thec International Drinikinig able for most countries, are testable, and reflect
- -Water Supply and. Sanitationt Decade series, various some general conditions of the environment.
years. For the econornies of the FSU, the percentage The nat(ral forest total area refers to natural stands
of public housing equipped with running water is of woody vegetation in which trees predominate.
the measure of coverage, and the source is Housintg These estimates are derived from country statisiics
Conditions in thie USSR, published by the State Com- assembled by the Food and Agriculture Organiza-
V mittee on Statistics for the USSR Data for water tion (FAO) and the United Nations Economic Comlosses
are frori G(am 1987 and are for metropolitan mission for Europe (UNECE). New assessments
area systems. Where 1986 data were not available, were published in 1993 for tropical countries (FAO)
the dosest available year was taken. Water losses in- and temperate zones (UNECE/FAO). The FAO and
dude physical losses (pipe breaks and overflows) the UNECE/FAO use different definitions in their
and conunercial losses (ineter underregistration, it- assessments. The FAO defines natural forest in troplegal
use including fraudulent or unregistered con- icail countries as either a closed forest where trees
nections, and legal, but usually not metered, uses cover a high proportion of the ground and there is
such as firefighting).
no continuous gMss cover or an open forest, defined
Railuwys. The coverage indicator is the number of as mnixed forest/grasslands with at least 10 percent
rail traffic units per million US. dollars GDP. Rail tree cover and a continuous grass layer on the forest
--. traffic units are thesumofpassenger-kilometers and floor. A tropical forest encompasses all stands ex
ton-lilometers and were obtained from the database cept plantations and includes stands that have been
maintained by the Transport Division of the Trans- degraded to some degree by agriculture, fire, logport,
Wate, and Urban Development Department, gin& or add precipitation.
World Bankl Diesel locomotive availability is one of UNECE/FAQ defines a forest as land where tree
the better measures of technical and managerial per- crowns cover more than 20 percent of the area. Also
formance because locomotives are the most expen- included are open forest formations; forest roads
sive rolling stock the railways own. Data for diesel and firebreaks; small, temporarily cleared areas;
locomotive availability as a percentage of diesel in- young stands expected to achieve at least 20 percent
ventory are from the same World Bank database. crown cover on maturity; and windbreaks and shel-
GDP figures are from Summers and Heston, Th1e terbelts. Plantation area is included under temper-
Penni World Tables (Alrk 55), forthcoming.
ate country estimates of natural forest area. Some
-countries in this table also include other wooded
Table 33. Natural resources
land, defined as open woodland and scrub, shrub,
and brushland.
This table represents a step toward including envi- Deforestation xefers to the permanent conversion
ronmental data in the assessment of development of forest land to other uses, including shifting cultiand
the planning of economic strategies. It provides vation, permanent agriculture, ranching, settlea
partial picture of the status of forests, the extent of ments, or infastructure developmenL Deforested
..areas protected for conservation or other environ- areas do not include areas logged but intended for
-mentally related purposes, and the availability and regeneration or areas degraded by fuelwood gatheruse
of fresh water. The data reported here are drawn ing, add predpitation, or forest fires. The extent and
from the most authoritative sources available, percentage of total area shown refer to the average
which are cited in World Resources Institute, World annual deforestation of natural forest area.
- Resources 1994-95. Perhaps even more than other Some countries also conduct independent assessldata
in this Report, however, these data should be ments using satellite data or extensive ground data.
used with caution. Although they accurately charac- A 1991 country-wide assessment using Landsat imterize
major: differences in resources and uses agery estimated India's forest cover at 639,000.
among countries, true comparability is limited be- square kilometers. An inventory based on 1990
cause of vaination in data collection, statistical meth- LANDSAT TM imagery estimated Mexico's forest
- : X ods, definitions, and government resources. cover at 496,000 square kilometers, with a deforesta-
No conceptual framework that integrates natural tion rate of 4.06 square kilometers per year between
resource and traditional economic data has yet been 1980 and 1990. In Brazil two recent satellite-
248