Applying the concept of natural capital criticality to regional resource management

This paper applies the concept of natural capital stock, and identifies its critical elements, in a regional sustainable development context in order to assess its conceptual and practical relevance. Assessment of the physical stock of natural capital was undertaken for Central Region in Scotland. It was found that the concept can be a useful way of assessing, and giving greater recognition to natural resources at a regional or local level. However, identification of critical levels of resources was less straightforward. The lack of clear guidelines relating to criteria of criticality, natural capital category aggregation issues, and conflicts between types of critical natural capital were encountered as major issues. The application of an absolute preservation rule was found to suffer from the same general disadvantages as any absolute rule. Nevertheless, the assessment of natural capital and identification, where possible, of critical elements were thought to be a useful adjunct to sustainable development work. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.