Costs of environmental degradation An analysis in the Middle East and North Africa region

Transcription

1 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at wwwemeraldinsightcom/ htm Costs of environmental An analysis in the Middle East and North Africa region Muawya Ahmed Hussein Dhofar University, Salalah, Dhofar, Oman Costs of environmental 305 Received 20 July 2007 Revised 25 October 2007 Accepted 30 November 2007 Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide estimates of damage cost for several areas of the environment In particular: to estimate the cost of as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) at the national level; to enhance local capacity in environmental economics, in particular in the valuation of environmental ; and to provide an input to inter-sectoral environmental priority setting Design/methodology/approach To achieve the above objectives a framework was developed to estimate the cost of environmental in seven countries in the region, for six categories Estimates reflect order of magnitude and therefore represent an indication of actual damage costs A range of estimates was provided to reflect the uncertainty of the results Damage costs are presented in annual values (in local currencies, in US$ dollars) and as a per cent of GDP Expressing costs as a share of GDP provides a sense of magnitude and will allow cross-country comparison Findings The damage cost of environmental in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2000 is estimated at US$ 9 billion per year, or per cent of GDP, with a mean estimate of 57 per cent of GDP In addition, the damage cost to the global environment is estimated at of GDP, with a mean estimate of 09 per cent of GDP Research limitations/implications Owing to data constraints, no cost estimates are provided for some impact such as: associated with industrial, hazardous and hospital waste, biodiversity loss, and impact of inadequately treated wastewater, thus calculations often represent lower bound estimates Originality/value This paper is a contribution in a process towards the use of environmental damage cost assessments for priority setting and as an instrument for integrating environmental consideration into economic and social development Keywords Middle East, North Africa, Assessment, Damages, Environmental management Paper type Research paper Introduction The MENA region now faces unique development and environment challenges, such as high rates of unemployment (nearly 18 per cent of the regional workforce was unemployed in 2002), lack of economic diversifications (their dependence on oil and agriculture and the concentration of industry in relatively narrow range of low productivity activities, declining per capita water resources, the loss of arable land, pollution-related health problems, and weak environmental institutions and legal This paper was presented at the International Symposium on Drylands Ecology and Human Security (ISDEHS) Dubai, 4-7 December 2006 Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal Vol 19 No 3, 2008 pp q Emerald Group Publishing Limited DOI /

2 MEQ 19,3 306 frameworks Despite some improvements over the past decade, future generations in the region will continue to face serious environmental problems unless significant attention is given, and investments are made, to reverse the current state of environmental, particularly with regard to water scarcity, pollution and health problems, land and weak environmental institutions and legal frameworks Although environmental concerns within the MENA region are becoming salient, and every country now has an environment ministry or agency, many countries are still depleting their natural resources at rates well above sustainable levels One indicator of this deterioration is adjusted net savings, which measures the true saving rate in an economy after allowing for depletion of natural resources Adjusted net savings in MENA for 2001 is estimated at 6 per cent of gross national income, compared to 1 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa, 5 per cent in Latin America, 12 per cent in South Asia, and 23 per cent in East Asia and the Pacific Despite the difficulties involved in assigning monetary costs to environmental, such estimates can be a powerful means of raising awareness about environmental issues and facilitating progress toward sustainable development It is far easier for decision-makers to incorporate and prioritize environment when the issues can be cast in clear economic terms Such assessments are particularly relevant in light of the mainstreaming effort called for by the World Bank Environment Strategy (World Bank Middle East and North Africa Environment Strategy, February 1995) An initiative in the MENA region, undertaken in collaboration with the Mediterranean Environmental Technical Assistance Program (METAP), is assisting countries in assessing the costs of environmental, with the aim of fostering integration of environmental issues into broader economic development agendas Similar exercises have been undertaken in other countries with World Bank support For instance, in Colombia, it is being undertaken as part of a country environmental analysis and is influencing priority setting for a structural adjustment loan However, the MENA initiative is particularly interesting in being undertaken at a region-wide level The cost of environmental can be understood as a measure of lost welfare of a nation due to environmental Such a loss in welfare from environmental includes (but is not necessarily limited to): loss of healthy life and well-being of the population (eg premature death, pain and suffering from illness, absence of a clean environment, discomfort); economic losses (eg reduced soil productivity and reduced value of other natural resources, lower international tourism); and loss of environmental opportunities (eg reduced recreational values of lakes, rivers, beaches, forests for the population) In this paper the cost of environmental is expressed as a percentage of GDP in order to provide a sense of magnitude It is also often useful to compare the cost of to GDP in order to assess their relative magnitude over time If the cost of as a percentage of GDP is growing over time, it suggests that the welfare loss from environmental is growing faster than GDP, ie that economic and human activity is having increasingly negative (environmental) consequences on the nation relative to its economic affluence If the contrary is the case, it suggests that environmental consequences are being reduced relative to the nation s economic affluence

3 Overview of the MENA region and the environment sector The countries of the MENA region are home to about 6 per cent of the world s population (see Figure 1) The total population of the region has increased from around 100 million in 1950 to around 380 million in 2000 an addition of 280 million people in 50 years During this period the population of the MENA region increased 37 times, more than any other major world region The MENA region has an area of about 111 million Km2 The region s share in global oil production will increase from 35 per cent today to 44 per cent in 2030 Oil production (including natural gas liquids) is projected to rise from 29mb/d in 2004 to 33mb/d in 2010 and to 50mb/d by 2030 However, this means the countries of the Middle East and North Africa would need to invest, on average, $56 billion per year in energy infrastructure The region is threatened by the loss of arable land and increased coastal, which are caused principally by unsustainable agricultural practices and unmanaged competition for land and marine resources Permanent cropland, currently less than 6 per cent of the total land area, is shrinking due to serious land and recurrent droughts Pollution-related health problems, particularly in urban and industrial centers, represent another challenge The causes include open municipal waste dumps; the use of leaded gasoline in an aging and poorly maintained vehicle fleet; the inefficient use of fossil fuels for power generation; and particulate and sulfur oxide emissions from industry Finally, weak environmental institutions and legal frameworks prevent countries from adequately addressing environmental challenges like the three described above Annual renewable water resources per capita are expected to fall from 1997 levels of 1,045m3 per year to 740m3/yr by 2015 Despite growing urban populations, an average of 88 per cent of MENA s water resources are allocated to the agriculture sector, with only 7 per cent going toward domestic consumption Water scarcity is aggravated by increased of water quality, which primarily affects the region s poor Costs of environmental 307 Literature review The interest in taking into consideration the economic sides of environmental can be traced back to the works of Scitovsky (1954) and Meade (1973) These studies established the theory of externalities By an externality, economists refer to a non-market consequence (or an unanticipated consequence, which leads to the same result) on the well-being of individuals or the performance of firms, such as an increase or a decrease in the quality or the availability of an environmental good or service provided that this effect has not been compensated in one way or the other (through payment, agreement, etc) An external cost is a negative externality while an external benefit is a positive externality Thus, it is not the environment per se, which is taken into account by individuals or firms but rather the environmental consequences of the various activities of the latter The object of the evaluation is not Nature but the decrease in its quality (polluted air and water; endangered public health, etc) or its capacity to provide environmental services (degraded soil, diminished carrying capacity, etc) These new economic goods and services appeared with the emergence of new environmental values (clean air and water, safe surroundings, restored carrying capacities, etc) (Pillet, 1976) In

4 MEQ 19,3 308 Figure 1 An overview of the MENA region

5 short, restoring a degraded environment is producing benefits having an economic value in terms of their contribution to general well being In Switzerland, the first evaluations of the costs of environmental were undertaken in the 1970s for air pollution (EPFL, 1977, Ciba-Geigy, 1978, Berlin, 1981), then in the 1980s in a more comprehensive manner (Ledergerber, 1984, Frey, 1986, Pillet, 1988, Walther, 1990) In the mid-1980s, the cost of environmental in Switzerland was close to 10 billion USD/year; that is approximately 5 per cent of the GDP at the time (Pillet, 1991) At the international level, studies on the cost of environmental have been undertaken since the 1970s mainly by the OECD (1975, 1989), the World Bank (1991) as well as certain universities Two trends have been developed in parallel: one being the environmental evaluation in its economic dimension (Markandya, 1991; Pillet, 1993) and the other being the integration of environmental and the value of natural heritage in national accounting (Eurostat, 1990; Pillet, 1992; Franz and Stahmer, 1993) In the Arab Mediterranean countries (as well as in other regions in the world), the question of the economic cost of environmental was raised with the development of National Environmental Action Plans (NEAP) In 1995 in particular, the World Bank published its Environmental Strategy for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) It presented, based on 1990 data, the first estimates in order of magnitude of the costs of environmental in the region, particularly those related to the impacts on human headline associated with a lack of safe drinking water and appropriate sanitary measures and those on the of natural resources (mainly erosion and soil salinity) Subsequently, many specific studies were accomplished under the auspices of the German GTZ, METAP-The World Bank (2003) program, UNDP, USAID, and other organizations, namely in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia (eg Algerian NEAP/PNAE-DD, 2002; Larsen et al, 2002a) In parallel to these macro-economic evaluations, others, of a meso-economic level, were undertaken for the cement sectors in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Syria (Pillet and Zein, 2002b; Pillet et al, 2004), for urban communities in Morocco and Jordan (Pillet et al, 2004), and for fossil-fuelled electricity generation in Morocco (Pillet et al, 2004) The purpose is to evaluate, in economic terms, the environmental costs and benefits of economic sectors and regions while allowing them to better situate themselves with respect to macro-economic evaluations that are hard to grasp at their scale due to their highly aggregated level Indeed, a city, just like an industrial sector, needs a territory, consumes a number of resources (water, energy, primary products, etc) and transforms them into goods and services whilst generating a number of discharges (solid, liquid and gas), thus putting pressure on the ecosystems it depends on Such a representation of a city or an industry fixes the boundaries of the system analyzed, ie the flows of nature and the economy and their transformation their metabolism at the scale of an urban community or of an industrial sector Costs of environmental 309 The study: rationale, objectives, and methodology Neglect of the environment is costing MENA economies as much as 57 percent of national growth and the extent of are accelerating (Sharif Arif, 2003) The MENA countries face serious problems of environmental that must be

6 MEQ 19,3 310 addressed immediately because failure to act now will greatly compound the cost and complexity of later remedial efforts, and because environmental is beginning to pose a major threat to human well-being, especially among the poor in the region Environmental problems in the region are not abstract issues that only the rich can afford to address These long-lasting challenges have significant impacts on the economy and on human health As estimated in the National Environmental Action Plans of countries in the region, the annual cost of environmental damages ranges from per cent of GDP These costs are higher than those for Eastern Europe (5 per cent) and substantially higher than those of OECD countries (2-3 per cent) This paper is a step in a process supported by many agencies (international and local) to use environmental damage cost assessments as an instrument in environmental management The specific objectives of this paper are three-fold: (1) Provide an estimate of the cost of environmental in MENA using the most recent data available (2) Provide an analytical framework that can be applied periodically by professionals in MENA to assess the cost of environmental over time (3) Provide a basis for ministries, agencies, institutes and other interested parties to incorporate assessments of the cost of environmental into policymaking and environmental management To achieve the above objectives a framework was developed to estimate the cost of environmental in seven countries (Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Iran) in the region out of 19 countries with the following assumptions: Estimates reflect order of magnitude and therefore represent an indication of actual damage costs A range of estimate has been provided to reflect the uncertainty of the results 1999 or 2000 are used as a reference year Damage costs are presented in annual values (in local currencies, in US$ Dollars) and as a per cent of GDP Expressing costs as a share of GDP provides a sense of magnitude and will allow cross-country comparison Owing to data constraints, no cost estimates are provided for some impact such as: associated with industrial, hazardous and hospital waste, biodiversity loss, and impact of inadequately treated wastewater, thus calculations often represent lower bound estimates The seven countries are chosen because their population represents 67 per cent of the total MENA population, their area represents more than 70 per cent of total area, and all of them are coastal countries An attempt has been made to capture what may be expected to be the most significant costs of However, data limitations have been a constraint, which implies that estimates in some environmental areas are not included Hence, the total estimate of environmental, as presented in this study, is likely to underestimate the true costs of

7 The cost of environmental can be understood as a measure of the lost welfare of a nation due to environmental Such a loss in welfare from environmental includes (but is not necessarily limited to): loss of healthy life and well-being of the population (eg: premature death, pain and suffering from illness, absence of a clean environment, discomfort); economic losses (eg: reduced soil productivity and reduced value of other natural resources, lower international tourism); and loss of environmental opportunities (eg: reduced recreational value for lakes, rivers, beaches, forests) Costs of environmental 311 In this paper the cost of environmental is expressed as a percentage of GDP in order to provide an order of magnitude It is also useful to compare the cost of to GDP to assess the relative magnitude over time If the cost of as a percentage of GDP grows over time, it suggests that the welfare loss from environmental is growing faster than GDP, ie that economic and human activity is having increasingly negative (environmental) impacts on the nation relative to their economic affluence If the contrary is the case, it suggests that environmental impacts are decreasing relative to the nation s economic affluence The process of estimating the cost of environmental involves placing a monetary value on the consequences of such This paper has utilized available information on the quantification of environmental in MENA and the consequences of To estimate the cost of environmental for various aspects of the environment, the analysis and estimates have been organized into six categories: (1) Indoor and outdoor air pollution (2) Lack of access to water supply and sanitation services (3) Land (4) Coastal zone (5) Waste management (6) Global environment For each of these categories there are separate analyses and cost estimates for: health/quality of life; and natural resources The results The costs of environmental reached about US $174 billion in seven MENA countries at the beginning of the millennium (2000), and the indicators of these countries with respect to environmental sustainability are very low Estimates include environmental damage from such sources as indoor and outdoor air pollution, lack of access to water and sanitation services, land, coastal zone, and waste management In addition to the damages to the national economy, Table I presents damage to the global environment through greenhouse gas emissions Overall damage cost estimates for seven countries are presented in vary from 21 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in Tunisia to be as high as 71 percent of GDP in Iran

8 MEQ 19,3 312 (Table I) This high cost of environmental negatively affects public health, household budgets, the competitiveness of the economy, and inter-generational equity, whereby the rate of mining and means that many of the resources will not be available in the future The annual cost of environmental in Iran was estimated at 48 to 10 per cent of GDP, with a mean estimate of 74 per cent (equivalent to US$ 84 billion) The estimates presented indicate the severity and magnitude of environmental in Iran The environmental cost estimated in this paper only shows one side of the coin Any policy action that causes environmental damages also produces benefits to society These results are underestimates: because of data limitations, they do not include stemming from untreated industrial, hazardous, and hospital wastes or losses of forest cover and biodiversity Also owing to data constraints, the impact of inadequate treatment of industrial and municipal wastewater is limited to coastal recreational and tourism losses The discussion that follows is confined to the national effects of environmental Air pollution Research evidence from around the world shows that, indoor and outdoor air pollution has significant negative effects on public health, and results in premature deaths, chronic bronchitis, respiratory disorders, and even cancer The most significant air pollutant in terms of health impacts is particulate matter, especially fine particulates (PM10), and the studies therefore looked at PM10 levels in major polluted cities in the region In Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt, damage from urban air pollution is estimated to cost almost 2 percent of GDP This figure includes mortality (it is estimated that each year about 20,000 people in these cities die from air pollution-related causes), morbidity, and potential loss of tourism revenue The use of biomass fuel for cooking and heating can give rise to indoor air pollution that threatens health, especially that of women and young children, who spend disproportionately more time indoors than do men The studies analyzed biomass fuel use in rural areas to assess the potential health impact of indoor air pollution and found that, on average, damage cost from this source ranges between 015 and 045 per cent of GDP (Table II) This is relatively low compared with costs in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the East Asia and Pacific region A probable explanation is that in Algeria Egypt Lebanon Morocco Syria Tunisia Iran Table I Average annual damage costs of environmental, in MENA countries (percentage of GDP) Air pollution Lack of access to water supply and sanitation Land Coastal zone Waste management Subtotal Global environment (CO, emissions) Total Source: Adapted from METAP/The World Bank, Beirut Meeting, June 2003

9 Percentage share in GDP Country Indoor Outdoor Egypt Syria Morocco Lebanon Algeria Tunisia Iran Source: Calculated from Table I Costs of environmental 313 Table II Annual damage cost from air pollution MNA the proportion of rural to total population is much lower than in the other regions, and energy services (eg electrical grids and natural gas networks) are more geographically dispersed, hence leading to less dependence on biomass Lack of access to water supply and sanitation Water supply problems substandard quality and insufficient quantities of potable water for drinking and hygiene - and inadequate sanitation facilities impose costs on society, notably in the form of waterborne illnesses and the associated mortality Of these illnesses, the most common is diarrhea disease, which has the greatest impact on young children In Morocco, for example, lack of access to water supply and sanitation is estimated to cost society 10 to 15 percent of GDP (Table III) This estimate takes into account child mortality from diarrhea (6,000 deaths of children under age five each year); diarrhea child morbidity; and the time spent by caregivers in attending to ill children The estimates also include loss of water storage capacity due to dam silting The overall cost is understated; it does not include damage to fisheries, ecosystems, and biodiversity as a result of water pollution In Lebanon, where municipal tap water is perceived to be of low quality, the population consumes about 115 l of bottled water per capita per year After adjusting for lifestyle and taste, the estimated expenditure on bottled water for preventive health reasons comes to 05 percent of GDP Land In most MENA countries soil salinity, water erosion, and rangeland affect agricultural productivity and the supply of livestock fodder Although precise data are not available for each source of land, orders of magnitude have been estimated to give some perspective on the economic impact of (Table IV) In Syria salinity is especially critical in the Euphrates basin, where more than 40 per cent of total irrigated land is affected to varying degrees Overall, it is estimated that Country Algeria Egypt Lebanon Morocco Syria Tunisia Iran Percentage share in GDP Source: Calculated from Table I Table III Annual damage cost from lack of access to water supply and sanitation

10 MEQ 19, ,000 hectares suffer from high soil salinity, resulting in a 37 per cent decline in yields of cotton and wheat, the main irrigated crops The total annual loss in agricultural productivity is estimated at around US$80 million, or 045 per cent of GDP In some cases other impacts on land, such as quarrying activities, were assessed as well In Lebanon uncontrolled quarrying in the past has caused major destruction of natural vegetation and habitat A survey undertaken to assess the impact of three abandoned quarries on the surrounding environment revealed that the price of nearby land and apartments overlooking the three quarries were lower than prices for comparable properties further away from the quarries by US$90 million In general, land estimates are understated because they do not include damage to natural habitats and ecosystems or losses in forestland and biodiversity Coastal zone The coastal resources represent an important cultural, ecological, economic, and recreational asset But uncontrolled urban development, untreated industrial and municipal discharge, and port activities have contributed to coastal pollution Marine ecosystems, such as the coral reefs around Hurghada, Egypt, on the Red Sea, have suffered irreversible damage In Lebanon the cost of coastal zone is estimated at 07 per cent of GDP (Table V); this estimate includes loss of international tourism revenues, effects on domestic tourism, and the cost, in lost ecological and non-use value, of sea turtle extinction In Tunisia, where 90 per cent of tourism revenues are derived from coastal zone recreation, a contingent valuation survey was undertaken to assess international tourists willingness to pay to improve beach cleanliness and water quality and reduce overcrowding In total, 12 percent of the tourists interviewed were willing to pay about EU 20 per stay (5 percent of their average expenditure), implying a total of about US$37 million per year Lebanon has a Mediterranean coastline of 225kms Urbanization, uncontrolled development of resorts, and the practice of dumping untreated municipal wastewater and solid waste into the sea have contributed to the of the shoreline, especially around the capital, Beirut, and the Bay of Jounieh This deterioration has forced people to travel greater distances in search of cleaner beaches A survey undertaken in 2002, assessed incremental travel costs in order to quantify the loss in recreational value It showed that 415, ,000 day trips each year were Table IV Annual damage cost from land Country Algeria Egypt Lebanon Morocco Syria Tunisia Iran Percentage share in GDP Source: Calculated from Table I Table V Annual damage cost from coastal zone Country Algeria Egypt Lebanon Morocco Syria Tunisia Iran Percentage share in GDP Source: Calculated from Table I

11 being made from the Beirut area to five natural beaches located between 28 and 62kms from Beirut The incremental travel cost to these areas was estimated at US$21 per day per visitor, on the basis of additional travel distance; a vehicle operating cost of US$045 per km; a time value of US$37 per hour of travel time per person; and observed vehicle occupancy Total incremental travel costs came to US$10 million per month,us$120 million per year Waste management Uncollected municipal and household waste attracts rodents and flies and other insects These may carry infectious diseases that put children and individual trash pickers at risk In most of the countries a contingent valuation method was used to assess people s willingness to pay to improve waste collection and street sweeping A 1995 survey undertaken in Rabat and Salé, Morocco, revealed an average willingness to pay of US$47 per household per month Adjusting this figure for inflation and aggregating it to other cities in Morocco yielded a nationwide urban figure of around US$170 million, about 05 percent of Morocco s GDP (Table VI) Some surveys looked at the impact of unsanitary landfills on the environment Landfills in rural or semi-rural areas had somewhat limited impacts, but the closure of the unsanitary landfill in Tunis in 1995 was found to be responsible for a rise of more than 35 per cent in real estate prices in the area In Morocco the cost associated with pollution of groundwater by leakage from unsanitary landfills was estimated at US$25 million per year Costs of environmental 315 Conclusion This study indicates that the cost of environmental in MENA is in the range of percent of GDP (including global environment cost) with a mean estimate of 57 percent This is substantial and about 15 times higher than in high-income countries The main reasons for this are: a significant disease burden (mortality and morbidity) and avertive expenditures associated with a lack of safe water and sanitation and inadequate hygiene; substantial negative impacts on health from severe air pollution; and the significant cost of land and coastal resources This paper also suggests that MENA would benefit significantly from remedial action to protect and restore the quality of the environment, although estimates are tentative Further analysis of costs and benefits of select environmental issues considered priority areas by the Governments of MENA countries would facilitate the process of priority setting and improved environmental management as well as promote intersectoral support for action Future cost analyses of importance should include a more in-depth assessment of the impacts of environmental quality on tourism and recreation (coastal and inland), a cost benefit analysis of urban air pollution, and the Country Algeria Egypt Lebanon Morocco Syria Tunisia Iran Percentage share in GDP Source: Calculated from Table I Table VI Annual damage cost from waste management

12 MEQ 19,3 316 cost of land resources (agriculture, quarries and construction, and deforestation) This analytical work has proved to be very effective in MENA countries In Algeria the results were applied at the highest political levels in deciding on important investments in environmental protection, totaling about US$450 million In Egypt the study has sparked interest in further analysis of the cost of environmental at the government level, in Damietta, Qena, and South Sinai In Tunisia the (National Environment Protection Agency) is interested in setting up a unit of environmental economists who will be trained to undertake economic analysis of environmental projects References Algerian NEAP/PNAE-DD (2002), National Environmental Action Plan/Plan National d Actions pour l Environnement et le Développement Durable, République Algérienne Démocratique et Populaire, Ministère de l Aménagement du Territoire et de l Environnement, Alger, p 140 Larsen, B, Sarraf, M and Pillet, G (2002), Cost assessment of environmental in the Mashreq and Maghreb countries from theory to practice Cost Assessment of environmental in Egypt, draft, The World Bank METAP METAP-The World Bank (2003), High Level Meeting on Economic Tools for Environmental Sustainability, June, Beirut Meade, JE (1973), The Theory of Economic Externalities, IUHEI, Geneva Pillet, G and Zein, K (2002b), Meso-economic indicators of environmental costs and benefits for the cement sector in Arab countries, Proceeding of the 12th AUCBM International Cement Conference and Exhibition, Marrakkech, AUCBM, Damascus Pillet, G, Zein, K, Carrara, A and Benyahia, N (2004), Economic Analysis of the Environmental Costs and Benefits of the Cement Industry in Syria, Ecosystem-SBA/ SDC and GOCBM, Damascus, p 40 Scitovsky, T (1954), Two concepts of external economics, Journal of Political Economy, April World Bank (1991), Environmental Assessment Sourcebook, World Bank, No 139, p 2 Further reading Allard, G (2001), The fires situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, in FRA Global Fire Assessment , Working Paper No 55, Forest Resources Assessment Program, FAO, Rome, pp BC Berlin (2004), Tehran Solid Waste Management Project: Landfill Preparation Study, Final Report, Organization for Waste Recycling and Composting (OWRC) Belhaj, M (1995), The Willingness to Pay for Better Household Waste Collection in Rabat-Sale, Gothenburg University, Morocco Huybers, T and Bennett, J (2003), Environmental management and the competitiveness of nature-based tourism destinations, Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics, Vol 24, pp Maradan, D, Pillet, G and Zingg, N (2001), Appraising externalities of the Swiss agriculture: a comprehensive view, in Ulgiati, S (Ed), Porto Venere Advances in Energy Studies, University of Siena, Siena, p 16 Sarraf, M (2004), Assessing the Costs of Environment Degradation in the Middle East and North Africa Region, Environment Strategy Notes No 9, The World Bank, Washington, DC

13 Sarraf, M, Larsen, B and Owaygen, M (2004), Cost of Environmental Degradation: The Case of Lebanon and Tunisia, Environment Department Papers United Nations Environment Program (2003b), State and the Environment in the Arab World, Progress Report (UNEP/ROWA/CAMRE/15/2003/Rev5, 29 November) United Nations Environment Program (2003), UNEP Strategy for West Asia, , UNEP/ROWA/CAMRE15/2, United Nations World Bank (2004e), Islamic Republic of Iran: Report No IR Middle East and North Africa Region, Washington, DC World Bank (2002), Arab Republic of Egypt: Cost Assessment of Environmental Degradation, Sector Note, Report EGT, Washington, DC Costs of environmental 317 Corresponding author Muawya Ahmed Hussein can be contacted at: m_hussein@dueduom To purchase reprints of this article please reprints@emeraldinsightcom Or visit our web site for further details: wwwemeraldinsightcom/reprints

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