Massive destruction and depletion of natural resources-forests, land and subsoils– and high population growth has now landed Kenya among 11 Africa countries the World Bank describes as being in the red in their wealth creation.

In its 2005 audit report titled Where is the Wealth of Nations: Measuring Capital for the 21^st Century , the bank says with a Wealth Per Capita standing at -11, the country is on a treadmill.

This means children being born today are not assured of a better prospect and the country will not realize sustainable development if it continues on this trend.

Although Kenya's savings rate lie at 40 per capita, the high population growth and unsustainable depletion of natural resources is pushing it into registering negative figures when it comes to wealth creation.

“While a list of African countries exhibits positive net savings per capita, there is negative changes in total wealth per capita. Population growth is outstripping wealth creation in these countries,” warns the report.

In this list, Kenya, Benin, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Mali, Madagascar, Cape Verde, and Ghana, are included as those running down their assets.

A part from the depletion of natural resources, the report found Kenya's intangible capital such as human capital and quality of institutions supporting economic activity, to be one of the lowest in the world.

According to the report, such a low figure among the countries whose wealth was measured means they have low education levels and practice poor governance.

Even in countries where high school levels are visible- as is the case with Kenya -, it adds, the benefits from education maybe very low if there is no productive sector to absorb the educated professionals.

When this is the case, those who miss out to get jobs move to other countries, resulting in brain drain.

Kenya has in recent years experiencing massive brain drain as professional especially doctors, nurses and other scientist seek greener pastures in developed countries.

Inefficient judicial system, lack of clear property rights and effective governments, are also considered in the report as the causes of low intangible capitals in any country.

On environment, the report, which gives statistics on the wealth status of 120 countries worldwide, warns that countries which are growing today with positive economic growths at the expense of the environment are facing the possibility of declining wealth in future.

This is the second time, in less than three years, a UN agency has passed a negative assessment on Kenya's performance in the management of natural resources and population growth.

In 2002, an Economic Commission for Africa report titled, Harnessing Technologies for Sustainable Development , placed the country's environmental sustainability at 0.4. This was based on a scale of 0 to 1, with 0 being the worst and 1 the best practice.

Out of the 38 countries researched in this study for their environmental sustainability between 1975 and 2000, Kenya was placed in position 36, two steps a head of Tunisia and Mauritia.

Forest cover, arable land, carbon dioxide emissions and population density were the indicators used to rank the countries.

Again, the current report confirms that things are moving from bad to worse. Indeed, the last few years have witnessed massive destruction of the country's natural resources, especially forests and the soil.

Forest cover is now estimated to stand at less than two percent when widely agreed figure is 10 percent.

Both government officers and ordinary members of the public have been involved in the destruction of forests. Majority of the poor people however argue that they have been pushed to use firewood and charcoal as a source energy after the cost of paraffin has increased beyond their reach.

Currently, one litre of paraffin retails at Sh 58 in Kenya, double the rate it was going at less than three years ago.

Many wild animals that inhabit certain forests have died or been displaced following this destruction, while unchecked emission of carbon dioxide continue to destroyed the environment.

In the same period, the country has been experiencing a shortage of contraceptives for women, especially the injectable ones, which are a favourite of the rural women.

According to the 2003 Kenya Demographic Health Survey, contraceptive prevalence in the country has stagnated at 39 percent. One of the consequences of this is the increase in the number of children per woman from four to five.

Demographic experts believe the effect of this increase is putting extra pressure on natural resources, contributing to the negative wealth creation.

They also argue that failure to involve the public, who are custodians of these resources in the ownership and sharing of benefits arising from such assets, is to blame for their increased depletion.

Assistant Minister for Environment, Prof Wangari Maathai, agrees. Speaking during the launch of the World Bank report, she gave an example of communities coexisting with Abendare mountain and Mountain Kenya as those needing to share in the benefits arising from the utilization of these natural features.

“Once we educate people, and ensure they have a stake in the benefits arising from the natural resources in their neighborhood, then they can help in conserving such assets,” she said.

In the proposed Draft Constitution, the Chapter on Environment and Natural resources provides in section 92 (2) (b) that there will be established a National Environment Commission which will “promote just, equitable and rational sharing and utilization of the environment and natural resources.”

This provision is expected to ensure the equitable sharing of benefits.

On the other hand, Wangari wants World Bank and other donors to find ways of compensating countries that forego exploitation of certain resources for purposes of environmental conservation.

But World Bank Vice-President for Sustainable Development, Ian Johnson warned that even if they were to prescribe to governments what to do on environment and development issues, it will not work unless these governments believe the sector is critical for development.

He says although 55 percent of child and maternal mortality are caused by environmental factors, many people do not see things from this perspective.

At the moment, what is however worrying World Bank most is that in an attempt to spur unprecedented economic growth as away of meeting the MDGs, many countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, may do so at the expense of the wealth they have-natural resources.

The Bank wants finance ministries in these countries to develop a comprehensive agenda “that looks at natural resources as an integral part of their policy domain.”

They should also, together with ministries of planning and national development, include statistics on depletion of resources and damage to the environment when measuring their Gross Domestic Product, to help get the true figures of wealth.

The report further challenges Kenya and other African governments to invest the earning from their natural resources in other assets such as infrastructure and education of its people, among other things.

At the global level, Kirk Hamilton, World Bank's Lead Environmental Economist, proposes that targets and a ranking procedure be put in place to help measure whether countries are using natural resources in a sustainable manner and in line with goal seven of the MDGs.