Mauritius National Budget 2023 - 2024

As per the World Bank, the global economy cannot afford the collapse of ecosystem services. Such a collapse would cost 2.3 percent of global GDP ($2.7 trillion) annually by 2030 and some of the poorer countries would be hit hardest. 

Blue and green biodiversity and ecosystem services are nevertheless being lost at an unprecedented rate and scale in human history, with potentially far-reaching implications for economies and livelihoods. Mauritius has one of the most threatened island flora in the world (“UN Environment Programme, Mauritius country profile”). The country spans only 2,040 square kilometres but has game changing opportunities for ecosystem policy development with its exclusive economic zone covering 2,300,000 square kilometres. The marine and coastal environment already provides large economic benefits to our Mauritian society through activities linked to tourism, fisheries and other marine ecosystem driven opportunities.

Hence, our prelude to the Mauritius National Budget tries to provide a new lens in an attempt to share the importance of nature in building a sustainable Mauritian economy. As per the World Bank Research, in many countries, GDP is increasing at the expense of total wealth and future prosperity. Evidently, a country’s GDP and wealth is directly dependent on its natural capital.

If not properly informed, citizens might mistakenly expect their improving prosperity to continue indefinitely. If rising GDP today comes at the expense of declining wealth per capita, then prosperity will be unsustainable. Economic growth will erode its own base. Hence, we must move beyond GDP, and build our country's balance sheet which accounts for our natural assets.

An example of a sustainable economic approach that recognises the importance of nature is the concept of the blue economy. The blue economy emphasises the sustainable use of ocean resources while preserving marine ecosystems and biodiversity. For coastal nations like Mauritius, the blue economy offers opportunities for economic growth through sectors such as sustainable fisheries, marine tourism, renewable energy from offshore wind and wave power, and the development of marine biotechnology.

Where we stand on our Sustainability Journey

SGDs, NDCs & Last Year’s Budget in Perspective 

As per the the latest available data from “The Sustainable Development Report (2022)”, out of the 17 SGDs, Mauritius is stagnating or increasing at less than 50% of the required rate on six SDGs, including Affordable and Clean Energy, Climate Action, Zero Hunger, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Life Under Water and Life on Land. While we are making good progress on the other SDGs, there is still a lot to be done.

Our Expectation from the 2023/2024 Budget

While climate concerns and GHG emissions have obtained the lion’s share of the environment-related financing in last year’s budget, we believe that more resources should be  alloted to protect our nature, biodiversity and the oceans. Bearing in mind that 89% of the Mauritian flora is considered threatened, as per the Convention on Biological Diversity, we expect that future policies should ensure the protection of marine life as well as plant and animal species on the Island.

Going further, as a nation dependent on its natural resources, we see a need to start thinking beyond GDP and start measuring “fully” the true wealth of our country and society. A need to set forth an agenda to integrate our natural capital into our country’s official economic output. 

The recently adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) paves the way to close the US$700+ billion annual investment ‘gap’ for nature. However, achieving the  framework’s target of mobilising US$200 billion per year of finance for nature will require innovative mechanisms and external market forces with both public and private sector engagement. To date, public finance has shouldered the lion’s share of the responsibility for natural capital investment. However, public finance alone will fall far short of the required levels of investment needed to achieve a nature-positive future.

Recent research by PwC’s Centre for Nature Positive Business (Pdf 14.3mb), based on an analysis of some 80 nature finance vehicles and interviews with 40 stakeholders, produced several recommendations for how to expand the volume of private capital going into projects that protect and restore nature. And those recommendations are significant: new project structures, public–private financing mechanisms, better communication between project developers and investors, and higher-quality data could all create opportunities to build value by protecting the world’s precious natural assets.

Nature-smart policies can reduce the risk of ecosystem collapse and are “win-win” policies in terms of biodiversity and economic outcomes. Mauritius is very well positioned to benefit from these policies. Sectors that together contribute to more than 50% of the current GDP of the Mauritian economy could potentially increase their metabolic rate by adopting nature-centric strategies. And, the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us that the Mauritian economy needs to build resilience by further deepening their presence in these important sectors or by diversifying into new ones.

In addition, a national level Sustainability Policy backed by an integrated sustainability framework is required to drive a coordinated and data-centric approach to achieving sustainability in Mauritius. We believe that Mauritius could also adopt a standardised national framework to measure the changes in the stock and condition of its natural capital (ecosystems) at a variety of scales, and to integrate the flow and value of ecosystem services into accounting and reporting systems in a standard way.

We are also hoping for more collaboration between policy makers, the public sector and the  private sector in addition to partnering with thought leaders in Mauritius, regionally and globally to overcome the challenges related to sustainability.