Natural capital, development and sustainability in Madagascar and Mozambique.

Summary The objective of this thesis is to explore the role of natural capital in the development strategies of African countries. In Part 1, we summarize what we know about the links between natural capital and development. Part 2 focuses on natural capital as a whole, at the country level. The objective is to propose a framework for sustainability analysis. Through two case studies (Madagascar and Mozambique), we conclude on the need to measure the evolution of the different capital stocks of countries. We propose different extensions of this approach, notably on the treatment of intangible capital. In part 3, we focus on the soil resource, at a finer scale. First, we propose different theoretical avenues for the economic analysis of soils. We enter into the complexity of the functioning of this particular ecosystem. Then, we analyze the social profitability of an example of investment in this "soil capital": agroecological techniques in Lake Alaotra (Madagascar). We conclude with a perspective on the place of this work in the decision-making process.