Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash
"If we do not change our negative habits toward climate change, we can count on worldwide disruptions in food production, resulting in mass migration, refugee crises and increased conflict over scarce natural resources like water and farm land. This is a recipe for major security problems."
Natural resources are materials available on the planet that can be used to keep people alive and meet their needs. A natural resource might be any natural substance that humans utilize. This includes oil, coal, natural gas, metals, stone, sand, air, sunlight, soil, and water. Natural resources may also include animals, birds, fish, and vegetation. Food, fuel, and raw materials for manufacturing are all made from natural resources. Plants and animals provide all of the food that people consume. Heat, light, and power are provided by natural resources such as coal, natural gas, and oil. Natural resources are strongly intertwined. Therefore, removing one item would have an impact on the availability or quality of the others. If water is removed from a region, the vegetation, soils, animals, and even the air in that region will suffer.
A natural resource may exist as a separate entity such as fresh water, air, as well as any living organism such as a fish, or it may be transformed by extractive industries into an economically useful form that must be processed to obtain the resource such as metal ores, rare-earth elements, petroleum, timber and most forms of energy. Some resources are renewable resource, which means that they can be used at a certain rate and natural processes will restore them, whereas many extractive industries rely heavily on non-renewable resources that can only be extracted once.
Natural-resource allocations can be at the center of many economic and political confrontations both within and between countries. This is particularly true during periods of increasing scarcity and shortages (depletion and overconsumption of resources). Resource extraction is also a major source of human rights violations and environmental damage. The Sustainable Development Goals and other international development agendas frequently focus on creating more sustainable resource extraction, with some scholars and researchers focused on creating economic models, such as circular economy, that rely less on resource extraction, and more on reuse, recycling and renewable resources that can be sustainably managed.
There are 2 types of Natural Resources: Biotic and Abiotic
Biotic: Resources that originate from the biosphere and have life such as flora and fauna, fisheries, livestock, etc. Fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum are also included in this category because they are formed from decayed organic matter.
Abiotic: Resources that originate from non-living and inorganic material. These include land, fresh water, air, rare-earth elements, and heavy metals including ores, such as gold, iron, copper, silver, etc.
Potential resources: Resources that are known to exist, but have not been utilized yet. These may be used in the future. For example, petroleum in sedimentary rocks that, until pulled out and put to use remains a potential resource.
Actual resources: Resources that have been surveyed, quantified and qualified, and are currently used in development. These are typically dependent on technology and level of their feasibility. E.g.: Wood processing
Reserves: The part of an actual resource that can be developed profitably in the future.
Stocks: Resources that have been surveyed, but cannot be used due to lack of technology. E.g.: Hydrogen vehicles.
In recent years, the depletion of natural resources has become a major focus of governments and organizations such as the United Nations (UN). This is evident in the UN's Agenda 21 Section Two, which outlines the necessary steps for countries to take to sustain their natural resources. The depletion of natural resources is considered a sustainable development issue.
The term sustainable development has many interpretations, most notably the Brundtland Commission's 'to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'; however, in broad terms it is balancing the needs of the planet's people and species now and in the future.In regards to natural resources, depletion is of concern for sustainable development as it has the ability to degrade current environments and the potential to impact the needs of future generations.
Depletion of natural resources is associated with social inequity. Considering most biodiversity are located in developing countries,depletion of this resource could result in losses of ecosystem services for these countries. Some view this depletion as a major source of social unrest and conflicts in developing nations. At present, there is a particular concern for rainforest regions that hold most of the Earth's biodiversity. According to Nelson, deforestation and degradation affect 8.5% of the world's forests with 30% of the Earth's surface already cropped. If we consider that 80% of people rely on medicines obtained from plants and 3/4 of the world's prescription medicines have ingredients taken from plants, loss of the world's rainforests could result in a loss of finding more potential life-saving medicines. The depletion of natural resources is caused by 'direct drivers of change' such as mining, petroleum extraction, fishing, and forestry as well as 'indirect drivers of change' such as demography (e.g. population growth), economy, society, politics, and technology. The current practice of agriculture is another factor causing depletion of natural resources. For example, the depletion of nutrients in the soil due to excessive use of nitrogen and desertification. The depletion of natural resources is a continuing concern for society. This is seen in the cited quote given by Theodore Roosevelt, a well-known conservationist and former United States president, who was opposed to unregulated natural resource extraction.
In 1982, the United Nations developed the World Charter for Nature, which recognized the need to protect nature from further depletion due to human activity. It states that measures must be taken at all societal levels, from international to individual, to protect nature.
It outlines the need for sustainable use of natural resources and suggests that the protection of resources should be incorporated into national and international systems of law.To look at the importance of protecting natural resources further, the World Ethic of Sustainability, developed by the IUCN, WWF and the UNEP in 1990,set out eight values for sustainability, including the need to protect natural resources from depletion.
Since the development of these documents, many measures have been taken to protect natural resources including establishment of the scientific field and practice of conservation biology and habitat conservation, respectively.
Natural resource management is a discipline in the management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants, and animalsâwith a particular focus on how management affects quality of life for present and future generations. Hence, sustainable development is followed according to judicial use of resources to supply both the present generation and future generations. The disciplines of fisheries, forestry, and wildlife are examples of large subdisciplines of natural resource management.
Management of natural resources involves identifying who has the right to use the resources, and who does not, for defining the boundaries of the resource. The resources may be managed by the users according to the rules governing when and how the resource is used depending on local condition or the resources may be managed by a governmental organization or other central authority.
A "...successful management of natural resources depends on freedom of speech, a dynamic and wide-ranging public debate through multiple independent media channels and an active civil society engaged in natural resource issues..." because of the nature of the shared resources, the individuals who are affected by the rules can participate in setting or changing them.The users have rights to devise their own management institutions and plans under the recognition by the government. The right to resources includes land, water, fisheries and pastoral rights. The users or parties accountable to the users have to actively monitor and ensure the utilisation of the resource compliance with the rules and to impose penalty on those peoples who violate the rules.These conflicts are resolved in a quick and low cost manner by the local institution according to the seriousness and context of the offence.The global science-based platform to discuss natural resources management is the World Resources Forum, based in Switzerland.