About Lesson
Natural Resource Management
- It means management anthropogenic activities with environmentally tolerable limits, which take into account the benefits and costs to the society as a whole and regulate the demands of man in such a manner that the ability of the same environment to sustain his development remain unpaired.
Sustainable Development
- It is the development that meets the demands of the present generation without compromising the preserving ability of the future generation to meet their needs.
- A sustainable development is built on four pillars-conservation, recycling, renewable resources, and population control.
How?
- Utilize renewable resources at rates less than or equal to the natural rate at which they generate.
- Keep waste flows to the environment at or below the assimilative capacity of the environment.
- Ensure that as exhaustible resources are depleted that their reduced stock is compensating for by increase in renewable resources and technological progress.
- All the give standard of living can be secured from a reducing stock of resources i.e. through increased efficiency of resource use.
Challenges in the Management of Specific Resources
- Land Resources:
- Surface and open-cut mining drastically disturb the land surface and affect the suitability for agriculture, forestry, wildlife support, and residential and industrial use, as well as its aesthetic value.
- Urban use of land reduces the amount of land available for agriculture and open space. Intensive cropping patterns invite soil erosion and convert to desertification.
- Water Resource:
- Waste disposal- disturbances the maintenance of ecosystem and reduces the value of both agriculture and non-agricultural uses.
- Air Resource:
- Intensive use for waste disposal restricts visibility and reduces the value of air for life support.
- Human Resource:
- Human labor, knowledge and technical capability are employed to derive the benefits from natural resource utilization.
- The dominance of human beings in the earth’s ecosystem, the organizing, planning and decision-making capability of people as in individual and society of natural resource management for human civilization destroys the natural resources.
