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    Unit 1 ENVISCI

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    This document provides an overview of natural resources and environmental resources. It defines natural resources as resources provided by nature that can be directly or indirectly consumed, like renewable and non-renewable resources. Environmental resources are indivisible resources that benefit humans, like clean air and water. Environmental resources encompass natural resources and human efforts to add functionality. Natural resources are threatened by overpopulation, climate change, and pollution, which increase demands and damage biodiversity. The document also defines environmental resources as assets that provide environmental goods and services, like ecosystems do.

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    Unit 1 ENVISCI

    Uploaded by

    jan ray aribuabo
    27 views8 pages
    This document provides an overview of natural resources and environmental resources. It defines natural resources as resources provided by nature that can be directly or indirectly consumed, like renewable and non-renewable resources. Environmental resources are indivisible resources that benefit humans, like clean air and water. Environmental resources encompass natural resources and human efforts to add functionality. Natural resources are threatened by overpopulation, climate change, and pollution, which increase demands and damage biodiversity. The document also defines environmental resources as assets that provide environmental goods and services, like ecosystems do.

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    unit 1 ENVISCI

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    This document provides an overview of natural resources and environmental resources. It defines natural resources as resources provided by nature that can be directly or indirectly consumed, like renewable and non-renewable resources. Environmental resources are indivisible resources that benefit humans, like clean air and water. Environmental resources encompass natural resources and human efforts to add functionality. Natural resources are threatened by overpopulation, climate change, and pollution, which increase demands and damage biodiversity. The document also defines environmental resources as assets that provide environmental goods and services, like ecosystems do.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    27 views8 pages

    Unit 1 ENVISCI

    Uploaded by

    jan ray aribuabo
    This document provides an overview of natural resources and environmental resources. It defines natural resources as resources provided by nature that can be directly or indirectly consumed, like renewable and non-renewable resources. Environmental resources are indivisible resources that benefit humans, like clean air and water. Environmental resources encompass natural resources and human efforts to add functionality. Natural resources are threatened by overpopulation, climate change, and pollution, which increase demands and damage biodiversity. The document also defines environmental resources as assets that provide environmental goods and services, like ecosystems do.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 8

    Natural Resources and Environmental Management 1

    WORKTEXT IN
    NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL
    MANAGEMENT
    (FOR AGRICULTURE)

    Prepared by:

    JAN RAY A. ARIBUABO


    Instructor
    09163265701
    Email: [email protected]

    UNIT 1
    Natural Resources and Environmental Management 2

    The Natural and Environmental


    Resources as an Asset

    INTRODUCTION
    This unit provides you an overview of the different natural resources and
    the environmental goods and services (EGS) provided by our environment
    for human welfare and benefits. We know already for a fact that our natural
    resources and the environment are severely affected due to human activities
    – OUR ACTVITIES. This unit then gives you the foundational knowledge
    that is essential in understanding arising environmental problems and their
    possible management which will be discussed in the succeeding units or
    topics.

    OBJECTIVES

    At the end of this unit, you should be able to:

    1. differentiate natural resource and environmental resource;


    2. know the different natural resources; and
    3. understand the environment as an asset in providing environmental
    goods and services (EGS)

    1.0 NATURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCE CONCEPTS


    Natural Resources and Environmental Management 3

    It is very often that natural and environmental resources are used


    interchangeably or treated with similar meaning, even in many literatures. It
    could be very difficult to find online reference that gives straightforward
    differentiation of these two terms or concepts. However, in the field of
    environmental economics particularly on the topics of environmental
    valuation, the two terms are considered different and provides different
    meaning. Hence, for the purpose of this course, we will subscribe to the
    definitions used by environmental economists.

    Natural resources are defined as resources provided by nature that can be


    divided into increasingly smaller units and allocated at the margin. These
    could be consumed directly or indirectly. Examples of these are renewable
    or non-renewable resources. On the other hand, environmental resources
    are resources provided by nature that are indivisible which benefits humans.
    Examples of these are clean air, fresh water, scenic or beautiful views, etc.
    Natural resources serve as inputs to the economic system while
    environmental resources are affected by the system (e.g. pollution).

    To understand why natural


    resources can be used
    directly or indirectly,
    consider the figure at the
    right. Humans depend
    directly on forests for
    food, biomass, health,
    recreation and living
    comfort. Indirectly, forest
    act as climate control,
    flood control, storm
    protection and nutrient
    cycling

    For more distinctions of natural and environmental resource, consider and


    notice the table below. It could be noticed that there are overlaps in the
    definitions of environmental and natural resources as well as the examples.
    Hence, there is confusion on the difference between the two concepts.
    However, you will notice that natural resources do not include “services,”
    instead, refers to only the tangible things that benefit humans. It does not
    have a description of or reference to quality as environmental resources do.
    Environmental resources combine what is naturally found in the world and
    human ingenuity.
    Natural Resources and Environmental Management 4

    Natural resources are not made or caused by humankind, but environmental


    resources can be caused by humankind (e.g., transportation and recreation, a
    beautiful landscape, discovery of a new species).

    In summary, the definitions and distinctions show that environmental


    resources encompass those that occur naturally in nature and those where
    human ingenuity is applied. Environmental resources include natural
    resources and human efforts or influence to add more functionality to them
    as they were found in nature. For whatever purpose of defining these two
    terms, it is obvious that a central theme emerges - the environmental and
    natural resources exist to serve human needs and wants.

    2.0 RENEWABLE AND NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES

    All natural resources are


    under two main
    categories: the renewable
    and nonrenewable
    resource.

    Renewable resources
    (RRs) – are those that are
    constantly available, be
    constantly replaced or
    recovered (i.e. water,
    plants, and animals. RRs
    are categorized into two:

    • Organic renewable resources – are those that comes from living


    things such as trees and animals
    Natural Resources and Environmental Management 5

    • Inorganic renewable resources – are those that comes from non-


    living things such as water, air sun and wind

    On the other hand, nonrenewable resources (NRRs) – are resources


    present in definite amount in the earth’s crust. Once they are gone, they can
    never be replaced. Supply can only be renewed through intricately natural
    processes in a geological time scale beyond the lifetime of any earth life
    form. Examples of NRRs are:

    • Fossil fuels like crude oil, coal, and natural gas


    • Metallic minerals – copper, aluminum, iron
    • Non-metallic minerals – marble, limestone, clay or coal

    Why are Natural Resources so Important?

    Natural resources are available to sustain the very complex interaction


    between living things and non-living things. Human beings benefit greatly
    from this interaction. All over the world, people consume resources directly
    or indirectly. Developed countries consume resources more than
    developing countries. The world economy uses around 60 billion tons of
    resources each year to produce the goods and services which we consume.
    On the average, per capita consumption of resources (per person per day) in
    Europe is 36 kg; 90 kg in North America; 14 kg in Asia; and 10 kg in
    Africa.

    Natural resources are consumed in three major forms: such as food and
    drink; housing and infrastructure; and for mobility or transportation. Can
    you imagine where all the raw materials used in the production of these
    came from?

    Threats to Natural Resources

    Natural resources are now heavily or severely threatened either due to the
    ever increasing demands from burgeoning population or due to natural
    disasters and changing environment. Literatures pointed some key major
    sources of threats to our natural resources, these are the following:

    a. Over population – in the USA, a baby is born every 8 seconds. The


    ever increasing population results also in the continuous increase of
    pressure to almost all natural resources. Over population have
    pressures on the following:

     Land use – with more people to cater for food, homes, and other
    means more land to be cultivated, more lands converted or
    developed for housing, more wood to be extracted, and many
    Natural Resources and Environmental Management 6

    others. All of these have negative consequences on the natural


    resources.
     Forests – rise in population also give rise to more demands for
    wood or timber, food, roads and forest products. All of these
    affect the forests in a manner that exceeds their natural capability
    to recover or regenerate.
     Fishing – due to increasing demands, fishing activities also tend
    to be more intensive and lead to practice unsustainable fishing
    methods, which results to the destruction of many sea creatures
    and fishing areas.
     Need for more – human demand for more comfortable life also
    means more amenities to be provided such as transportation,
    communication, entertainment, recreation, health services, and
    others. All of these redound to more industrial processes and
    more extraction of natural resources.

    b. Climate change - the changing climate patters as a result of


    excessive anthropogenic activities is also damaging biodiversity and
    many other abiotic natural resources. Species that have acclimatized
    to their environments may perish, and others will have to migrate to
    more favorable conditions to survive.

    c. Pollution – environmental pollution such as land, water and air


    pollution also affects the ecosystems health and their environment in
    which they live or inhabit. Pollutions have effects on the chemical
    properties of soil, rocks, lands, oceans, freshwater and groundwaters,
    and other natural phenomena. These often end to catastrophic
    results.

    3.0 ENVIRONMENTAL RESOSURCE AS AN ASSET

    Having defined environmental resource in the previous section, we now


    also define it as an asset. An environmental asset is defined as naturally
    Natural Resources and Environmental Management 7

    occurring living and non-living entities of the earth, together comprising the
    bio-physical environment, that jointly deliver ecosystem services to the
    benefit of current and future generation (The PD, 2015). OECD (2005)
    defines simpler as naturally occurring entities that provides environmental
    functions or services.
    Based from these definitions, environmental assets can be equated or
    related with ecosystem services that provides environmental goods and
    services (EGS). So, it should be clear that in our discussions, environmental
    resources are assets that provide EGS just like ecosystems do. Why?
    Consider the following discussions:

     Environmental assets constitute the individual components of the


    ecosystems as well as their interactions.
     Hence, the interactions between the environmental assets within the
    ecosystems are keys to understanding the functioning of ecosystems
    and their capacity to providing services.

    Hence, the central key for better understanding the environment as an asset
    is to know the different ecosystem services they provide to humans such as
    EGS. These services are the benefits people obtain from functioning
    ecosystems. The ecosystems themselves are also referred to as natural
    capital or assets.

    For more understanding, the following are the four major ecosystem
    services formulated by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005);
    supported by their figure below:

    a. Provisioning services such as food, water and medicinal plants;


    b. Regulating services such as climate and air quality management;
    water purification; mitigation of floods, drought, and disease;
    c. Supporting services such as soil formation and nutrient cycling; and
    d. Cultural services that include recreational, scientific, and spiritual
    benefits
    Natural Resources and Environmental Management 8

    REFERENCES

    OECD. 2005. Environmental Asset from


    https://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=6421

    The PD. 2015. Environmental Asset from


    https://www.theprojectdefinition.com/environmental-asset/.

    eSchool Today. 2008. In association with BusinessGhana.com from


    https://www.businessghana.com/site/.

    PATRICK, R. 2020. Environmental and Natural Resources: Three Key


    Differences. In Research-based Articles from
    https://simplyeducate.me/2020/09/28/environmental-and-natural-
    resources/.

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