Natural Resources and Environmental Management 1
(FOR AGRICULTURE)
Prepared by:
JAN RAY A. ARIBUABO
Instructor
MARY CRIS T. UNDAJON
Instructor
Email: yramsirc.undajon@gmail.com
Contact #: 09773603617
Natural Resources and Environmental Management 2
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)
Natural Resources and Environmental Management 3
1.0 NATURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCE CONCEPTS
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.
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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
• Inorganic renewable resources – are those that comes from non-living
things such as water, air sun and wind
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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
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
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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 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
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(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
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Practice Task 1
Name: ____________________________ Date: _______________
Course and year: ___________________
Familiarization of Renewable and
Non–renewable Resources
Instruction: Each material or item on the list is a renewable or non-
renewable natural resource or is produced directly from a renewable
or non-renewable resource. For each item, mark whether it is or is
made from a renewable natural resource (RNR) or a non-renewable
natural resource (NNR). After which, scan and convert the file to
PDF and submit it in the Google Classroom.
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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/.
