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
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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/.