JOSIAH KIBIRA UNIVERSITY COLLAGE OF TUMA

JOSIAH KIBIRA UNIVERSITY COLLAGE OF TUMAINI
UNIVERSITY MAKUMIRA

NATURAL RESOURCES
Bugado Louis, 2014

Natural Resource – anything occurring in nature that is used by people.
Nearly all community activities interact with natural resources in some way.
Housing, transportation, utilities and community facilities, economic development,
and land use elements all have direct or indirect relationships to a community’s
natural resource base. Therefore, it is virtually impossible for a community to plan
for its future without considering the opportunities, constraints, and impacts
associated with its natural resources.
•Natural resources are vital to all forms of wildlife and the ecosystems in which they
live.
•Humans use natural resources for such modern conveniences as electricity,
transportation, and industrial production, as well as basic survival.
•Rapid population growth, a higher standard of living, and technology all contribute
to increased use of natural resources
A natural resource is a technological concept. I. e. the resources due to
technological advancement may be valued today but not tomorrow. Natural

resources become valuable to man through combination of three things
1. Increasing knowledge
2. Expansion of technology i.e. from low technology to high
3. Changing the goals in the society.
TYPES OF RESOURCES

A/ Renewable resources
B/Non Renewable resources
Renewable Resource – a resource that is quickly replaced or recycled by natural
processes in a

Time frame that makes it useful for human consumption or use. (Examples include:
cotton,
wood, solar energy, water)

Non-renewable Resource – a resource that is replaced slowly by natural earth
processes in
such a way that once used by people, it will not be available again within a useful
time frame.
(Examples include: oil, coal, rocks, minerals)

. Most scientists and resource managers define a “useful time frame” as
within an

average human lifespan.
CHARACTERISTICS OF NATURAL RESOURCES
A resource is a spatial phenomenon. some societies may use and regards them
as natural resources while the same thing can be rejected in other society as a
resource.
The natural resources are unevenly distributed. Some areas are much
supplied with resources, while other areas resources are not enough. or resources
are not homogeneous distributed in some areas.
Exhaustibility. Resources are either non renewable or renewable, but even
renewable resources can be exhausted if they are mismanaged. in some instances,
trade may contribute to the exhaustion of resources by accelerating over utilization
hence depletion.
Volatility (instability).certain resources. Particularly fuels and mining products,
can be subject to extreme price volatility (instability).this is a source of uncertainty
that adversely affects investment and production decision.
NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT/CONSERVATION
Natural resources management refers to those activities directed towards

maintenance of biotic and a biotic resource in order to achieve certain objectives.
Natural resources management deals with

-managing the way in which people and natural landscapes interact.
-it brings together land use planning, water management, biodiversity conservation,
and the future sustainability of industries like agriculture,mining,tourism,fisheries
and forestry .
- it recognizes that people and their livelihoods rely on the health and productivity
of our landscapes and their actions as stewards of the land play a critical role in
maintaining this health and productivity.
Natural resources management is also congruent with the concept of sustainable
development, a scientific principle that forms a basis for sustainable global land
management and environmental governance to conserve and preserve natural
resources.

Natural resources management specifically focuses on a scientific and technical
understanding of resources and ecology and the life-supporting capacity of those
resources.
-Natural resource management issues are inherently complex as they involve the
ecological cycles, hydrological cycles, climate, animals, plants and geography etc.

All these are dynamic and inter-related.
-A change in one of them may have far reaching and/or long term impacts which
may even be irreversible
In addition to the natural systems, natural resource management also has to
manage various stakeholders and their interests, policies, politics, geographical
boundaries, economic implications and the list goes on. It is very difficult to satisfy
all aspects at the same time. This results in conflicting situations.
United Nations Conference for the Environment and Development (UNCED) held in
Rio de Janeiro in 1992, most nations subscribed to new principles for the integrated
management of land, water, and forests. Although program names vary from nation
to nation, all express similar aims
various approaches applied to natural resource management include:

-Top-down or Command and control
-Bottom-Up (regional or community based NRM)
-Adaptive management
-Precautionary approach
-Integrated approach (INRM)

Regional or Community Based NRM

-The community based NRM approach combines conservation objectives with the
generation of economic benefits for rural communities. The three key assumptions
being that: locals are better placed to conserve natural resources, people will
conserve a resource only if benefits exceed the costs of conservation, and people
will conserve a resource that is linked directly to their quality of life.
-A problem of community based NRM is the difficulty of reconciling and harmonizing
the objectives of socioeconomic development, biodiversity protection and
sustainable resource utilization. Locals may be reluctant to challenge government
recommendations for fear of losing promised benefits.

Adaptive Management
This approach includes recognition that adaption occurs through a process of ‘plando-review-act’. It also recognizes seven key components that should be considered
for quality natural resource management practice
1.Determination of scale 2.Collection and use of knowledge 3.Information
management 4.Monitoring and evaluation 5.Risk management 6.Community
engagement 7.Opportunities for collaboration
Top down command and control management
Top down command and control management or authoritarian management is
highly de-motivating because it works against the way human beings function
naturally in groups. This factor explains why bureaucracies are inherently

incompetent and working in a bureaucratic environment is dehumanizing.
The resultant stress experienced by the participants has an adverse impact on both
individual and organizational performance.
The precautionary principle precautionary approach states that if an action or
policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in
the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden
of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking an action.
- These protections can be relaxed only if further scientific findings emerge that
provide sound evidence that no harm will result.

In some legal systems, as in the law of the European Union, the application of the
precautionary principle has been made a statutory requirement in some areas of
law.
- the first endorsement of the principle was in 1982 when the World Charter for
Nature was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, while its first
international implementation was in 1987 through the Montreal Protocol. Soon after,
the principle integrated with many other legally binding international treaties such
as the Rio Declaration and Kyoto Protocol.
Integrated natural resource management (INRM)
A process of managing natural resources in a systematic way, which includes

multiple aspects of natural resource use (biophysical, socio-political, and economic)
meet production goals of producers and other direct users (e.g., food security,
profitability, risk aversion) as well as goals of the wider community (e.g., poverty
alleviation, welfare of future generations, environmental conservation). It focuses on
sustainability and at the same time tries to incorporate all possible stakeholders
from the planning level itself, reducing possible future conflicts.

Biotic – Biotic resources are obtained from the biosphere (living and organic
material), such as forests and animals, and the materials that can be obtained from
them. Fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum are also included in this category
because they are formed from decayed organic matter.
Biotic – Biotic resources are those that come from non-living, non-organic material.
Examples of biotic resources include land, fresh water, air and heavy metals
including ores such as gold, iron, copper, silver, etc.
Considering their stage of development, natural resources may be referred to in the
following ways:

Potential Resources – Potential resources are those that exist in a region and may
be used in the future. For example, petroleum may exist in many parts of India,
having sedimentary rocks but until the time it is actually drilled out and put into

use, it remains a potential resource.
Actual Resources – Actual resources are those that have been surveyed, their
quantity and quality determined and are being used in present times. The
development of an actual resource, such as wood processing depends upon the
technology available and the cost involved.

Reserve Resources – The part of an actual resource which can be developed
profitably in the future is called a reserve resource.
Stock Resources – Stock resources are those that have been surveyed but cannot
be used by organisms due to lack of technology. For example: hydrogen
NATURAL RESOURCE OWNERSHIP REGIMES
Natural resource ownership regimes can be categorized according to the kind and
right of stakeholders
-state property regimes.
-private property regimes.
-common property regimes.
-Non-property regimes(open access)
-hybrid regimes.
State property regimes
Ownership and control over the use of resources is in hands of the state. Individual

or groups may be able to make use of the resources, but only at the permission of
the state. National forest and National parks.
Private property regimes
Any property owned by a defined individual or corporate entity. both the benefit and
duties to the recourses fall to the owner(s).private land is the most common
example
Common property regimes
It is a private property of a group. the group may vary in size, nature and internal
structure.e.g.indigenous tribe, neighbors of village, some examples of common
property are community forests and water resources.
Non property regimes (open access)
There is no definite owner of these properties. Each potential user has equal ability
to use it as they wish. These areas are the most exploited. it is said that
"everybody’s property is nobody’s property 'An example is a lake fishery
Hybrid regimes.
Many ownership regimes governing natural resources will contain parts of more
than one of the regimes described above; an example of such a hybrid is Lake
Fishery in Lake Victoria. Natives are free to fish but there is state control on fishery
industry.
ADVANTAGE OF RENEWABLE RESOURCES OVER NON RENEWABLE RESOURCES

Renewable resources offer a number of environmental and economic benefits over
non renewable resources
1. Infinite supply of renewable resources( they cannot be depleted)
2.Self reliance.eg a country that provide its own renewable resources such as solar
powered electricity need not to rely on other countries for an energy source.
3.Renewable resources offer communities relief during periods of recovery from
natural disaster when communities lose standard services that require the use of
natural resources(eg. electricity power or natural gas) renewable resources such as
wind and solar energy system are used to provide these services until the usual
methods of achieving service can be restored

CHALLENGES OF USING NATURAL RESOURCES
-Extracting, processing and using natural resources creates air, water and land
pollution which can cause global environment problems for example carbon dioxide
which is produced from deforestation and from burning coal, oil and natural gas ,
which is a critical green house gas. many scientist believe that the buildup of green
house gases in the atmosphere can cause global climate change over time. this
condition could pose serious dangers around the world prompting such disasters as
flooding, drought and disease

-in additional, extracting and using resources can disturb relationship within
ecosystem. For example the effect of clearing an old growth forest for wood can
destroy habitats used by many animals forcing them to find homes elsewhere. if
these animals leave an ecosystem, further disturbances can occur within plant and
animal population that depend on these species

-Also population growth increasing affluence technological change and urbanization
are all responsible for rapidly rising resource consumption all over the world. the
relationship between population growth and increased resource use varies among
developed and undeveloped nations.
THREATS TO EARTH RESOURCES
-In the first decade of 21st Century, we face many threats to earth resources that
have sustained us in the past.
-Threats on a global scale such as climate change,drought,natural
disasters,deforestation,competition for energy and mineral resources.
-The threats to earth’s resources today are mainly caused by climatic change and
the demands of a rapid growing global population.
-To better understand the threats posed to earth resources by climatic change and a
rapidly growing global population, let's look at three familiar categories of resources
1. Energy and minerals
2. Water
3. Biological resources

ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES
-Modern society is increasingly dependent on non renewable minerals and fossil
energy resources.
-economic and population growth of less developed countries functions as a
relatively recent but quickly growing push factor on global demand.
-these two are likely to cause shortage of non renewable resources.
-the prediction made in the last 40 years shows that at some future time the world
will run out of oil. this prediction was considered to be irrelevant .

WATER QUALITY AND AVAILABILITY
-The combination of climate change, population growth and greater use of irrigated
agriculture has resulted on increased stress on water resources around the world.
-water has emerged as a global issue that requires international multi-disciplinary
cooperation on assessment,research,and management, the problem is exacerbated
with the expansion of population centers in water-scarce regions such as Kahama in
Shinyanga region and the growing urbanization in Egypt
-in order to avoid situations where water becomes an increased threat rather than
remaining a treat, an interdisciplinary and transboundry focus is required, because
of that reason the UNESCO international hydrological programme (IHP) focuses
activities on water research, water resources management, education,and capacity
building with a recent shift to improving the management of water within the
context of environmental sustainability

BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES
-Climate change coupled with global population growth presented unprecedented
threats to the world’s biological resources, here are few examples
-increased desertification, overgrazing by herd animals, wild and domestic coupled
with the over-use of soil for crops results in the removal of soil nutrients which can
damage soil surface stricture.
-increased floods, floods resulting from changed rainfall patterns will impact
fisheries and aquatic system, their productivity and diversity
-increased storm intensity. an increased trend in sea surface temperature during the
20th century has pronounced in the past 35years.increased sea surface

temperatures have implications for producing hurricanes with greater intensity and
increased coastal vulnerability in the future.
-loss of biodiversity. Changes in climate influence the size of plant and animal
populations which in turn affects the distribution and abundance of species and
ultimately ecosystem structure and function.
-loss of reef building corals. the destruction of coral reef ecosystem would expose
coastal populations to flooding, coastal erosion, and loss of food and income from
reef-based fisheries and tourism
-the combination of the threats to the earth resources results into a disruption in the
functioning of ecosystem
-ecosystem is the term for an integrated system of organisms interacting with their
physical environment, resilient functioning ecosystem….
-build fertile soil
-enhance pollination of crops
-purify water
-regulate the atmosphere
-detoxify waste
It is very important to be noted that all of earth’s resources (energy and mineral,
water and biological) are interrelated
These problems cannot be solved by individuals or group of nations. we are all at
risk. And we must act together to mitigate and adapt to that risk