Exploitation of natural resources: definition, types and examples

Natural resources are goods and services that are extracted directly from nature . These are essential for the development of humans and many other living beings, since they provide them with food and help in obtaining energy.

Natural resources can be classified into 3 categories, determined by their capacity for permutation in the environment:

Inexhaustible natural resources

It is about those natural resources that no matter how much they are used, they will never end. That is, we can use them continuously without running out. Examples: sunlight , air, tidal movement, or geothermal energy .

Here we explain more about Examples of inexhaustible natural resources .

Renewable natural resources

They are the natural resources that can be regenerated as long as their extraction is carried out in a sustainable way. In other words, these are goods and services that have a certain capacity for regeneration and that if they are used accordingly, their use may be prolonged for a long time. But if, on the other hand, they are extracted in large quantities, without even evaluating their ability to regenerate, they will be depleted indefinitely. Examples: water, plants and trees (wood, agricultural products, …), biofuels , etc.

Non-renewable natural resources

These are those resources that have limited use, that is, once they are used, they no longer exist. This is mainly because they either do not have the ability to regenerate, or it is extremely slow. Examples: aquifers, fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal), nuclear energy, etc.

In this other AgroCorrn article you can find more information on Natural Resources: definition and types .

The concept of exploitation of natural resources is known as the use we make of the goods and services that nature provides us . These are activities that are carried out daily for the sustenance and improvement of our society.

The current population of our planet is increasingly facing an ecological imbalance of great magnitude, since the activities we carry out to obtain according to what natural resources, cause a great impact on the planet’s biodiversity. The big problem lies not in obtaining these products, but in the quantity and frequency in which they are extracted. This term is commonly called overexploitation of resources , and it is a mismanagement that affects the environment that surrounds us, and consequently also the fauna and flora that inhabit it.

That is to say, instead of making a sustainable exploitation of the goods and services that our natural environment provides us, we dedicate ourselves to extracting them in an excessive and irresponsible way .

Therefore, we can say that human beings have a gift for taking advantage of a large number of materials and beneficial means for their development and survival. Even so, and despite all the social, technological and even cultural advances, we still cannot find a way not to harm the environment that offers us all these resources.

The exploitation of natural resources is present in most of the activities that are carried out daily for the sustenance and improvement of our society. Even so, most of the practices that are currently carried out are not sustainable at all with the environment or with its regenerative capacity, since natural resources are overexploited .

Humans are dedicating ourselves to obtain these resources in large unnecessary and poorly regulated quantities, overvaluing the regeneration capacity of the environment and increasing its rate of degradation (which is already very accelerated due to other polluting practices that are also carried out by humans) .

The problem is that the vast majority of the population is unaware of the current situation of many of our resources, a fact that favors those who continuously exploit them because they have no impediment to continue doing so. These are some types and examples of exploitation of natural resources :

Deforestation

A very good example of the exploitation of natural resources, and in fact of overexploitation of these, is that of the felling of trees and forest masses , which in principle was a practice in which certain previously selected trees were extracted based on their future use. , for example for the extraction of wood to make furniture or doors. But it turns out that there is a great problem spread throughout the planet with this type of exploitation, since we have reached a point where we prioritize absurd needs before the survival of the fauna and flora of certain areas of great environmental interest.

A case that perfectly illustrates the aforementioned is that of the deforestation of the Amazon, which has been reduced by more than half in the last twenty years due to our interest in its exotic woods (mahogany, quebracho, cuangare, sajo, etc.). This is because, even though there is a certain tree extraction quota per year, most do not respect it and cut down more than necessary, selling the remaining wood on a black market. But the overexploitation of forests is not only carried out due to their interest in wood, but there are cases in which a large amount of forest mass of great ecological interest is cut down to plant crops with a great economic incentive. A good example is that of the subtropical jungles of South East Asia, where forests are being supplanted by palm plantations, from which their oil is subsequently extracted, used in a large quantity of daily products.

Fishing

Another example of the exploitation of natural resources is fishing. It is an activity that dates back to ancient times, just like hunting. But for a couple or three decades, the fish populations of our seas and oceans have been declining to really worrying amounts, and it is mainly due to the excess fishing that we are doing. Thus, this supply of resources has become what we normally call overfishing.. Some of the most affected fish are monkfish, tuna, anchovies, sardines, cod and hake, among many others. Most of the species that are in decline are for direct consumption, but many of them are also threatened due to the production of feed or as fresh food for other fish in farms. The fact that marine populations are plummeting is a very worrying fact, for which we should react and begin to regulate fishing quotas more strictly, since those that currently exist are not strictly enforced. If we continue at this rate, it is very likely that in less than 20 years many of the species mentioned above will be extinct, and with a forecast of 50 more years, the rest.

Other types of exploitation of natural resources

There are many more natural resources that humans exploit, such as mining operations (for example, the diamond mine in Mir, Russia), oil operations (for example, those in Saudi Arabia), aquifers , and even agricultural operations , but most of them, due to population growth and the irresponsibility of humans, are overexploited and extracted in a way that will deplete them in a short time.

The fact of managing the resources that nature provides us so badly, seriously damages our planet, causing the loss of many living beings. If we continue at this rate, in a few years many of these resources will run out and humanity will have to rethink many of the habits that we currently have.

If you want to read more articles similar to Natural resource exploitation: definition, types and examples , we recommend that you enter our category of Other environment .