Natural Resource Exploitation

Logging

Logging can be a cause of biodiversity loss in forests.

Copyright Environment Protection Agency

Logging
Copyright Environment Protection Agency

Logging

Logging can be a cause of biodiversity loss in forests.

Copyright Environment Protection Agency

Enlarge image

Earth's natural resources are critical to the survival and development of the human population. However, these resources are limited by the Earth's capability to replenish them. Freshwater, forests and harvesting products are renewable, assuming that exploitation does not exceed renewal. Fossil fuels and metal ores are non-renewable. Although significant effects of overexploitation are felt at a local level, the growing interdependence of nations, and international trade in natural resources, make their demand and sustainable management a global issue.

Renewable Resources

Food, water, forests, soil and wildlife are considered renewable resources. For resource use to be sustainable, the usage rate should be maintained within the capacity of the natural systems to renew themselves. Current rates of depletion of the Earth's stocks of renewable resources and levels of pressure imposed on their regenerative capacity by means of production and consumption might already, in some cases, exceed this threshold (European Environment Agency, 2020).