The disproportionately large share in the distribution and consumption patterns of natural resources in industrialised countries and developing countries is a topic of much current debate. Industrialised countries - commonly known as the North - represent a small proportion of the earth’s population while consuming a disproportionately large share of the world’s natural resources. From the perspective of the developing countries - the South - such consumption represents an unfair price to be paid by the South for the environmental degradation affected by the consumptive lifestyles of the North. Patterns are different in the North where mainly energy consumption is high. While in the south, the natural resource base is affected largely due to the use of wood and wood products primarily as fuelwood, charcoal and clearance of forest land for agriculture. This trend has more localised impacts in the sense that precipitation runs off causing floods, reduced flow of water in rivers during the post monsoon seasons, landslides and soil erosion.

Energy

Natural resources include metal, fibre, food, wood, air, fresh water, building materials and energy (both the renewable and non-renewable varieties). The general under-standing is that non-renewable resources are limited and hence, high level consumption is  expected to lead to resource depletion or physical shortages. However, to suggest that the world is running out of non-renewable resources is not totally correct, as the world is unlikely to run out of these resources in the next few decades. By a number of measures, reserves of energy and subsoil minerals are available in larger quantities today than 25 years ago and are generally reflected in lower prices despite the rising global consumption. Yet, the hard reality is that unless consumption of non-renewable sources of energy is totally stopped, they are bound to be exhausted sooner or later. This is reflected even in the definition of sustainable development which envisages a total stopping of use of non-renewable energy and use of renewable sources of energy and that also only at rates which do not exceed those at which these resources are replenished. In other words," Grow one tree before you cut one ". Thus, harnessing and use of renewable energy is critical to sustainable development.

Renewable Resources

In contrast, renewable resources are often thought to be indefinitely available. Yet, some of these are available only in specific locations and depend on finite resources such as land. As greater consumptive stress is put on natural systems, which are also required to absorb hazardous waste and pollution, degradation of their productive capacity and even the possibility of ecosystem/environmental collapse cannot be ruled out. There are many instances where exploitation of both biological and physical resources already exceeds the recuperative capacity of the natural systems. Thus, not only are many renewable resources becoming increasingly scarce, but the underlying systems that sustain or renew them are threatened or stressed beyond their regenerative capacities. In other words, natural ecosystems which, through the provision of fresh water availability and nutritive soils, have the biological capacity to harness the sun’s energy, thereby producing food, fibre and other hydrocarbons which can be burnt to yield energy, are responsible for regulating the energy flow in the ecosystems.

These natural systems are, thereby, responsible for the food chain and mutual inter-dependence between different species of life whose population are regulated by the capacity of the primary producers, i.e. the plant world which in itself is dependent on the availability of land, water and the sunlight alongwith the nutritional quality of the soil, climatic factors such as temperature, humidity, etc.

Human existence and well being depends on the natural resources available on this planet. However, a large number of benefits from the ecosystems are taken for granted. While consumption of fossil fuels, minerals, mining, release of toxic substances and the stratospheric ozone layer depleting chemicals, release of carbon dioxide exceeding the absorbing capacity of the atmosphere (which is resulting in global warming) are issues grassroot NGOs can address through advocacy as well as lobbying against industrial polluters and consumptive fossil fuel burners along with implementation of measures to promote sequestration of carbon, etc.

While, according to the Washington based World Resources Institute, some renewable natural resources have a "price tag" on their economic value, most of the biological and physical systems (ecosystems) that sustain them lie outside the economic system.

Economists assign value in fiscal terms to, say, timber or natural fish catch or even to a quantity of fresh water, but not to the ecosystems or hydrological systems that produce and renew these resources. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, other renewable natural resources such as sunlight, air and diversity of plants and animals are traditionally taken for granted as "free goods" from nature. These 'goods', along with the corresponding lack of price tags, may contribute to the lack of awareness of impending shortages. Yet, the world’s renewable resources -and the resource base from which they stem- are facing the danger of severe degradation and depletion in some regions. Increasingly, ecosystems’ capacity to provide these "free goods" is under threat both from human consumptive greed and population pressures.

It is in this context that NGOs can make efforts towards ensuring that these ecosystems are not degraded but sustainably harnessed to meet the human needs. This is an area where grassroots NGOs can initiate micro projects for the sustainable management of natural ecosystems and prevent their further degradation. In other words, forest ecosystems, estuarine ecosystems, agro ecosystems etc., need to be managed in such a way that there is no degradation or depletion in the quantity of biomass produced, availability of clean water for meeting human needs, or irrigation needs, depletion of surface soil etc. These are, thus, some of the issues that local communities, specially in rural areas, could address for long term conservation.

Biodiversity Conservation

Thus, we see that life depends on a number of services provided by the various natural ecosystems that are largely taken for granted. These natural services include microbial activity of soils making nutrients available to plants in a form that can be used by them; flood prevention and erosion control by trees in a watershed; and maintenance of the stock of plants and animals which converts the carbon dioxide we breathe out into hydrocarbons that we consume or burn for energy, with concurrent release of oxygen which we breathe in. However, with ecosystems being increasingly degraded or converted for human use, their ability to provide these services or support diverse plant and animal species of life is more and more under threat. In particular, 

biodiversity loss of germ plasm is threatening the very basis on which human civilisation has come to depend. Scientists estimate that around 10% of the tropical forest species may face extinction over the next 25 years and some experts believe that just under half of the world’s 250,000 flowering plants, which occur only in restricted areas, would be deforested or otherwise disturbed in the next 25 years.

Thus, apart from sustainable management of eco-systems, regeneration of microwatersheds (through both afforestation and/or civil engineering structures such as check dams, gully plugs, percolation tanks etc.) can be implemented by grassroots NGOs to reduce soil erosion and enhance recharge of ground water and also reduce floods through regulation of the flow of fresh surface water over different seasons. Thus, microwatershed development, specially in degraded lands, is a natural resource management activity which could be implemented by grassroots NGOs. In addition, due to population pressures, more and more of hilly (mountainous) lands are being brought under the plough for food production, often by cutting forests, to make the land available for agriculture. However, the cultivation practices leave much to be desired on the issue of soil erosion on these hilly tracts.

Promotion of Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) can be an important method for management of natural resources, especially if it also involves cultivation of indigenous strains of crops to promote agrobiodiversity conservation. SALT is an ancient mechanism for the cultivation of crops on hilly lands which are often highly susceptible to soil erosion by terracing and growing nitrogen-fixing fodder and fuelwood yielding strips of trees along contour lines, with crops being grown in the terraces formed in between these rows of trees. In addition, projects to improve forest cover as erosion control measures on higher slopes (as used in watershed development) are areas requiring developmental interventions.

Land and Agriculture

The green revolution, which ushered in an era of plenty as far as food production is considered, has now begun to backfire with degradation and loss of the soil’s capacity to support vegetation. Soil compaction, loss of microbial fauna of soils, insect and annelid populations which convert nutrients in the soil into a form useable by plants are resulting in the gradual decrease in crop yields. Thus, attempts to shift from intensive agriculture to methods of organic farming which avoid use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides etc., is another area where work needs to be done. Thus, agricultural strategies and practices which attempt to regenerate the soil by avoiding dependence on external inputs and non-renewable sources of energy are very important if the future food security is to be ensured once the non-renewable energy resources are exhausted.

Water

It is estimated that about 200 million people lack access to clean water for drinking, cooking and washing in urban areas, worldwide. Moreover, around 900 million rural dwellers lack clean water for human consumption. This situation can be traced largely to deforestation in upper catchment areas as forests have a substantial role in regulating the flow of water in rivers over a period of time. Even otherwise, fresh clean water shortage is already a major problem and is likely to become worse in the foreseeable future. Impurities related to water supply contamination by disease-bearing human waste and in some regions by toxic chemicals and heavy metals are hard to remove from drinking water with standard purification techniques. Thus, these form areas on which projects could be developed.

The quality of life of majority of people living in the developing countries is affected by the quality of water available. Thus, treatment of water to make it fit for human consumption is another area in which work needs to be done. Although, sewage and water technologies are widely available, they are capital intensive and hence, measures to check contamination of clean water through promotion of toilets and sanitation are much better preventive strategies.

Capacity of rivers to support fisheries or the productivity of coastal estuaries is increasingly under threat from pollution. Eutrophication (that is loss of oxygen associated with the decomposition of pollutants and algal blooms stimulated by nutrient run offs from areas of intensive fertiliser application) is another cause for deterioration in the quality of water. While surface waters are increasingly polluted, or available only during the monsoon months (when there are floods with rivers drying up in the other seasons), and increasing groundwater tapping for human consumption and agriculture is resulting in depletion of aquifers faster than they could be replenished. And, an attempt to enhance groundwater recharge through surface water storage facilities
requires concentrated developmental interventions.

Air

The quality of air we breathe is vital for our well being. In a survey of 20 of the world’s largest cities, all cities surveyed exceeded WHO guidelines for at least one air pollutant and 14 of them exceeded the guidelines for two pollutants. Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) is the most prevalent form of pollution, acting often in combination with high concentrations of sulfur dioxide - a mixture that is particularly hazardous to human health. With rapid urbanisation and the shifting of populations from rural areas to urban areas, more and more people are affected by air pollution and any measure to test and/or check air pollution would contribute to the sustainable management of ‘air’ - a primary natural resource.

Generally, with the building up of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, the level of oxygen in the atmosphere is necessarily getting reduced and with reduction in the vegetative cover, replenishment of the atmospheric supply of oxygen becomes an issue which requires action. Sequestration of carbon, i.e growing trees and plants, not only reduces the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere but sets free oxygen, which is necessary for the survival of all forms of life. Thus, efforts to preserve and promote the growth of vegetation, which leads to regulating nutrients recycling of soil, water harvesting and regulated flow, maintaining balance in the concentrations of different components of air, etc., are important for maintaining natural balances and steady states.

Thus, a wide variety of projects including microwatershed development, promotion of SALT, biodiversity conservation, harvesting of renewable sources of energy, ecosystem management for sustainable use of natural resources, protection and regeneration of forest resources is important for preservation of the natural environment. Air quality monitoring, water quality improvement and improved harvesting of fresh water resources, etc., also require developmental initiatives.

Gender and NRM

The critical social issue related to natural resource management is the role that women have to play in the developing countries. Most of the subsistence activities, including the collection of fuelwood, drinking water, agricultural operations, family food security, care of children, etc., are activities which a woman needs to perform and hence the availability of natural resources is of critical importance to the quality of life and drudgery that women face due to the degradation natural resources. Thus, the importance of natural resource management must necessarily be viewed from the perception of how it impacts on the lives of woman. Not only does depletion of natural resources adversely affect woman, woman are the most likely group to be interested in sustainable use of natural resources and hence, work to conserve the natural resources must necessarily ensure the active participation and involvement of women from the local communities. q

The author is the Manager
with the UNDP/GEF Branch of
Development Alternatives.

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