See also: Natural Capital

Rainforest on Fatu-Hiva, Marquesas Islands

• Renewable and
• Non-renewable

Background

Natural resource are natural capital converted to commodity inputs to infrastructural capital processes.^[1][2] They include soil, timber, oil, minerals, and other goods taken more or less from the Earth. Both extraction of the basic resource and refining it into a purer, directly usable form, (e.g., metals, refined oils) are generally considered natural-resource activities, even though the later may not necessarily occur near the former.

A nation's natural resources often determine its wealth in the world economic system, by determining its political influence. Developed nations are those which are less dependent on natural resources for wealth, due to their greater reliance on infrastructural capital for production. However, some see a resource curse whereby easily obtainable natural resources could actually hurt the prospects of a national economy by fostering political corruption. Political corruption can negatively impact the national economy because time is spent giving bribes or other economically unproductive acts instead of the generation of generative economic activity. There also tends to be concentrations of ownership over specific plots of land that have proven to yield natural resources.

In recent years, the depletion of natural capital and attempts to move to sustainable development have been a major focus of development agencies. This is of particular concern in rainforest regions, which hold most of the Earth's natural biodiversity - irreplaceable genetic natural capital.^[3] Conservation of natural resources is the major focus of natural capitalism, environmentalism, the ecology movement, and Green Parties. Some view this depletion as a major source of social unrest and conflicts in developing nations.

External links to information sources

• Natural Resources Research Information Pages (NRRIPS)
• Natural Resources Weblinks (University of Denver website)
• Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS)
• School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE)

See also

• Sustainability
• Biodiversity
• Global warming
• Ecology
• Earth Science
• Natural environment
• Nature
• Recycling
• Conservation Movement
• Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources (WSU)
• Eco-sufficiency

• Ecoregion
• Exploitation of natural resources
• Forest farming
• Land (economics)
• List of environment topics
• List of minerals
• List of natural gas fields
• List of oil fields
• Renewable energy development
• Sustainable forest management

References

External links

• Statistics on Natural Resources in Canada
• Wind power dilemma for Lewis a BBC News article about an island in the Hebrides
• Research on the fair and sustainable use of natural resources

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