Redefining Concepts around Natural Resources and the Environment
CEESP News - byMahdi Kolahi, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
When studying or working in natural resources or environmental fields, it is always a question how to call, for example, nature, natural things, and the environment! To what extent a thing is a 'natural resource', a 'natural feature', or an environmental one.There is often a vague construction between concepts of natural resources and the environment.
Figure 1 represents interlinks among the Earth, Nature & Natural Area; Natural Habitats; Natural Sites, Features & Landscapes; Natural Resources; and Human Environment
We use words to simply transfer explicit or implicit meanings. By using different names when calling those fields, different social constructions come up. What this note is going to emphasis or to revealare theinterconnections between nature and human environments. For it, Figure 1 represents interlinks among the Earth, Nature & Natural Area; Natural Habitats; Natural Sites, Features & Landscapes; Natural Resources; and Human Environment.
Oxford Dictionary defines Natural Area as “a geographical area the distinguishing characteristics of which have arisen naturally and without planning”, Natural Resources as “materials or substances occurring in nature which can be exploited for economic gain”, and Habitat as “the natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism”.
We call forests and ranges, for example, as natural resources. In this case, we largely consider them as timbers and forages resources, respectively. But they are habitats for many other living and non-living creatures. On the other hand, when forests and ranges are called resources, we teach new generation or write public that they are “resources”, or in our current behaviors, as sources, and thereby they have to be exploited or to be extracted! But how about lives of other creatures in those areas?
Figure 1 represents interlinks among the Earth, Nature & Natural Area; Natural Habitats; Natural Sites, Features & Landscapes; Natural Resources; and Human Environment
Because of many factors - especially overpopulations, global warning and technology, nowadays, human environment predominantly is being amplified. It has taken other areas, has also affected on, has changed and has shrunken them. Therefore, Figure 1 also reveals importance of areas of other spheres to be free from human interference and encroachment.