Natural resource management

Natural resource management refers to the management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals, with a particular focus on how management affects the quality of life for both present and future generations (stewardship).

Natural resource management deals with managing the way in which people and natural landscapes interact. It brings together land use planning, water management, biodiversity conservation, and the future sustainability of industries like agriculture, mining, tourism, fisheries and forestry. It recognizes that people and their livelihoods rely on the health and productivity of our landscapes, and their actions as stewards of the land play a critical role in maintaining this health and productivity.

Principles of Natural Resource Management

Natural resource management is congruent with the concept of sustainable development, a scientific principle that forms a basis for sustainable global land management and environmental governance to conserve and preserve natural resources.

Natural resource management specifically focuses on a scientific and technical understanding of resources and ecology and the life-supporting capacity of those resources. Environmental management is also similar to natural resource management. In academic contexts, the two words are often used interchangeably, but in a natural resource management context, environmental management is much broader in scope than natural resource management.

Types of Natural Resource Management

Natural resource management can be divided into several different disciplines:

• Land management: including land degradation, land rehabilitation, land tenure, land use planning and land improvement.
• Water management: including water conservation and water resource management.
• Wildlife management: including wildlife conservation, game theory, wildlife reserves and wildlife disease.
• Forest management: including sustainable forest management, deforestation, afforestation and reforestation.
• Mineral resource management: including mining, mineral rights, mineral exploration and mineral processing.

See Also

• Sustainable development
• Environmental management
• Land management
• Water management
• Wildlife management
• Forest management
• Mineral resource management

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  Natural Resource Management in Wales - 5 May 2015