Natural Resources management Archives - Silvica: Blog for Sustainable Development

Policy, Laws and Other Terms Explained

Davidokul — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 19:22:58 +0000

Policy, Laws and Other Terms Explained

If you’re anything like me, the differences between policies, laws, strategies, acts, bills, and all those legal terms can be downright confusing. Do they all mean the same thing? Not really. In this blog post, I’ll break down these terms in a simple and clear way, so you can finally make sense of it all. Let’s dive in!

Take note that while the definition attempt to be general, they are mainly derived from their use in Kenya (or many other former British colonies) and in the sector of environment.

Policy

These are set of guidelines that help govern decision within the government. They are usually developed after a process of research, analysis, stakeholder engagement and politics.

Some policies are backed by laws and regulations. In these instances, breaking such policies may result in fines or imprisonment.

Other national policies are not backed by law as they serve as recommendations of guidelines. Breaking such policies may not result in legal penalties. Regardless, breaking a national policy can damage reputation leading to loss of credibility from various stakeholders.

Act

Bill

Law

Regulation

Strategy

References

Difference Between Laws, Regulations, Acts, Guidance & Policies

David Okul is an environmental management professional with over 10 years experience on donor projects, conservation, forestry, ecotourism, and community-based natural resources management. When not working on active environmental management projects, I spend my time writing for Silvica on a variety of topics.

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Fundermentals of Remote Sensing

Davidokul — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 20:52:58 +0000

In simple terms, remote sensing means obtaining information about an object from a distance. This can be done in various ways including from space, air, or the ground.

The earth receives energy from the sun through electromagnetic radiation. This radiation is either emitted, reflected, or absorbed by the earth.

Satellites carry instruments or sensors that measure the electromagnetic radiation reflected or emitted. These calibrated instruments can measure features of the earth surface including fire, vegetation cover, moisture content and so on.

Most of the electomagentic spectrum cannot be detected by the human eye. In fact, even satellites and sensors could only capture a small portion of the spectrum.

Different materials have different spectral signature. That means that different materials reflect different amounts of electromagnetic radiation. For instance:

Pigments in plants absorb wavelengths of visible light, while leaves reflect infra read which are invisible to the human eye. As plant changes through season, the reflectance properties also change
Water absorbs longer visible wavelengths (green and red) and NIR than shorter visible wavelength
Electromagnetic radiation passes through the atmosphere twice; and atmospheric correction is fundamental to obtain the surface reflectance characteristics.

Characteristics of Satellites

Orbits

Geostationary satellites orbit approximately 36,000km over the equator with the same rotational period over the earth.
Low Earth orbit could be polar (Landsat or terra) or non polar (GPM)

Energy Source

Passive sensors examples include Landsat OLI/TIRS, Terra MODIS, GPM GMI, GRACE. They use energy emitted or reflected by earth systems
Active Sensors: Provide their own source of energy for illumination. They often use microwaves. Examples include Lidar, Radar and Sentinel missions

Resolution of an Image

Spectral Resolution

Spectral resolution defines the spectral bands of the sensor e.g. Visible, UV, IR, Microwave…
It could be hyperspectral, multispectral, or panchromatic.

Spatial Resolution

Refers to the ground cover that forms one pixel in the image. High spatial resolution means a small area is covered by each image.
For instance Landsat has a resolution of 30 m while MODIS has a resolution of between 0.25 to 1 Km.

Temporal Resolution

Refers to the amount of time it takes for a satellite to complete one cycle> Also called revisit time.
For instance Landsat has a resolution of 16 days while MODIS has a resolution of 2 days.

Radiometric Resolution

Refers to the sensors ability to discriminate differences in energy, or radiance.
The higher the number, the more sensitive a sensor is to small differences in energy. For instance, Landsat OLI has a radiometric resolution of 16 bit while Landsat MSS is 6 bit.

Satellite data processing level refers to processing from a raw level to a polished product that visualizes information. NASA has levels 0-4 with 0 being the most difficult to use and 4 being the easiest.

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The Definition and Concept of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS)

Davidokul — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 03:36:51 +0000

Nature-based Solutions may be a buzzword that is becoming ubiquitous in various spaces. However, do you know the NbS definition is quite vague? In this article, we will attempt to define the concept.

Various bodies have presented NbS definition. Some of the common definitions include:

Actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use, and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems, which address social, economic, and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services and resilience and biodiversity benefits” (UNEA 2022).

PS: The UNEA definition is among the most commonly used definitions of NbS, but there are others as well, such as:

Strategies to address societal challenges through actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems, benefiting people and nature at the same time”(IUCN)
Solutions that are completely based on elements and direct inputs from nature, and are not managed by man or industrial elements
Actions inspired by, or supported by, or copied from nature to face social, environmental, and economic challenges.

Barbara and Joan proceed to list 20 definitions of NbS definition and concepts.

NbS definitions are blurry and general to clearly indicate which solutions could termed as NbS. In many cases, the blurry nature emanates from the observation that NbS involves the integration of various scientific fields, and where various experts view it through the lens of their respective disciplines.

NbS Definition Discussion

The concept of using nature to benefit people is not new, but the global interest in the concept has intensified over the years. Still, there is debate on what NbS are and the strategies for integrating them to address contemporary environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation.

Nature-based solutions use the natural functions of ecosystems to tackle some of the pressing environmental challenges. A key concept in NbS is protection, sustainable use, conservation, and restoration. As such, actions that minimize human impacts on nature such as waste reduction are not considered as NbS.

Despite an array of NbS definitions, a core principle in NbS is ‘working with nature rather than against it”. Apart from inspiration by nature, other common features of NbS include addressing societal challenges, provision of multiple benefits, and economic efficiency.

It can also be helpful to define NbS by what it is not. Some of the exclusion criteria identified by Barbara and Joan (2020) include:

Lack of functioning ecosystems
Random actions that lack proper planning
Negative/no impacts on biodiversity
Copy-paste implementation

Similarly, the IUCN Global Standard for NbS includes 8 criteria that frame green/blue interventions as NbS actions. These criteria include

Addressing societal challenges: The challenge must be identified as a priority for those who are or may be directly affected by the project
Landscape/seascape level interventions: The design of NBS recognizes interactions between economy, society, and ecosystems
Biodiversity gain: Design must proactively seek to enhance the functionality and connectivity of ecosystems
Economic viability: if not addressed, NbS projects are at risk of being short-term
Governance capacity: at minimal, NbS should align with prevailing legal and regulatory provisions.
Equitable trade-off: Trade-offs cannot be avoided but they must be effectively and equitably managed.
Adaptive management: Regular monitoring and evaluation to present an evidence-based foundation.
Mainstream with jurisdictional context: Interventions designed to align with international, sectoral, national, and other policy frameworks

From the discussion, it is clear that any green/blue action is not necessarily an NbS. Regardless, Silvica has compiled some possible examples of NbS actions. Based on the definition in this article, examples of the NbS should aim at fitting the criteria specified.

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IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology Overview

Davidokul — Mon, 27 May 2024 04:53:18 +0000

By David Okul

Biodiversity monitoring has a vital measurement problem despite the understanding that stocktaking of biodiversity variables plays a critical part in conservation. A common approach in monitoring is using a basket of metrics as it is impossible to measure all the biodiversity variables in an ecosystem.

It goes without saying that the first step of indicator development is developing a clear and agreeable understanding of ecosystem types and subtypes for indicators. IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology is an agreed ecological classification framework that is recommended for renowned environmental accounting standards such as the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA EA). It is a product of critical review and input from leading ecosystem scientists in the world. Furthermore, World Conservation Congress Marseille 2020, voted for a global ecosystem typology under resolution 061.

The IUCN Global Ecosystem typology is a classification system based on hierarchy. At the upper level, it defines ecosystems based on their convergent ecological functions but distinguishes ecosystems with contrasting assemblages in the lower levels.

Higher Level Classification

The top level includes five global realms. These include terrestrial, subterrestrial, freshwater, marine, and the atmosphere. Transitional realms are the intersection between the global realms as variation in nature is continuous.

The second level identifies 25 biomes. These ecosystems are created by human activities that drive and maintain their activity. The traditional definition of biomes involves the classification of continental-scale vegetation with major climate types. Modern definitions also have a basis in the terrestrial vegetation formations but also consider functional and evolutionary processes.

Level 3 has 108 ecosystem functional groups that include ecosystems within a biome with dependencies. The ecosystem functioning groups were developed by identifying key gradients in biomes and major species traits that vary among them. For example, water deficit, seasonality, temperature, nutrient deficiency, fire activity, and herbivory are the gradient filters in the terrestrial environment.

Detailed description and reference to the high-level typology https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2020-037-En.pdf

Lower Level Classification

The first three levels focus on the functional properties of the ecosystem compared to the next three levels which focus on biogeographic and compositional features. These include biogeographical ecotypes, global ecosystem type, and sub-global ecosystem type. These lower levels of classification are often derived directly from ground observation.

SEEA-EA recommends biogeographic ecotypes (or ecoregions) for national and subnational and not for supranational approaches such as the EU
Like biogeographical ecotypes, both global and sub-global ecosystem types are already in use in the national structures and could be linked to the upper levels.

Concluding Remarks

The IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology presents a viable and practical framework to define the scope and context for biodiversity monitoring. It was developed by a collaboration of many reputable biogeographers around the world. As such, it remains ideal for ecosystem classification and structure. A pertinent critique of the typology is the observation of a great degree of overlap between the various classes. Moreover, some areas of their mapping are inaccurate because of human modification. Regardless, it presents an important starting point for monitoring. Furthermore, the typology recognizes 3 high levels of classification as coarse. As such, it is upon projects/researchers to refine their classification from steps four through six

David Okul is an environmental management professional with over 15 years experience on donor projects, conservation, forestry, ecotourism, and community-based natural resources management. When not working on environmental projects, he writes for Silvica on various topics. This blog’s views are personal and do not represent the organizations he is associated with.

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REDD+ Justification and Criticism

Davidokul — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 18:50:14 +0000

By David Okul

This article is in draft phase. Final version will be published on 7th February 2024

Globally, the agriculture, forestry and land use change is a major net emitter of greenhouse gases. It is estimated that the sector contributes 23% of GHG. As such, forest conservation and avoided deforestation are attractive alternatives for climate change mitigation. Against this background, the UNFCCC introduced REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries). The Warsaw Framework provide the basic rules for REDD+ including safegurds for people and the environment, national forest monitoring systems, forest reference levels, MRVs, etc.

In theory, REDD+ is of benefit to both developed and developing countries as developed countries can reduce emissions at low cost by supporting REDD+ while developing countries receive financial incentives to reduce deforestation.

Critism of REDD+

Weakened rules

There is concerned that some of the requirements for environmental safeguards, benefit sharing process,a nd participatory approaches are not stringent enough.

Over issuance of credits

There are some reports of REDD+ projects overissuing carbon credits. An important aspect of REDD+ project is calculating the baseline which climate action can be measured.

However, most standards publicly list project information and have space for public comments. More importantly, baselines are reassessed during validation. Recently, Verra revised its baseline assessment period from 10 years to 6 years.

Furthermore, standard agencies often engage group of experts in developing standards and reviewing projects.

Concluding remarks

Scrutiny of carbon projects help to improve transparency and the effectiveness of offset projects.

Tropical forests are reducing. The fact is that projects similar to REDD+ do assist in reducing the rates of deforestation. A number of studies support this claim Malan et al (2024), Everland (2023) and Ropsind et al (2019)

To Value or Not to Value Nature

Davidokul — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 14:41:26 +0000

By David Okul

The idea of putting a price on nature is controversial.

The major argument is that nature has an intrinsic value and valuation turns the natural world into a subsidiary of the corporate economy. As such, the proponents of intrinsic value of nature argue that there is no need of putting a price on nature, as it has its own rights independent of human use.

Additionally, some argue that putting monetary value on biodiversity implies that it can be divisible into smaller parts. There is a danger of financialization of nature in large open markets. Many entrepreneurs are seeing potential profits in marketization of nature and are supporting for their development.

Pricing natural assets could also imply that they could be substitutable for other products elsewhere. Many natural assets are not fungible and could not be substituted for other assets. Unlike capital in finance, we cannot invest, borrow, or spend natural capital. The treatment of natural assets as capital could be catastrophic for nature.

Some aspects of the natural environment are harder to quantify than others. For instance, valuing cultural value is notoriously difficult. Supporting services are also hard to quantify. Conversely, for provisional services, simple market values can be determined.

The question remains, is it better to put an imperfect quantification on nature, or continue BAU that regard natural world as valueless?

This is a very tough debate, but my personal opinion is that since the globe is increasingly capitalistic, nature should be valued and integrated in the contemporary capitalist system.

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Some Statistics on How Man is Destroying Nature

Davidokul — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 15:46:52 +0000

By David Okul

The natural environment is fundamental to humans’ survival on Earth. It also contributes to our economy and culture. Unfortunately, our ways of life are destructive to the ecosystem.

It is easy to overlook nature and think that everything will always be there. However, multiple evidence shows that nature can be destroyed.

Humans destroy the environment in several ways including:

Over-extracting natural resources
Pollution of air, soils, and water
Destroying landscapes

The reasons for the destruction are pretty simple. Our overpopulation and overconsumption are leading to more urbanization, agriculture, and entertainment.

Read an article highlighting the major global environmental issues, mainly caused by humans.

Collapse of Species

The bullet points below illustrate how biodiversity is shifting. Links in the bullet points redirect to articles across websites proving the statements.

Livestock accounts for 62% of global mammalian biomass while humans account for 34%. Only 4% of the biomass represents wildlife species. The estimate is a startling reminder of the reduced biodiversity.
Poultry accounts for 61% of the world’s birds’ biomass. Some estimates claim that poultry biomass could be as much as 80%. In contrast, 4-10% of bird species are farmed as poultry.
Over 12% of the known species are faced with the danger of extinction. Over 30% of land and 75% of freshwater resources are utilized for food production.
Lost over a third of tigers and elephant populations since counting began.
Further, these wild areas are concentrated in about 20 countries. The wilderness areas are often the homes of indigenous communities.
Wildlife populations have reduced by 68% since 1970. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the drop has been over 94%.
Over a million species are in danger of extinction
One of every 3 freshwater species is faced with extinction threat.
IUCN has listed 77 animals as extinct in the wild. The organization’s Red List identifies 41,000 species as threatened, which represents 28% of the total species researchers assess.
3 million species in the Amazon are threatened by human-caused ecosystem collapse.
Introduced species have significant negative impacts on the environment. The number of alien species has increased as humans move across habitats. Alien species could have dramatic impacts on the species richness of native habitats.

Habitats destruction

Habitat destruction is a leading cause of species decline.

Only 25% of the terrestrial land is wilderness area. That is, areas not affected by human footprint. These areas are mainly in Canada, Russia, Brazil, and Australia. Similarly, only 33% of marine-based environments are truly wild. Even more concerning is a study that claims only 3% of the earth has ecological integrity and ‘intactness’).
26% of the planet (ice-free land) is used for livestock, with 33% of cropland for livestock feeds. Animal agriculture is responsible for 17% of greenhouse gas emissions. Global meat consumption has more than doubled since 1990.
Land use change, especially for agriculture leads to biodiversity loss and land and water degradation. In 2021 alone, 9.3 million acres of tree land in the tropics were converted to other land uses.

Water Natural resources are not spared too

Global heating and ocean acidification are causing the disappearance of coral reefs. The Guardian reports that children born in the 2020s may be the last generation to see the coral reefs in all its glory. Corals are the undersea forests, but they are declining at a faster rate than the Amazon.
Over 90% of wetlands have been destroyed since the 1700s. more https://theconversation.com/earth-has-lost-one-fifth-of-its-wetlands-since-1700-but-most-could-still-be-saved-199362
About 77% of the rivers over 1000 km no longer flow freely
Excessive commercial fishing (through trawling) is causing the creation of dead zones in the oceans too.

The cascading effect of Nature degradation

Nature degradation has a cascading effect on the environment. Some of these consequences are listed as:
- Reduction of ecosystem stability: intact ecosystems are more resilient to pressures such as climate change
- Reduction of ecosystem services: Nature degradation often also reduces the functionality of various ecosystem services such as pollination, water provision, soil formation, carbon sequestration, and climate regulation
- Species extinction: The loss of one species has a cascading effect on other species as well.
- Food security: Biodiversity is vital for food security as it provides genetic resources, pollination services, and natural pest control. The destruction of nature may reduce the agricultural productivity.
- Human health as losing biodiversity may mean losing potential treatment of diseases. Moreover, decline of ecosystem services, such as water and air purification, may increase the exposure to pollutants and pathogens
- Economy loss: nature supports various industries including tourism, fisheries, and agriculture. The destruction of natural resources has implications for the economic development of a region
- Loss of cultural values, in particular, of indigenous people.
- Reduced resilience to climate change
- Natural disaster resistance: natural disasters such as floods, storms, and landslides are less severe in areas of healthy and diverse ecosystems.

What Can We Do?

The Sustainable Development Goals recommend the following changes to reverse or reduce human impacts on nature:

Conserve wetlands, which are important breeding grounds for 40% of the worlds’ species

Fight ocean acidification
Manage Foodwaste
Manage pollution
Protect forests
Protect key biodiversity areas
Enhance climate finance to help fight climate change

The Good News

Evidence shows that conservation efforts may cause the recovery of some species. For instance, the black tail reef shark in Australia and the Nepalese Tiger have shown remarkable recovery rates by conservation efforts.

Concluding remarks

Humans are depleting the natural resources at an alarming rate. At the current rate, we will need 2.5 earths by 2050 to satisfy the consumption rate. Some of the overexploited natural resources include sand, trees, soils, fossil fuels, and water. I perceive the capitalistic mindset to be the central cause of the degradation and destruction of the environment. The solutions have to be capitalistic too. We know that natural resources have value. It is time to assign value to the resources and ensure that ecosystem services are rightly priced. It shouldn’t end there as well. The money obtained from the PES should be appropriately invested in conservation and the communities undertaking conservation activities. I feel that the environment is at a tipping point. If we don’t rationally manage it, more disasters may await us. Whether it is the effects of climate change or the proliferation of killer diseases. I believe Covid-19 could have been an environmental disaster.

REFERENCE

Most of the references are in the links within the text. Other references include

Humans Destroying Ecosystems: How to measure our impacts on the environment (2023) https://sentientmedia.org/humans-destroying-ecosystems/extirpate

The post Some Statistics on How Man is Destroying Nature appeared first on Silvica: Blog for Sustainable Development .

How Humans Are Dependent On Nature

Davidokul — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 18:41:53 +0000

By David Okul

Humans have become obsessed with technological ingenuity to enhance their future survival, but ignoring their dependence on nature would be foolish. While the future of humanity is focused on artificial technology and solutions, the role of the natural world in human existence is underestimated. Nature offers so many benefits to humans. Today, close to 8 billion people across the globe are directly or indirectly dependent on nature. Humans depend on nature for many things, including the source of basic needs, economic growth, and health.

Dependence on Nature for Basic Human Needs

Nature is the number one source for all basic human needs like clean water, food, air, shelter, and clothing. These basic needs are essential for human survivors. They are sourced from nature directly or indirectly.

Air: Humans depend on nature for clean air to support their existence. Nature produces air by interacting with land, plants, and the atmosphere. For example, trees absorb Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to produce oxygen. Other natural resources like soil, wetlands, and plants help clean the air, giving humans access to fresh air.

The ocean produces over half of the world’s oxygen through oceanic plankton. However, marine life consumes most of the oxygen produced in the oceans.

Food: Humans are heavily dependent on food. Nature provides humans with a balanced diet containing carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, and minerals essential for healthy living. The natural sources of food include plants and animals. Humans source their food from fruits, roots, stems, seeds, leaves, and flowers of plants. The plants also produce other food-related products like oil from seeds, sugar from sugarcane stems, and species from dried leaves and roots. Humans also depend on animals as a food source, directly or indirectly. Animals are rich sources of proteins. Animals produce milk, meat, and eggs.

Water: The three natural sources of water are underground water, rain, and surface water. Humans access underground water by drilling boreholes. Rainwater falls in the form of snow or precipitation. Humans can collect rainwater by building dams or using containers. Surface water involves water sources above the surface and is easily accessible to humans. Examples of surface water sources include wetlands, lakes, rivers, oceans, and seas. Humans rely on nature as the direct drinking water source and irrigating crops. The body needs clean drinking water to function correctly and promote good health. Humans also use water to irrigate lands and grow crops, thus promoting food security.

Dependence on Nature for Economic growth

Natural resources play a primary role in promoting economic activities and sustainability; nature directly contributes to human economic activities by providing humans with raw materials for producing goods and services.

Energy Generation

Humans are reliant on nature for energy generation. Energy is the main economic driver for human activities. Humans require energy in their homes, factories, and cities to promote producing goods and services for financial gain. Nature provides humans with energy from different sources. The primary energy source has been fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and natural gas, contributing to up to 80% of the global energy needs. Nature also provides humans with renewable energy like solar, wind, hydropower, and geothermal. Renewable energy has enabled humans to produce green energy, which helps promote environmental and economic sustainability for human growth.

Raw Materials

Also, humans depend on nature for raw materials to produce goods. Nature is a rich source of raw materials essential for making goods. The raw materials are sourced from plants, animals, and underground minerals. Plants are the primary source of raw materials for producing goods such as medicine, paper, furniture, clothes, art, etc. Humans also use animal byproducts like skins to make leather products like shoes, handbags, and clothes. They also excavate to access underground minerals like gold, copper, oil, ore, zinc, silver, nickel, tin, and iron, to mention but a few, for energy production, metals, and gems, which promote economic development.

Nature-based Tourism

Nature is rich in biodiversity, ecosystems, and natural features, attracting tourists worldwide. Humans use these natural attraction sites to promote nature-based tourism to diversify their economic growth. Tourism contributes to economic growth in various ways, such as creating employment, increasing income, and infrastructure development. Nature-based tourism includes bird watching, hiking, fishing, visiting parks, photography, camping, and hunting.

Dependence on Nature for Good Health

Nature Promotes Good Mental Health

Nature has a significant impact on promoting the well-being of humans, making them reliant on nature for good health. Research has shown that human interaction with nature reduces stress. Stress lowers the quality of one’s health by leading to unhappiness, anxiety, and high blood pressure. Exposure to nature (e.g., walking in natural areas) promotes happiness and emotional well-being.

Nature Treats Illnesses

Nature is a major source of medicine and therapy. Humans rely on nature to extract raw materials from plants and animals to produce generic medications for treating cardiovascular diseases. Also, interacting with nature helps relieve pain and promote comfort to patients. The research found that interacting with natural environments has a soothing effect, which helps to reduce psychological and chronic pain. Humans depend on nature to relieve pain instead of using medications, as there are no side effects.

Concluding Remarks

Humans depend on nature for survival, economic growth, and good health. This dependence shows how nature is essential for human sustainability and existence in the future. An attack on nature is an attack on human survival in the future. While humans view technology as their future, they should remember nature as they depend so much on it. Humans should focus on protecting nature to ensure that it continues to provide essential needs for its survival and growth. The connection between human beings and nature is undeniable.

All goods we use will either need natural resources (e.g foods that require minerals from soil) or will embody natural resources (e.g. a car will contain iron ore). The problem is that with economic development and population growth, more and more natural resources are being extracted. This unsustainable resource use is the cause of some of the major environmental problems of today.

Read more about natural resources in this book

David Okul is an environmental management professional with over 12 years experience on donor projects, conservation, forestry, ecotourism, and community-based natural resources management. When not working on environmental projects, I spend my time writing for Silvica on a variety of topics. The view in this blog are personal and do not represent the organizations that he is associated with.

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The Conservation of Soil

Davidokul — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 18:35:09 +0000

By David Okul

Soil is the uppermost layer of earth’s crust, which supports growth of plants. It is a complex mixture of

mineral particles (formed from rocks),
humus (organic material formed from decaying plant remains),
mineral salts,
water,
air, and
Living organisms (larger ones like earthworms and insects and microscopic ones like the bacteria and fungi).

Soil is a renewable as well as non-renewable resource. Soil is renewable because its productivity can be maintained with fertilizers and manures rich in humus.

Humus

A brown or black organic substance consisting of partially or wholly decayed vegetable or animal matter that provides nutrients for plants and increases the ability of soil to retain water.

If the soil has been removed from a certain place by erosion, it is practically non-renewable because formation of new soil may take hundreds and thousands of years. Let us discuss erosion as it is a major threat to soil resource.

Soil Erosion

Erosion literally means “to wear away”. You might have noticed during the dry season, when wind blows it carries away sand and soil particles from one place to another. Similarly flowing water removes some amount of soil along with it. This removal of top layers of soil by wind and water is called soil erosion. You know that top layers of soil contain humus and mineral salts, which are vital for the growth of plants. Thus, erosion causes a significant loss of humus and nutrients, and decreases the fertility of soil.

Causes of soil Erosion

Now we shall discuss the causes of soil erosion. There are several causes of soil erosion, these include:

(a) Natural causes; and

(b) Anthropogenic causes (human generated causes)

(a) Natural Causes of Soil Erosion

Erosion of soil takes places due to the effect of natural agents like wind and water. High speed winds over lands, which have no vegetation, carry away the loose top soil. Similarly in areas with no or very little vegetation, the pouring raindrops carry away the soil.

(b) Anthropogenic/ man-made Causes of Soil Erosion

Besides the natural agents, there are some human activities, which cause soil erosion. Let us know about them.

Deforestation: If the forests are cut down for timber, or for farming purposes, then the soil is no longer protected from the effect of falling rains. Consequently, the top soil is washed away into the rivers and oceans.

Poor farming methods: Improper tillage and failure to replace humus after successive crops and burning the stubble of weeds reduce the water-holding capacity of the soil. So the soil becomes dry and can be blown away as dust.

Overgrazing: Overgrazing by flocks of cattle, buffaloes, goats and sheep leave very little plant-cover on the soil. Their hooves make the soil dry and soil can be blown away easily.

What are the possible causes of soil erosion in your area?

Conservation of Soil

In the previous section we learnt about the various causes of soil erosion. Soil loses its fertility due to erosion. So we need to conserve the soil. Soil conservation means checking soil erosion and improving soil fertility by adopting various methods. Let us know some of these methods.

Maintenance of soil fertility: The fertility can be maintained by adding manure and fertilizers regularly as well as by rotation of crop.
Control on grazing: Grazing should be allowed only on the areas meant for it and not on agricultural land.
Reforestation: Planting of trees and vegetation reduces soil erosion by both water and wind.
Terracing: Dividing a slope into several flat fields to control rapid run of water. It is practiced mostly in hilly areas.
Contour ploughing: Ploughing at right angles to the slope allows the furrows to trap water and check soil erosion by rain water.
Building gabions

Concluding Remarks

David Okul is an environmental management professional with over 10 years experience on donor projects, conservation, forestry, ecotourism, and community-based natural resources management. When not working on environmental projects, I spend my time writing for Silvica on a variety of topics. The view in this blog are personal and do not represent the organizations that he is associated with.

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Natural Resources Definition, Features, and Classification

Davidokul — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 07:40:47 +0000

By David Okul

Natural resources definition can be a simple or complex concept. The fact is that all products that we use are based on natural resources. For instance, plastic may be an obvious man-made product but it has its origins in natural resources including natural gas, oil, and plants. These natural resources are refined into ethane and propane to create different polymers.

A simple natural resources definition would define natural resources as ‘things that occur naturally and are of value to humans’. A more acceptable definition of natural resources comes from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that defines it as ‘assets occurring in nature that can be used for economic production or consumption.’

It is important for a resource to have value to humans. Value means that human beings should be able to use the resources.

But there is a problem with the definition. It would mean that since air is not used in economic production or consumption, it would not be a natural resource. Although the economic value of air is not obvious it is the basis of life on earth.

Technical natural resources definition

A more technical explanation defines natural resources by what they are not. It is common for environmentalists to define natural resources by what it is not. In this respect, a natural resource is not:

Goods subjected to some processing, e.g automobiles
Products not extracted from the natural environment. E.g., food from agriculture is cultivated rather than extracted.

Further, the technical definition would involve a look into the features/characteristics of natural resources. Five features are pertinent:

Exhaustibility
Uneven distribution in different countries: For instance over 80% of all known oil reserves are within 3 countries
Externalities such as pollution that arise from extraction
Volatility: variation in the pricing
Dominance: many countries rely on a narrow range of natural resources for their export

A more detailed explanation of the features of natural resources is explained in the World Trade Report

Natural resources are thought of as natural capital different from human and physical capital.

In natural resources definition, it is vital to distinguish between natural resources as factors of production and goods that can be traded. As factors of production, natural resources can form the basis for various economic sectors. For instance, unique natural scenery may spur tourism. In contrast, some natural resources such as minerals can be traded in the international market in their raw form.

The earth’s physical environment provides the life support system and all the resources we use. The physical environment has four spheres including the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere.

Classification of natural resources

Just like there are varied ways of defining natural resources, there are different ways to classify the resources including:

The origin categorizes resources into biotic and abiotic. Biotic resources would be obtained from living things while abiotic resources originate from non-organic materials.
Stage of development: This approach categorizes natural resources as potential, actual, reserve, and stock resources.
Renewability: is the most commonly used method of classification and is the focus of the subsequent discussion

The air we breathe and the light we get from the sun are available in unlimited quantity, at least in theory. In contrast, resources like coal, forest, and petroleum can be depleted. The stock of these resources is limited because they keep reducing day by day.

Based on renewability, resources can be classified into:

Inexhaustible
Exhaustible resources

Inexhaustible Resources

The resources which cannot be exhausted by human consumption and other uses are called inexhaustible resources or perpetual resources. Examples include energy sources like solar radiation, wind power, water power (flowing streams) and tidal power, and substances like sand, clay, air, water in oceans, etc.

They cannot be exhausted! For example, the sun will always be there even if everybody in the world puts up solar panels! The push for renewable energy, especially solar and the wind is based on the premise that these resources’ availability is unlimited.

Exhaustible Resources

On the other hand, there are some resources, which are available in limited quantities and are going to be exhausted (finished) as a result of continuous use. For instance, the stock of coal on the earth is limited and one day there will be no more coal available on earth. Petroleum is another important exhaustible resource. The exhaustible resources can be classified to:

Renewable
Non-renewable resources

Renewable Resources

Some of the exhaustible resources are naturally regenerated after consumption and are known as renewable resources. E.g. living beings (both animals and plants) reproduce and can thus, replace the dying or killed individuals. It is important to note that if the use of these resources is a greater rate of regeneration, they may also get totally exhausted/ finished. Some examples of renewable resources are freshwater, fertile soils, forest (yielding wood and other products), vegetation, wildlife, etc.

Non-renewable Resources

The resources, which cannot be replaced after use, are known as non-renewable resources. These include minerals (copper, iron, etc.) fossil fuels (coal, oil, etc.).

Sometimes, unsustainable use of renewable resources may turn them into non-renewables. For instance, many conservationists categorize endangered wildlife species (rare plants and animals) as non-renewable.

Concluding Remarks

In essence, natural resources are found virtually everywhere on earth. However, scholars often include the concept of ‘value’ in defining natural resources. Resources exist independently of humans but can be defined as natural resources when they are of value to humans. Adjectives such as ‘critical’ or ‘keystone’ are increasingly being used to describe some natural resources or capital to show that some resources are more valuable than others.

Read more about natural resources in this book

David Okul is an environmental management professional with over 10 years experience on donor projects, conservation, forestry, ecotourism, and community-based natural resources management. When not working on environmental projects, I spend my time writing for Silvica on a variety of topics. The view in this blog are personal and do not represent the organizations that he is associated with.

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