What is an example of environmental management use. Problems of irrational use of natural resources and their solution

It is clear that resources are indeed limited and should be treated sparingly. With the irrational use of resources, it is necessary to talk about the problem of their limitations, because if you do not stop the waste of a resource, in the future, when it is needed, it simply will not exist. But, although the problem of scarcity of resources has been clear for a long time, in different countries one can see vivid examples of wasting resources. For example, in Russia, at present, the state policy in the field of energy conservation is based on the priority of the efficient use of energy resources and the implementation of state supervision over this process. The state insists on the obligatory accounting by legal entities of the energy resources produced or consumed by them, as well as accounting by individuals of the energy resources they receive. The state standards for equipment, materials and structures, vehicles include indicators of their energy efficiency. An important area is the certification of energy-consuming, energy-saving and diagnostic equipment, materials, structures, vehicles and, of course, energy resources. All this is based on a combination of interests of consumers, suppliers and producers of energy resources, as well as the interest of legal entities in the efficient use of energy resources. At the same time, even on the example of the Middle Urals, 25-30 million tons of reference fuel (tce) is consumed annually in the region, and approximately 9 million tce is used irrationally. It turns out that imported fuel and energy resources (FER) are mostly irrationally spent. At the same time, about 3 million tce can be reduced through organizational measures. Most energy saving plans have exactly this goal, but so far have not been able to achieve it.

Also an example of the irrational use of minerals can be an open pit for coal mining near Angren. In addition, at the previously developed deposits of non-ferrous metals Ingichka, Kuytash, Kalkamar, Kurgashin, losses during the extraction and enrichment of ore reached 20-30%. At the Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine, several years ago, such accompanying components as molybdenum, mercury, and lead were not completely smelted from the processed ore. In recent years, due to the transition to the integrated development of mineral deposits, the degree of non-production losses has significantly decreased, but it is still far from full rationalization.

The government approved a program aimed at halting soil degradation, as a result of which the annual damage to the economy is more than 200 million USD.

But so far the program is only being introduced into agriculture, and at present, 56.4% of all agricultural land is affected by degradation processes of varying degrees. According to scientists, the processes of soil degradation have intensified in recent decades as a result of the irrational use of land resources, a decrease in the areas of protective forest plantations, the destruction of anti-erosion hydraulic structures, and natural disasters. Financing of the program for hydro-reclamation anti-erosion work is envisaged to be carried out at the expense of extra-budgetary funds of interested ministries and departments, funds from the sale and purchase of public property lands, from the collection of land tax, at the expense of economic entities and the state budget. According to experts involved in agricultural support programs, the problem of soil degradation is aggravating every day, but the implementation of the state program is more than problematic in the face of financial deficit. The state will not be able to raise the necessary funds, and the economic entities of the agricultural sector do not have the funds to invest in soil protection measures.

Russia's forest resources make up one fifth of the planet's forest resources. The total stock of wood in the forests of Russia is 80 billion cubic meters. meters. The environmentally safe development of the economy and society largely depends on the level of preservation and completeness of the realization of the richest potential of biological resources. But forests in Russia are constantly suffering from fires and damage by harmful insects and plant diseases, which is mainly a consequence of the low technical equipment and limited funding of the state forest protection service. The volume of reforestation work has been reduced in recent years and in a number of regions it no longer meets forestry and environmental standards.

Also, with the transition to market relations, the number of forest users has significantly increased, which in a number of places has led to an increase in violations of forest and environmental legislation when using forests.

A fundamentally important property of biological resources is their ability to self-reproduce. However, as a result of the ever-increasing anthropogenic impact on the environment and overexploitation, the raw material potential of biological resources is declining, and the populations of many plant and animal species are degrading and endangered. Therefore, in order to organize the rational use of biological resources, it is necessary, first of all, to provide environmentally sound limits for their exploitation (withdrawal), which exclude depletion and loss of the ability of biological resources to reproduce themselves. In addition, prices for forest resources are extremely low in Russia, so forests are cut down and are not considered of great value. But having cut down all the forest wealth, we risk losing a lot of money for the purchase of wood in other countries, as well as destroying the natural air purifier. Fedorenko N. To assess the effectiveness of the use of Russia's national resources. // Questions of Economics.-2005-№8-p. 31-40.

From early childhood, my parents took me to rest to a small spring lake. I loved this lake, its clean and cool water. But, suddenly for us, it began to disappear and almost disappeared. It turned out that a local farmer began to irrigate his land with water from this lake, and his irrational activities drained the reservoir in just three years, leaving the entire district without water, and us without a lake.

nature management

The use of natural resources entails certain consequences, and I would like these actions to be aimed at creation, and not at destruction. With the development of technology, people are increasingly using natural resources, using them for their personal needs and enrichment. Moreover, such activity can be both rational and irrational. The first does not harm nature, does not change its appearance and properties, while the second leads to the depletion of deposits and pollution of the atmosphere.

Examples of rational nature management

Rational use of resources implies their maximum possible reasonable consumption. For industry, this can be the use of a closed water cycle, the use of alternative forms of energy, recycling.

Such an example is also the creation of parks and reserves, the use of new technologies that do not pollute the air, soil and water.

Examples of irrational nature management

Unreasonable and negligent examples of nature management can be observed at every step, and we are all already paying for such a careless attitude towards nature. Here are some of those examples:

In my life, I rarely observe the rational use of resources, ranging from individual people to the scale of corporations and countries. And I would like people to appreciate our planet more and use its gifts wisely.

Nature management rational and irrational. Depending on the consequences of human economic activity, environmental management is distinguished between rational and irrational.[ ...]

Nature management can be irrational and rational. Irrational nature management does not ensure the preservation of natural resource potential, leads to the impoverishment and deterioration of the quality of the natural environment, is accompanied by pollution and depletion of natural systems, disruption of the ecological balance and destruction of ecosystems. Rational nature management means the complex scientifically based use of natural resources, which achieves the maximum possible conservation of the natural resource potential, with minimal disruption of the ability of ecosystems to self-regulate and self-recovery.[ ...]

Irrational nature management does not ensure the preservation of the natural resource potential, leads to the impoverishment and deterioration of the quality of the natural environment, is accompanied by pollution and depletion of natural systems, disruption of the ecological balance and destruction of ecosystems.[ ...]

Nature management - the use of natural resources in order to meet the material and cultural needs of society. Nature management (as a science) is a field of knowledge that develops the principles of rational (reasonable) nature management. Nature management can be rational and irrational.[ ...]

Nature management can be rational (reasonable) and irrational. With rational environmental management, which ensures economically efficient consumption and reproduction of natural resources, opportunities are created to meet the needs for them not only of the present, but also of future generations of people. Unfortunately, the current state of nature management as a whole can be characterized as irrational, leading to the depletion of natural resources, disruption of the ecological balance and environmental pollution. Nature management should be based on the laws of ecology, the laws of the economy of nature. Violation of environmental requirements leads to the deterioration of the natural environment and necessitates special environmental measures.[ ...]

Irrational nature management leads to the depletion (and even disappearance) of natural resources, environmental pollution, disruption of the ecological balance of natural systems, that is, to an ecological crisis or catastrophe.[ ...]

Irrational nature management ultimately leads to an ecological crisis, and environmentally balanced nature management creates the prerequisites for overcoming it.[ ...]

Nature management can be irrational and rational.[ ...]

Irrational nature management has a negative impact on many sectors of the national economy, on the quality of the human environment, on the composition of the animal and plant world. It will take many years, huge financial resources and a clear program of action to improve Russia's difficult environmental situation. For these purposes, Russia is developing a special long-term program "Environmental Security of Russia".[ ...]

Irrational human impacts on nature during nature management are manifested in the results of both deliberately predatory and natural in the form of indirect impacts. But in both cases of impacts on the natural environment, there is an impoverishment of biogeocenoses.[ ...]

USE OF NATURE IS IRRATIONAL - leads to the depletion of natural resources.[ ...]

Irrational use of natural resources - a decrease in the quality and depletion of natural resources, undermining the restoring forces of nature, pollution of the environment, a decrease in its health and aesthetic functions. Examples of P.N. - salinization of soils, mountains of garbage, pollution of the atmosphere and hydrosphere, etc.[ ...]

The reasons for irrational nature management are different. This is insufficient knowledge of the laws of ecology, weak material interest of producers, low ecological culture of the population, etc. In addition, in different countries, issues of nature management and nature protection are solved differently depending on a number of factors: political, economic, social, moral, etc.[ ...]

In the process of nature management, a person can produce rational and irrational impacts.[ ...]

Damage caused by irrational use of natural resources. In nature management, damage is understood as actual or possible economic and social losses as a result of changes in the natural environment under the influence of human economic activity.[ ...]

As a result of irrational nature management, chemical pollution of air, water and soil, as well as the impact of destructive natural processes in the world, 6 million hectares of land are irretrievably lost every year and out of economic circulation. Another 20 million hectares fall into a state unsuitable for agricultural use and require such costs for reclamation that make it economically unprofitable.[ ...]

The concept of “nature management” is understood as a scientific and technical direction that deals with the development of theoretical problems and practical solutions in the field of rational use of natural resources by a person; this is a very active area of ​​social production activity aimed at meeting the needs of mankind in the quality and diversity of the environment, at improving the use of the natural resources of the biosphere. It stands out, which is quite natural, two types of nature transformation: rational and irrational. The latter leads to the depletion of natural resources, the undermining of the restorative forces of the biosphere - its ability to self-maintain, reduce health and aesthetic qualities, i.e. this is a system of activity that does not ensure the conservation of the natural resource potential of nature.[ ...]

The negative consequences of nature management can be successfully compensated by the adjustment of technological processes, well-thought-out measures for the transformation of nature. The main ways of combining economic tasks with environmental measures are vividly demonstrated in the guiding documents of the 27th CPSU Congress. It is characteristic that the section of the "Guidelines...", devoted to environmental protection, is set out to a large extent in a purely engineering vein: "Wider to introduce low-waste and waste-free technological processes..." (p. 69). This section also provides for improving technological processes, equipment and vehicles, improving the quality of raw materials and fuel, creating forest belts and reclaiming land. However, the other sections of this document contain similar instructions, for example: “Reduce the energy intensity of the national income by at least 1.4 times and the metal intensity by almost 2 times. Comprehensive use of natural and material resources, maximum elimination of losses and irrational expenses. Widely involve secondary resources, as well as by-products in the economic turnover ... In order to improve the country's fuel and energy balance ... make wider use of non-traditional renewable energy sources and secondary energy resources ”(p. 14, 15).[ ... ]

The license for integrated environmental management in our country is issued by the territorial bodies of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia after obtaining special licenses from the bodies of management of water, forest and biological resources, subsoil. The contract for integrated nature management specifies the boundaries, list, quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the territories and natural resources provided for use. The agreement provides for the obligations of the nature user to improve the state of the natural environment, pay promptly for the withdrawal of resources and pollution, provide executive authorities and bodies of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia with information on the state of the natural environment and the use of its resources, and compensate for losses incurred as a result of irrational use and pollution. In necessary cases, the operation of the contract may be suspended or even annulled. Licensing of nature management is issued only on condition of a positive conclusion of the ecological expertise of the nature management project. If the user of natural resources does not comply with the norms and rules of use fixed by the contract, then he bears administrative, criminal and other liability in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation and the regulations of territorial entities. Moreover, bringing to responsibility does not exempt the perpetrators from compensation for the harm they caused.[ ...]

The legislation in the field of nature management defines responsibility for the irrational use of natural resources and degradation of the natural environment. Compensation for damage caused through the fault of the nature user is carried out at its own expense, and in the event of natural disasters - mainly at the expense of the state. The long-standing practice of covering losses from emergencies at the expense of state insurance and reserve funds has exhausted its possibilities due to the state budget deficit. In the conditions of the most severe economic crisis, enterprises do not have real funds to carry out compensatory measures.[ ...]

It is important that effective systems of nature management, including land use and land management, and nature protection can ensure not only the conservation of biodiversity, but also its growth, thus creating the basis for sustainable economic development. The paradox is that the areas with the greatest biodiversity (for example, tropical countries) are often the ones where there is no economic opportunity for conservation programs. In most countries, the greatest biodiversity is found in the marginal areas, the least affected by civilization. In biologically rich and economically poor countries, there are problems of irrational use of natural resources for income generation.[ ...]

The totality of human impacts on nature is increasingly often called nature management, which can be both rational and irrational. More strictly, nature management is understood as the totality of all forms of exploitation of the natural resource potential as part of the natural resources of the Earth and the nearest space, which can be really involved in human economic activity given the technical and socio-economic capabilities of society with the conditions for preserving the human environment.[ ...]

The opinion that existed until recently about the boundlessness of natural resources gave rise to their irrational use, as well as a conciliatory attitude towards the facts of environmental pollution. Conservation issues were considered secondary. To eliminate the conflict between nature and human economic activity, it is necessary to switch to a fundamentally different form of communication between society and nature - a sustainable self-supporting development of society, a rational type of nature management.[ ...]

Some of the lack of clarity in the Law on Local Self-Government has left loopholes for unsustainable use of natural resources. Of course, the old system of pumping natural resources out of the regions and republics by the central departments was no better. But replacing departmentalism with parochialism turns out to be extremely dangerous and also leads to an irretrievable loss of resources. The right to own resources does not yet mean the right to uncontrolled disposal of them: the state, in the interests of the entire population, needs to more clearly regulate nature management, regardless of the form of ownership. Thus, the owner of a forest in France has no right to cut down a tree without the appropriate permission of the authorities. Even in Moscow, car owners cut forest plantations under the windows of houses in courtyards and put up metal garages "shells", and all this happens without supervision, and dumps form around these "shells".[ ...]

The overall level of financial responsibility for violation of environmental, water, land legislation, irrational use of natural resources and environmental pollution in the Russian Federation is much lower than in developed industrial countries. Therefore, the overall indicators of the amount of damages and fines collected in the field of environmental protection do not have a significant impact on the economically significant performance indicators of enterprises, although it should be noted that the distribution of these fines and claims by industry is extremely uneven.[ ...]

A common serious problem of payments for the use of natural resources as an incentive to ensure rational use of natural resources is their low level. In addition, the Law "On the Protection of the Environment" provides for payment for overlimit and irrational use of natural resources as a means of economic incentives for a prudent attitude to the riches of nature, but this measure has generally not been developed in natural resource legislation.[ ...]

In general, in recent years, the state of Russian lands in the sphere of economic activity has been deteriorating. The ongoing irrational nature management, including agricultural, with a significant reduction in measures for the protection and rational use of soils and land resources, further aggravated the process of land degradation.[ ...]

The ecological situation in Russia has been far from favorable for many years. Unjustifiably high emissions of pollution into the environment and irrational use of natural resources, along with the raw material orientation of exports, largely determine the approach of an ecological crisis in a number of regions. Air pollution levels in 86 cities with a total population of about 40 million people often exceed the permissible norms by 10 or more times. Does not meet the established requirements for about /, water samples from Russian reservoirs used for drinking water supply, more than 75% of production wastes have varying degrees of toxicity. Significant areas of land are subject to water and wind erosion, polluted with nitrogen compounds, heavy metals, pathogenic microflora. All this has led to an increase in food contamination at concentrations hazardous to health.[ ...]

And until now, the funds allocated for environmental needs are far behind the needs for them, which leads to the fact that the amount of damage caused to the country's economy by irrational nature management significantly exceeds the costs of its rationalization. If we compare these amounts with the national income of Russia, then the amount of damage will correspond to approximately 20%, and the cost of its prevention - only 2%. To achieve the economic optimum, these amounts should be equal to each other, and to achieve the ecological optimum, when the level of environmental pollution is within the maximum permissible concentrations (MAC), the costs of environmental activities should be such that no damage occurs at all. For developed capitalist countries, such as the USA, Japan, France, this ratio has been improving in recent years, while in most developing countries it is deteriorating.[ ...]

Optimization of mining operations and reclamation of damaged lands. Excessive land degradation in the process of mining is the result of unsustainable nature management. The situation can be changed only by using new approaches to managing the economy, exploiting resources, and introducing the principles of rational nature management. This implies the application of a system of developed measures and principles that help to solve the problem of nature management and environmental protection. The authors of the textbook "Economic and social geography of Russia" give the following groups of these measures and principles: environmental, economic, legal, sanitary-hygienic, demographic, ethnic.[ ...]

Limited climatic resources turn out to be the root cause of the weakening of many soil-biochemical processes, the slowness of self-recovery of the ecological functions that were originally inherent in the soil due to irrational land and nature management. Hence the well-known vulnerability of Siberian ecosystems to anthropogenic disturbances, the complexity and duration of natural and artificial restoration.[ ...]

At the end of the 20th century, society came close to the need for purposeful management of the socio-economic development of cities, regions and even states, the transition from dealing with the consequences of irrational economic activity to creating a system of rational environmental management.[ ...]

Land protection includes a system of organizational, economic, legal, engineering and other measures aimed at protecting land from plunder, unjustified withdrawals from agricultural circulation, irrational use, harmful anthropogenic and natural impacts in order to increase the efficiency of nature management and create a favorable environmental situation.[ .. .]

The system of normative documents on environmental protection in the field of urban planning also includes departmental normative documents that establish design requirements that take into account the specifics of this industry. So, at present, one of the most important consequences of irrational nature management is the deterioration of the health of the population and the decrease in the labor potential of society. The current sanitary norms and rules are the most developed and scientifically substantiated part of environmental regulation and include a system of hygienic standards and regulations for the permissible influence of environmental factors on people's health, which serve as the basis for the regulation of urban planning requirements in the field of environmental protection.[ ...]

Unfortunately, it should be stated that in Russia, until now, the distribution of natural benefits among users of natural resources has been and is carried out on a practically “free” basis or at minimal prices. This circumstance is certainly one of the main reasons for the irrational attitude to natural resources. It is precisely this that contributes to the formation in the public consciousness of a consumer attitude towards nature, which leads to practically ignoring the main natural and environmental factors. As a result, there is an intense degradation of the natural environment, which manifests itself not only at the local, regional, national, but also global levels. Only since 1990, payments for the use of the main types of natural resources were introduced in the Russian Federation, with the help of which, as expected, society will be able to take into account and reimburse the costs of the environmental consequences of nature management in real economic indicators. However, an objective economic assessment of natural resources is constantly faced with numerous difficult-to-solve issues. So, for example, certain types of such resources present within the same territory usually represent a complex in internal structure, but a single "natural object" and are almost always quite closely interconnected.[ ...]

In practice, the economic assessment of environmental damage is associated with significant difficulties associated with obtaining detailed information about changes in the physical characteristics of the relevant components of the natural environment. Difficulties arise already starting with taking into account the corresponding "contributions" of internal and external externalities to environmental damage from nature management, which partially includes the internal costs of the nature user. So, for example, as a result of irrational subsoil use, a groundwater deposit was polluted. In this case, the emergence of long-term externalities takes place, when the next generations will have to pay for the damage caused. In this regard, in each case, special research work is carried out.[ ...]

This segment of the institution of legal liability is regulated in sufficient detail in Russian legislation. Responsibility for violation of the right to forest, subsoil, water, land use and other types of use of natural resources is established both by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, which, for example, contains a large number of administratively punishable encroachments on the right to use natural resources. Partially, these compositions were indicated above - in the analysis of liability for administrative offenses in the field of protection of ownership of natural resources. In addition to them, in the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, one can single out: 1) violation of the requirements for the rational use of subsoil, i.e. selective (off-design) mining of mineral deposits, leading to unreasonable losses of mineral reserves, other irrational use of subsoil, leading to excess losses in the extraction of minerals minerals or in the processing of mineral raw materials (h.[ ...]

Geological monitoring. He must also track the geological risk, technological and economic opportunities for its prevention, for example, in the natural and technical systems "geological environment - gas industry facilities". In such systems, there is a close relationship and interdependence of both of its components. On the one hand, the continuously evolving geological environment affects the state of gas industry facilities, especially underground facilities and equipment; on the other hand, these technogenic systems, with irrational nature management, can cause negative consequences, for example, artificially excite geodynamic processes and thereby disrupt the natural geodynamic balance.

The nature of the relationship between nature and man has changed over the course of history. For the first time, people began to seriously think about rational nature management somewhere in the middle of the 20th century. It was at this time that anthropogenic pressure on the environment became maximum. What is rational environmental management and what are its principles - this will be discussed in this article.

The essence of the concept of "nature management"

This term has two interpretations. According to the first, nature management is understood as a set of measures for the use of natural resources in order to meet economic, industrial, health-improving or other human needs.

The second interpretation provides for the definition of the concept of "nature management" as a scientific discipline. That is, it is, in fact, a theoretical science that studies and evaluates the process of human use of natural resources, as well as developing ways to optimize it.

Today it is customary to single out rational and irrational nature management. We will talk about them further, focusing on the first type. To fully understand what environmental management is, one should also understand what types of natural resources are.

Classification of natural resources

Natural resources are understood as those objects (or phenomena) not created by man, which are used by him to satisfy a number of his needs. These include minerals, soils, flora and fauna, surface waters, etc.

All natural resources according to the nature of their use by man can be divided into the following classes:

• industrial;
• agricultural;
• scientific;
• recreational;
• medicinal, etc.

They are also divided into two large groups:

• inexhaustible (for example, solar energy, water);
• exhaustible (oil, natural gas, etc.).

The latter, in turn, are divided into renewable and non-renewable natural resources.

It should be noted that it is possible to attribute a particular resource to a certain group only conditionally. After all, even our Sun is not eternal and can "extinguish" at any time.

Rational nature management provides for the protection and competent use of all types of natural resources and components.

History of nature management

Relationships in the "man - nature" system were not always the same and changed over time. There are five periods (or milestones) during which the most important changes in this system of relations took place:

1. 30,000 years ago. At this time, a person completely adapted to the reality around him, being engaged in hunting, fishing and gathering.
2. About 7000 years ago - the stage of the agricultural revolution. It was at this time that the transition of a person from gathering and hunting to cultivating the land and cattle breeding begins. This period is characterized by the first attempts to transform landscapes.
3. The era of the Middle Ages (VIII-XVII centuries). During this period, the burden on the environment increases markedly, crafts are born.
4. About 300 years ago - the stage of the industrial revolution that began in Britain. The scale of human influence on nature is increasing many times, he is trying to fully adapt it to his needs.
5. The middle of the twentieth century is the stage of the scientific and technological revolution. At this time, relations in the "man - nature" system are qualitatively and strongly changing, and all environmental problems are becoming more acute.

Nature management rational and irrational

What does each of these concepts mean and what are their fundamental differences? It should be noted that rational and irrational nature management are two antipodes, terms. They completely contradict each other.

Rational nature management implies such a way of using the natural environment, in which the interaction in the "man - nature" system remains maximally harmonized. The main features of this type of relationship are:

• intensive management;
• application of the latest scientific achievements and developments;
• automation of all production processes;
• introduction of waste-free production technologies.

Rational nature management, examples of which we will give below, is more typical for economically developed countries of the world.

In turn, irrational nature management is understood as unreasonable, unsystematic and predatory use of that part of the natural resource potential, which is the most accessible. This behavior leads to the rapid depletion of natural resources.

The main features of this type of nature management are:

• lack of systematic and comprehensive development of a specific resource;
• a large amount of waste during production;
• extensive management;
• great harm to the environment.

Irrational nature management is most typical for the countries of Asia, Latin America and for some states of Eastern Europe.

A few examples

First, let's look at a few measures that can describe the rational use of natural resources. Examples of such activities include the following:

• recycling of waste, creation and improvement of non-waste technologies;
• creation of natural reserves, national parks and nature reserves, in which the protection of the flora and fauna of the region is carried out at full speed (not in words, but in deeds);
• reclamation of territories that have suffered from the industrial development of subsoil, the creation of cultural landscapes.

In turn, we can give some of the most striking examples of the irrational attitude of man to nature. For example:

• mindless deforestation;
• poaching, that is, the extermination of certain (rare) species of animals and plants;
• release of untreated sewage, deliberate pollution of water and soil by industrial or domestic waste;
• predatory and aggressive development of available subsoil, etc.

Principles of rational nature management

For many decades, scientists and ecologists have been developing those principles and conditions that could help optimize the relationship between man and nature. The foundations of rational nature management lie, first of all, in efficient management, which does not provoke deep and serious changes in the environment. At the same time, natural resources are used as fully and systematically as possible.

It is possible to single out the main principles of rational nature management:

1. Minimum (so-called "zero level") human consumption of natural resources.
2. Correspondence of the volume of natural resource potential and anthropogenic load on the environment for a particular region.
3. Preservation of the integrity and normal functioning of ecosystems in the process of their production use.
4. The priority of the environmental factor over economic benefits in the long term (the principle of sustainable development of the region).
5. Coordination of economic cycles with natural ones.

Ways to implement these principles

Are there ways to implement these principles? Is it possible to solve all the problems of rational nature management in practice?

Ways and means of implementing the principles of nature management actually exist. They can be summarized in the following theses:

• deep and comprehensive study of the features and all the nuances of the development of natural resources;
• rational placement on the territory of industrial enterprises and complexes;
• development and implementation of effective regional management systems;
• determination of a set of environmental measures for each region;
• monitoring, as well as forecasting the consequences of a particular type of human economic activity.

Economics and ecology: correlation of concepts

These two concepts are closely related to each other. It is not for nothing that they have one root - "oikos", which means "house, dwelling" in translation. However, many still cannot realize that nature is our common and the only one house.

The concepts of "ecology" and "rational nature management" are almost identical. The so-called paradigms of ecological nature management can reveal them most intelligibly. There are three in total:

1. Minimization of human impact on nature in the process of using natural resources.
2. Optimal (full) use of a particular resource.
3. Making the most of a particular natural resource to improve the well-being of society.

Finally

Rational use of natural resources and nature protection are concepts that have become extremely important on the threshold of the new millennium. For the first time, mankind seriously thought about the consequences of its activities and about the future of our planet. And it is very important that theoretical principles and declarations do not diverge from real deeds. For this, it is necessary that every inhabitant of the Earth is aware of the importance of correct and rational environmental behavior.

nature management

nature management - a set of human impacts on the geographic shell of the Earth, considered in a complex

There are rational and irrational nature management. Rational nature management is aimed at ensuring the conditions for the existence of mankind and obtaining material benefits, at the maximum use of each natural territorial complex, at preventing or minimizing the possible harmful effects of production processes or other types of human activity, at maintaining and increasing the productivity and attractiveness of nature, ensuring and regulating an economical development of its resources. Irrational nature management affects the quality, waste and exhaustion of natural resources, undermining the restorative forces of nature, polluting the environment, reducing its health and aesthetic merits.

The impact of mankind on nature has changed significantly in the process of the historical development of society. In the early stages, society was a passive consumer of natural resources. With the growth of productive forces and the change of socio-economic formations, the influence of society on nature increased. Already under the conditions of the slave-owning system and feudalism, large irrigation systems were built. The capitalist system with its spontaneous economy, the pursuit of profits and private ownership of many sources of natural resources, as a rule, severely limits the possibilities of rational environmental management. The best conditions for rational use of natural resources exist under the socialist system, with its planned economy and concentration of natural resources in the hands of the state. There are numerous examples of the improvement of the natural environment as a result of a comprehensive consideration of the possible consequences of certain transformations of nature (success in irrigation, enrichment of the fauna, the creation of protective forest plantations, etc.).

Nature management, along with physical and economic geography, is closely connected with ecology, sociology, economics, and especially with the technology of various industries.

Rational nature management

Rational nature management is a system of nature management in which:

Extracted natural resources are used quite fully and, accordingly, the amount of consumed resources decreases;

The restoration of renewable natural resources is ensured;

Production waste is fully and repeatedly used.

The system of rational nature management can significantly reduce environmental pollution. Rational nature management is characteristic of an intensive economy, that is, an economy that develops on the basis of scientific and technological progress and better organization of labor with high labor productivity. An example of sustainable environmental management would be wasteless production or a zero waste production cycle in which waste is fully utilized, resulting in reduced consumption of raw materials and minimizing environmental pollution. Production can use waste from both its own production process and waste from other industries; Thus, several enterprises of the same or different industries can be included in the non-waste cycle. One of the types of non-waste production (the so-called recycling water supply) is the multiple use in the technological process of water taken from rivers, lakes, boreholes, etc.; the used water is purified and re-used in the production process.

The components of rational nature management - protection, development and transformation of nature - are manifested in various forms in relation to various types of natural resources. When using practically inexhaustible resources (energy of solar and underground heat, ebbs and flows, etc.), the rationality of nature management is measured primarily by the lowest operating costs, the highest efficiency of mining industries and installations. For resources that are drawn and at the same time non-renewable (for example, mineral), the complexity and cost-effectiveness of extraction, the reduction of waste, etc. are important. The protection of renewable resources in the course of use is aimed at maintaining their productivity and resource turnover, and the exploitation should ensure their economical, integrated and waste-free extraction and be accompanied by measures to prevent damage to related types of resources.

Irrational nature management

Irrational nature management is a system of nature management in which the most easily available natural resources are used in large quantities and usually not completely, which leads to rapid depletion of resources. In this case, a large amount of waste is produced and the environment is heavily polluted. Irrational nature management is typical for an extensive economy, that is, for an economy that develops through new construction, the development of new lands, the use of natural resources, and an increase in the number of employees. An extensive economy at first brings good results with a relatively low scientific and technical level of production, but quickly leads to the exhaustion of natural and labor resources. One of the many examples of irrational nature management is slash-and-burn agriculture, which is also widespread in Southeast Asia today. Land burning leads to the destruction of wood, air pollution, poorly controlled fires, etc. Often, irrational nature management is the result of narrow departmental interests and the interests of transnational corporations that have their harmful production facilities in developing countries.

Natural resources

The geographic envelope of the earth has huge and diverse reserves of natural resources. However, the resources are unevenly distributed. As a result, individual countries and regions have different resource availability.

Resource availability is the ratio between the amount of natural resources and the amount of their use. The resource availability is expressed either by the number of years for which these resources should be enough, or by the reserves of resources per capita. The indicator of resource availability is influenced by the wealth or poverty of the territory in natural resources, the scale of extraction and the class of natural resources (exhaustible or inexhaustible resources).

In socio-economic geography, several groups of resources are distinguished: mineral, land, water, forest, resources of the World Ocean, space, climatic and recreational resources.

Almost all mineral resources are classified as non-renewable. Mineral resources include fuel minerals, ore minerals and non-metallic minerals.

Fuel Minerals are of sedimentary origin and usually accompany the cover of ancient platforms and their internal and marginal bends. More than 3.6 thousand coal basins and deposits are known on the globe, which occupy 15% of the earth's land area. Coal basins of the same geological age often form coal accumulation belts stretching for thousands of kilometers.

The bulk of the world's coal resources are in the northern hemisphere - Asia, North America and Europe. The main part lies in the 10 largest basins. These basins are located in the territories of Russia, the USA and Germany.

More than 600 oil and gas basins have been explored, another 450 are being developed, and the total number of oil fields reaches 50 thousand. The main oil and gas basins are concentrated in the northern hemisphere - in Asia, North America and Africa. The richest are the basins of the Persian and Gulf of Mexico and the West Siberian basin.

Ore minerals accompany the foundations of ancient platforms. In such areas, large metallogenic belts (Alpine-Himalayan, Pacific) are formed, which serve as raw material bases for the mining and metallurgical industries and determine the economic specialization of individual regions and even entire countries. The countries located in these belts have favorable prerequisites for the development of the mining industry.

Are widespread non-metallic minerals , whose deposits are found both in platform and folded areas.

For economic development, territorial combinations of minerals are most beneficial, which facilitate the complex processing of raw materials and the formation of large territorial production complexes.

The earth is one of the main resources of nature, the source of life. The world land fund is about 13.5 billion hectares. In its structure, cultivated lands, meadows and pastures, forests and shrubs, unproductive and unproductive lands are distinguished. Of great value are cultivated lands, which provide 88% of the food necessary for mankind. Cultivated lands are mainly concentrated in the forest, forest-steppe and steppe zones of the planet. Of considerable importance are meadows and pastures, which provide 10% of the food consumed by humans.

The structure of the land fund is constantly changing. It is influenced by two opposite processes: the artificial expansion of land by man and the degradation of land due to natural process.

Every year, 6-7 million hectares of land fall out of agricultural circulation due to soil erosion and desertification. As a result of these processes, the load on the land is constantly increasing, and the availability of land resources is constantly falling. The least secured land resources include Egypt, Japan, South Africa, etc.

Water resources are the main source of meeting human needs for water. Until recently, water was considered one of the free gifts of nature, only in areas of artificial irrigation, it has always had a high price. The water reserves of the planet are 47 thousand m3. Moreover, only half of the water reserves can actually be used. Fresh water resources make up only 2.5% of the total volume of the hydrosphere. In absolute terms, this is 30-35 million m3, which is 10 thousand times more than the needs of mankind. But the vast majority of fresh water is conserved in the glaciers of Antarctica, Greenland, in the ice of the Arctic, in mountain glaciers and forms an "emergency reserve" that is not yet suitable for use. River waters (“water rations”) remain the main source of meeting the needs of mankind in fresh water. It is not so significant and you can actually use about half of this amount. The main consumer of fresh water is agriculture. Almost 2/3 of water is used in agriculture for land irrigation. The constant increase in water consumption creates a threat of fresh water scarcity. Such a shortage is experienced by the countries of Asia, Africa, Western Europe.

To solve the problems of water supply, a person uses several ways: for example, he builds reservoirs; saves water through the introduction of technologies that reduce its losses; carries out desalination of sea water, redistribution of river runoff in moisture-rich areas, etc.

River flow is also used to obtain hydraulic potential. There are three types of hydraulic potential: gross (30-35 trillion kW/h), technical (20 trillion kW/h), economic (10 trillion kW/h). The economic potential is a part of the gross and technical hydraulic potential, the use of which is justified. The countries of foreign Asia, Latin America, North America, Europe and Australia have the greatest economic hydraulic potential. However, in Europe this potential has already been used by 70%, in Asia - by 14%, in Africa - by 3%.

The biomass of the Earth is created by plant and animal organisms. Plant resources are represented by both cultivated and wild plants. Among the wild vegetation, forest vegetation predominates, which forms forest resources.

Forest resources are characterized by two indicators :

1) the size of the forest area (4.1 billion hectares);

2) standing wood reserves (330 billion hectares).

This reserve increases annually by 5.5 billion m3. At the end of the XX century. forests began to be cut down for arable land, plantations and construction. As a result, the area of ​​forests is reduced annually by 15 million hectares. This leads to a reduction in the woodworking industry.

The forests of the world form two huge belts. The northern forest belt is located in the temperate and subtropical zones. The most densely forested countries of this belt are Russia, USA, Canada, Finland, Sweden. The southern forest belt is located in the zone of the tropical and equatorial belts. The forests of this belt are concentrated in three areas: in the Amazon, in the Congo basins and in Southeast Asia.

Animal resources are also classified as renewable. Together, plants and animals form the genetic fund (gene pool) of the planet. One of the most important tasks of our time is the preservation of biological diversity, the prevention of "erosion" of the gene pool.

The oceans contain a large group of natural resources. First, it is sea water, which contains 75 chemical elements. Secondly, these are mineral resources, such as oil, natural gas, solid minerals. Thirdly, energy resources (tidal energy). Fourth, biological resources (animals and plants). Fourthly, these are the biological resources of the World Ocean. The biomass of the ocean has 140 thousand species, and the mass is estimated at 35 billion tons. The most productive resources of the Norwegian, Bering, Okhotsk and Japanese seas.

Climate resources - this is the solar system, heat, moisture, light. The geographical distribution of these resources is reflected in the agro-climatic map. Space resources include wind and wind energy, which is essentially inexhaustible, relatively cheap and does not pollute the environment.

Recreational resources are distinguished not by the peculiarities of origin, but by the nature of use. These include both natural and man-made objects and phenomena that can be used for recreation, tourism and treatment. They are divided into four types: recreational and medical (for example, treatment with mineral waters), recreational and health-improving (for example, bathing and beach areas), recreational and sports (for example, ski resorts) and recreational and educational (for example, historical monuments).

The division of recreational resources into natural-recreational and cultural-historical sights is widely used. Natural and recreational resources include sea coasts, banks of rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, outcrops of mineral springs and therapeutic mud. Cultural and historical sights are monuments of history, archeology, architecture, art.