7.1.1—Natural resources definition
- Syllabus
- First assessment 2026
- Objective
- 7.1.1
- Level
- SL
What Counts as a Natural Resource?
Natural resources are raw materials and energy sources used and consumed by society, including sunlight, air, water, land, rocks, ecosystems and living things.
Classify each by what society uses, whether it is a material stock or recurring energy flow, its regeneration rate and who can access it.
Sunlight is an incoming energy flow; fish are a biological stock whose harvest is renewable only when recruitment keeps pace.
Useful to society does not mean unlimited, freely accessible or sustainably used.
Resource does not mean unlimited or privately owned.