7.1 Natural resources—uses and management
- Syllabus
- First assessment 2026
- Topic
- 7.1
- 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.
Natural Capital Is the Stock
Natural capital is the stock of natural resources available on Earth that can support future goods and services.
A local inventory can distinguish living renewable capital such as woodland, recurring or replenishable capital such as a river or aquifer, and non-renewable geological capital such as rock or mineral deposits.
Removing mature forest faster than regrowth raises present timber income while shrinking the stock and its future service capacity.
Identify the stock, its location and renewal timescale before claiming that local natural capital is secure.
Natural capital is not the same as annual income.
Natural Income Is the Flow
Natural income is the flow of goods and services produced by natural capital without depleting the supporting stock.
| Income type | Examples | Supporting stock/process |
|---|---|---|
| Goods | fish, timber | reproducing population or regenerating forest |
| Services | climate regulation, flood prevention | functioning atmosphere, vegetation, soil and wetland processes |
A forest can yield timber and also regulate water and climate; harvesting that damages the stock can reduce both market goods and non-market services.
Measure the flow per unit time and verify that the natural-capital stock and process remain functional.
A large stock does not justify any extraction rate, and services are income even when they have no market price.
A Useful Model Is Still a Perspective
Calling nature 'natural capital', 'income' and 'services' is a model that foregrounds benefits and sustainable rates but frames nature in human-use terms.
The model can reveal stock depletion and make long-term resource limits visible. Its risk is an extreme anthropocentric reading in which nature appears valuable only for exploitation.
A forest described only as timber capital may hide intrinsic, cultural and spiritual value; adding those perspectives improves the decision without discarding stock–flow analysis.
Use the model for a defined sustainability question, then state which non-market relationships and values it leaves out.
A useful model is not a complete copy of the system.
See the Process Behind the Service
An ecosystem service is a life-supporting benefit generated by ecological structure and process.
| Service | Ecological mechanism | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Water replenishment | infiltration and storage in soil, wetlands or aquifers | more reliable freshwater |
| Flood and erosion protection | vegetation slows runoff and roots bind soil | lower downstream damage and soil loss |
| Pollution mitigation | reed-bed buffer zones take up or trap inorganic nutrients | cleaner water |
| Carbon sequestration | photosynthesis stores carbon in biomass and soil | reduced atmospheric CO2 pressure |
Damaging the habitat can weaken several services together because they share soil, vegetation, water and biological processes.
Trace ecosystem structure → process → service → beneficiary, then identify the pressure that could interrupt the chain.
Listing a benefit without its ecological mechanism cannot explain vulnerability or management.
Renewable Means ‘Keeps Up’
Renewable means the resource replenishes at least as fast as the rate of use under stated conditions.
Compare extraction with recruitment, recharge or regrowth and include time scale and access.
A groundwater pump withdrawing 12 units while recharge is 8 creates a deficit despite rainfall.
When is a harvest renewable? when removal does not exceed recovery over the relevant period.
Renewable is conditional, not a permanent label.
One Place Can Have Many Values
Natural capital can hold several kinds of value at once, and different stakeholders may weight them differently.
| Value | Typical basis or example |
|---|---|
| Aesthetic | experienced beauty of a landscape |
| Cultural | heritage, language or customary practice |
| Economic | marketable goods or income |
| Environmental | ecological function and services |
| Health | clean air, water or restorative space |
| Intrinsic | worth independent of human use |
| Social | relationships and community identity |
| Spiritual | sacred meaning or connection |
| Technological | knowledge, materials or future innovation |
A mangrove can be nursery habitat, storm protection, livelihood, cultural place and development land; a price captures only part of that value.
State value type, stakeholder, evidence and time horizon before comparing alternatives.
Different valuations do not imply that evidence is irrelevant; they show that several legitimate criteria may be in conflict.
Value Moves When Context Moves
Natural-capital value changes with scarcity, demand, technology, ethics, policy, knowledge and available substitutes.
| Named resource | Direction of change | Main drivers |
|---|---|---|
| Coal | declining priority in many decarbonization pathways | climate impacts, net-zero policy and renewable substitutes |
| Lithium | rising strategic value | batteries for electric vehicles and storage of renewable electricity |
A higher market value can coexist with greater environmental or social cost: lithium demand may rise while extraction adds water pressure and pollution risk.
Always state whose value changed, when, why and which alternative or new risk altered the comparison.
Changing price is only one signal; cultural, intrinsic, environmental and technological values can move differently.
Two Rates Decide Sustainability
Sustainable natural-capital use must satisfy two rate limits: extraction must not exceed regeneration, and waste release must not exceed environmental transformation or safe assimilation.
| Pressure | Sustainable test | Failure pathway |
|---|---|---|
| Harvest or extraction | removal ≤ recruitment, recharge or regrowth | stock decline, habitat loss and livelihood insecurity |
| Polluting waste | release ≤ transformation or safe assimilation | accumulation, toxicity and degraded ecosystem services |
A fishery can remain within recruitment yet still be unsustainable if processing waste accumulates faster than the receiving water can transform it.
Measure both resource stock and waste sink; variability and delayed effects can make a safe-looking average misleading.
Keeping harvest below average regrowth does not excuse pollution or ecosystem damage elsewhere in the chain.
Security Means Access That Lasts
Resource security is long-term access to sufficient, affordable and usable resources—not merely their physical presence.
| Named society | Food/water evidence in the local textbook | Security judgment |
|---|---|---|
| Findhorn ecovillage, Scotland | grows only some of its food; uses biological sewage treatment and solar water heating | local systems reduce pressure but external food dependence remains |
| Masdar City, UAE | solar-powered urban systems are planned in a desert that cannot grow enough food or supply enough water | technology supports some services but food and water constraints remain |
Compare availability, affordability, quality, rights, import dependence and resilience to shocks; neither community is fully self-sufficient.
A contrast must use the same resource and criteria while acknowledging environmental setting and external supply.
Local sustainability projects do not prove complete food or water security when critical supplies are imported.
Choices Come From Trade-offs
A society's resource choice reflects economic, sociocultural, political, environmental, geographical, technological and historical factors, plus changing priorities such as net zero.
Named resource—lithium in Chile's Salar de Atacama: battery demand raises economic and strategic value, while desert water scarcity, extraction impacts, private-versus-national control, processing capacity and local politics shape the choice.
Net-zero agreements increase demand for electric transport and renewable-energy storage, shifting priority from coal toward lithium; this does not make lithium extraction impact-free.
Compare benefits, affected groups, geography, technology, governance and lifecycle damage before selecting extraction scale or ownership model.
A resource used in low-carbon technology is not automatically sustainable at the mine or community scale.
Objective notes
11 learning objectives7.1.1Natural resources definition• Raw materials and energy sources used by society• Sunlight, air, water, land, rocks, ecosystems, living thingsView7.1.2Natural capital• Stock of natural resources on EarthView7.1.3Natural income• Goods: fish, timber• Services: climate regulation, flood preventionView7.1.4"Natural capital" perspective• Terms imply particular perspective on nature• Model for sustainable resource useView7.1.5Ecosystem services• Life-supporting services• Water replenishment, flood/erosion protection• Pollution mitigation, carbon sequestrationView7.1.6Resource classification• All resources finite• Renewable: regenerated as fast as used• Non-renewable: cannot be regenerated• Renewable becomes non-renewable if used beyond regeneration rateView7.1.7Natural capital value types• Aesthetic, cultural, economic, environmental• Health, intrinsic, social, spiritual, technologicalView7.1.8Dynamic natural capital value• The value of natural capital is dynamic in that it can change over time• Include: a variety of reasons for both increases and decreases in value, along with two named examples of change over time• Consider, e.g., coal, lithium, cobalt, whale oil, corkView7.1.9Sustainable natural capital use• The use of natural capital needs to be managed in order to ensure sustainability• The long-term well-being of ecosystems and humans depends on resources not being used more rapidly than they can be regenerated• Include: examples to illustrate how ecosystems and societies could be harmed by excessive harvesting of resources and by the release of polluting waste productsView7.1.10Resource security• Resource security depends on the ability of societies to ensure the long-term availability of sufficient natural resources to meet demand• Consider: the extent to which resource security in two contrasting named societies has been achieved for food or waterView7.1.11Resource-use choices• The choices a society makes in using given natural resources are affected by many factors and reflect diverse perspectives• Factors affecting such choices may include economic, sociocultural, political, environmental, geographical, technological and historical factors• International agreements cutting GHG emissions with the aim of achieving net zero emissions changes the priority of these choices• Consider: factors affecting the local choice of a named natural resourceView