Development, Resources And Problems

IB SL

Development• The level of development that a country has reached

can directly affect which natural resources they use, and how.

• Less developed countries, where primary industries still dominate, don't consume a great deal of energy resources compared to more developed countries. However they do exploit other natural resources in order to try to gain more money and begin on the path to economic development.

• Examples of this are the exploitation and cutting down of the tropical rainforests in Brazil. The people have seen the value of selling the trees to countries such as Japan. They are also exploiting their natural mineral reserves, and exporting those abroad also.

Development

• Some of the poorest nations do not have access to many natural resources but often will rely on one for the livelihood of the country.

• Countries that are more developed, and can be described as industrialised, are the primary consumers of most of the fossil fuel resources of the world. Their industries require huge amounts of natural resources, which are often imported from the less developed countries.

Problems• The population of the world is growing at an amazing rate. Last year it

reached 6 billion, having only passed 2 billion in 1927 and 4 billion in 1974.

• This swift growth has put the resources of the world under pressure. Most of the major growth has occurred in developing countries in places like Africa, where the pressure on food resources is intense.

• The UK has seen very little population growth over the past 25 years, meaning that we do not suffer the same problems that the countries of the developing world do, in terms of producing enough food for the population.

• The lack of sufficient food places great pressure on the resources of that country, and means that if, as in Ethiopia in the 1980's, the harvest is poor because the rains fail, hundreds of thousands of people could starve to death.

Conservation

• Conservation of resources is a vital part of resource management.

• Schemes include national conservation plans for areas of natural beauty and importance, like wetlands and coral reefs.

• Educated to help conserve resources. • Things like saving water, switching off lights to save

energy, and education about how to treat the countryside all help to look after the resources of the world.

Forestry

• Forestry is one industry where the conservation of resources is very important.

• In some countries the natural wood resources are exploited, never to be replaced.

• However an increasing amount of countries are introducing schemes to re-forest areas once the trees have been cut down, so that they can be harvested again once they have grown.

• These are fast growing coniferous trees that take only about 25 years to reach maturity.

Conservation

• Conserving and managing fishing stocks is also a very important management issue.

• Over fishing an area can mean that there will be a declining number of fish every year.

• By introducing fish quota's, saying how much each boat can catch each year, and by introducing rules about not fishing during the spawning season, fish stocks should be able to be conserved.

Activity

• Discuss the following diagram focusing on each key words’ interaction with each other...

Development

Resources Problems