Rational nature management: fundamentals and principles. General concepts of nature management

nature management

The sphere of social and production activities aimed at meeting the needs of mankind with the help of natural resources
The scientific direction that studies the principles of rac. use of natural resources

Glossary of financial terms

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

nature management

the sphere of social production activities aimed at meeting the needs of mankind with the help of natural resources;

a scientific direction that studies the principles of rational use of natural resources, incl. analysis of anthropogenic impacts on nature, their consequences for humans.

nature management

the totality of human impacts on the geographic envelope of the Earth, considered as a whole (in contrast to sectoral concepts - water use, land use, forest use, etc.).

A distinction is made between rational and irrational P. Rational P. 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 consequences of production processes or other types of human activity, at maintaining and increasing productivity and the attractiveness of nature, the provision and regulation of the economical development of its resources (see Natural Resources). Irrational P. is reflected in a decrease in the quality, waste and exhaustion of natural resources, undermining the restorative forces of nature, polluting the environment, and reducing its health-improving and aesthetic merits.

The components of rational natural resources—the protection, development, and transformation of nature—manifest themselves in various forms in relation to various types of natural resources. When using practically inexhaustible resources (the energy of solar and underground heat, tides, etc.), the rationality of P. 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.

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 elemental economy, pursuit of profits, and private ownership of many sources of natural resources, as a rule, sharply limits the possibilities of rational P. The best conditions for rational P. exist under a 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.).

P., along with physical and economic geography, is closely connected with ecology, sociology, economics, and especially with the technology of various industries. On P.'s problems, see also the articles Environment, Nature Conservation.

Lit .: Armand D. L., To us and grandchildren, 2nd ed., M., 1966; Bauer L., Vainichke G., Landscape care and nature conservation, trans. from German., M., 1971; Duvigno P., Tang M., The biosphere and the place of man in it, trans. from French, Moscow, 1968; Kurazhskovsky Yu. N., Essays on nature management, M., 1969; Efremov Yu. K, Nature in the service of society, M., 1968; Assessment of natural resources, M., 1968. (Questions of geography. Sat., ╧ 78); Biosphere resources on the territory of the USSR. Scientific bases of their rational use and protection, M., 1971; Man, society and environment. Geographical aspects of the use of natural resources and environmental conservation, M., 1973; Hoffman K., Lemeshev M., Reimere N., Environmental Economics, "Science and Life", 1974, ╧ 6.

Yu. K. Efremov.

Wikipedia

nature management

nature management- 1) the use of the natural environment to meet the environmental, economic, cultural and health needs of society; 2) the science of the rational use of natural resources by society is a complex discipline that includes elements of the natural, social and technical sciences.

Nature management is divided into rational and irrational.

With rational nature management, the fullest possible satisfaction of the needs for material goods is carried out while maintaining the ecological balance and the possibilities of restoring the natural resource potential. The search for such an optimum of economic activity for a particular territory or object is an important applied task of the science of nature management. Achieving this optimum is called "sustainable development".

With irrational nature management, the ecological degradation of the territory and the irreversible exhaustion of the natural resource potential occur.

Examples of the use of the word nature management in the literature.

Such an inseparable unity of reserves and production is contrary to the legal framework shared by the whole world nature management and national sovereignty - the recognition of state ownership of yet unextracted minerals in the bowels.

Rental mode nature management- the actual separation of the field from the mining company and the issuance of the last license for the right to produce for a certain period.

Even Engels foresaw how disastrous the consequences of subjugation would be. nature management blind game of market forces.

Taking into account the requirements of rational nature management and environmental protection, the technical report should justify the choice of optimal sources for obtaining soil building materials.

I made inquiries on my own initiative - this message also seemed to me worthy of attention - and received answers from three authoritative sources, - here a daddy from out of nowhere materialized in the hands of the Secretary, - from the Department nature management, from the National Parks Administration and the expert opinion of the largest specialist in this field, the Nobel Prize winner, - the Secretary in turn handed over three sheets of paper to the President.

This breaks the rules nature management and engineering geology!

How are the principles of economic nature management in environmental law?

But it required tremendous energy, and their world was devastated by barbaric nature management past centuries.

Nature management is an activity carried out by a society of people, which is aimed at meeting needs through the use of natural resources. In actions, it is important to rely on a scientifically justified assessment of the possibilities of the environment. It is compiled on the basis of data obtained as a result of exploration, identification, accounting for the quantitative and qualitative composition.

Types of nature management

Rational use of natural resources is the activity of a society aimed at a more complete use of the extracted resources. This condition is enforced where possible. Work is underway to minimize the negative impacts on the environment. Examples of these actions:

Irrational environmental management is an attitude towards nature that does not take into account the necessary level of environmental protection, its qualitative improvement. The result of the activity is the depletion and decrease in the quality of resources. Examples of such activities:

Ill-considered grazing leading to trampling of fertile lands.
Poaching deforestation.
Extermination of certain species of flora and fauna.
Environmental pollution by heat, radiation, etc.

Nature management and environmental protection

The environment is polluted through the introduction of negative changes in its properties, which leads to a depressing effect on humans and the biosphere. Environmental management is designed to prevent such impacts. Most of all, the environment is polluted by human activity (anthropogenic impact). Some natural phenomena can also have a negative impact on individual natural complexes. These include volcanic eruptions and so on.

Nature management of the environment involves knowledge of the main types of anthropogenic impacts:

Physical: thermal, radioactive, mechanical, noise and electromagnetic.
Chemical: aerosols, heavy metals, pesticides, plastics. This type of pollution is on everyone's lips.
Biological: biogenic, microbiological.

Pollution of the earth's shells

Nature management is a doctrine aimed at preventing a negative impact on all the shells of the Earth. The lithosphere, together with the soil, perceives pollution from poisons, fertilizers and other chemical compounds. About 12 billion tons of garbage are annually exported from megacities into nature. Open pit mining deprives the land of the fertile layer that has formed over many millions of years. Soils are subject to erosion, waterlogging, salt pollution and depletion from unsustainable farming.

The protection of natural resources also concerns the hydrosphere, which suffers from factory effluents, washouts from farmland, and household waste. The most dangerous for the environment are chemical and metallurgical enterprises. A separate danger is pollution by oil products. About 15 million tons of hydrocarbons enter the seas and oceans every year.

The fundamentals of nature management and environmental protection contain measures to protect the Earth's air envelope. The main sources of pollution are factories and road transport. They emit radioactive elements, carbon dioxide, oxides of sulfur, nitrogen and heavy metals into the atmosphere.

Nature protection measures

The sphere of nature management is not limited only to enumeration of the harm caused to the environment. Pollution of nature leads to many problems at the regional and global levels, depletion of natural resources. To solve and prevent them, the following measures are taken:

Introduction to the operation of treatment facilities.
Construction of chimneys of great height.
Use of fuel with less harmful emissions.
Upgrading production facilities to reduce or eliminate waste.
Plant protection by biological means instead of chemical ones.
The use of sound insulation in the construction of buildings.
Collection and recycling of waste.
Adoption of laws aimed at protecting nature, with serious sanctions against violators.
Introduction of duties on poisonous emissions.
Increasing the number of reserves and specially protected natural areas (PAs).
Education in the younger generation of the desire to treat nature with respect and love.

Specially protected natural areas

PAs are objects of the heritage of all nations, which are land, water and air areas in the location of biogeocenoses that are of particular importance for science, culture, environmental protection, and health improvement. This status is assigned by decision of state bodies. At the same time, such territories are withdrawn (sometimes partially) from use in the national economy and are protected by law.

Environmental management is a unique area of expertise that organizations from different countries are involved in. International companies have counted about 10 thousand significant protected areas of various types in the world: wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, and so on.

reserves

Reserves are areas of nature that are completely withdrawn from economic use, intended to ensure the protection and study of biogeocenoses. There are several varieties of them:

The reserve can be biospheric. This term refers to territories that have a reference landscape and a typical composition of flora and fauna for it. They allow solving problems related to the conservation of biogeocenoses, as well as monitoring the state of neighboring territories. In most cases, they are organized in protected areas and in protected areas.

Ecology

Competent nature management is the first step on the way to nature protection. Often the term "ecology" refers to measures to protect the human environment, and sometimes the state of affairs in it. This is fundamentally not true. There is no need to equate a voluminous and multifaceted science with the simplest rules of clean behavior. Garbage collection, landfill organization, water disinfection, treatment facilities and suppression of poachers do not require the involvement of ecology. These issues are solved with the help of competent organization and technology.

Ecology is necessary at earlier stages - for a comprehensive justification of measures for the protection of nature and the environment. With its help, they study the connections of organisms with the inorganic environment, as well as among themselves. Applied ecology, nature management and environmental protection are closely interrelated, but they are different concepts.

Environmental Protection vs Environmental Protection: What's the Difference?

Most people don't see the difference in these terms. In relation to modern civilization, these are very distant concepts, because in the human environment there are a large number of artificial components that are not related to nature. This area, created by people, actively displaces natural components. Conservation and conservation have the same goal: to preserve the health and well-being of mankind. The methods of achieving it differ.

Nature protection is based on understanding the processes taking place in the biosphere, the diversity of biological organisms, and the state of ecosystems. Achieving the goal occurs through limiting or prohibiting the use of the planet's resources, maintaining the integrity of existing systems.

Environmental protection comes from a safe environment for society. The goal is achieved by eliminating the possibility of substances hazardous to people getting into it. In other words: to keep the city clean, and beyond it - at least the grass does not grow.

nature management- this is the activity of human society, aimed at using.

Allocate rational and irrational nature management.

Irrational nature management

Irrational nature management - it is a system of nature management in which readily available natural resources are used in large quantities and not completely, which leads to the rapid depletion of resources. In this case, a large amount of waste is produced and the environment is heavily polluted.

Irrational environmental management is typical 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. Such an economy at first brings good results with a relatively low scientific and technical level of production, but quickly leads to a decrease in natural and labor resources.

Rational nature management

- this is a system of nature management, in which extracted natural resources are used to a full extent, restoration of renewable natural resources is ensured, production wastes are fully and repeatedly used (i.e. waste-free production is organized), which can significantly reduce environmental pollution.

Rational nature management is characteristic of an intensive economy, which develops on the basis of scientific and technological progress and good organization of labor with high labor productivity. An example of rational nature management there can be waste-free production, in which waste is fully used, as a result of which the consumption of raw materials is reduced and environmental pollution is minimized.

One of the types of non-waste production is the multiple use of water taken from rivers, lakes, boreholes, etc. in the technological process. The used water is purified and re-used in the production process.

The system of measures aimed at maintaining the interaction between human activity and the natural environment is called nature conservation. Environmental protection is a complex of various measures aimed at ensuring the functioning of natural systems. Rational nature management implies ensuring the economical exploitation of natural resources and the conditions for the existence of mankind.

The system of specially protected natural areas includes nature reserves, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, natural monuments. The tool for monitoring the state of the biosphere is environmental monitoring, a system of continuous observations of the state of the natural environment in connection with human economic activity.

Nature protection and rational use of natural resources

In the process of the formation of the science of ecology, there was a confusion of concepts about what determines the essence of this science in general and the structure of the ecological cycle of sciences in particular. Ecology began to be interpreted as the science of the protection and rational use of nature. Automatically, everything related to the natural environment began to be called ecology, including the protection of nature and the protection of the human environment.

At the same time, the last two concepts were artificially mixed and are currently considered in combination. Based on the ultimate goals, nature conservation and environmental protection are close to each other, but still not identical.

Protection of Nature is aimed primarily at maintaining a rational interaction between human activities and the environment in order to preserve and restore natural resources and prevent the harmful effects of the results of economic activities on nature and human health.

environmental protection focuses primarily on the needs of the individual. This is a complex of various measures (administrative, economic, technological, legal, public, etc.) aimed at ensuring the functioning of natural systems necessary to preserve human health and well-being.

Nature management is aimed at meeting human needs through the rational use of natural resources and natural conditions.

nature management is the totality of human impacts on the geographic envelope of the Earth, considered in a complex, the totality of all forms of exploitation of natural resources. The tasks of nature management are reduced to the development of general principles for the implementation of any human activity associated either with the direct use of nature and its resources, or with impacts on it.

Principles of rational nature management

The practical application of environmental knowledge can be seen primarily in the solution of environmental issues. Only ecology as a science is able to create a scientific basis for the exploitation of natural resources. The attention of ecology is directed primarily to the laws underlying natural processes.

Rational nature management involves ensuring the economical exploitation of natural resources and conditions, taking into account the interests of future generations of people. It 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 significantly reducing the possible harmful effects of production processes or other types of human activity, at maintaining and increasing the productivity of nature, maintaining its aesthetic function, ensuring and regulation of the economical development of its resources, taking into account the preservation of people's health.

As opposed to rational irrational nature management affects the quality reduction, waste and exhaustion of natural resources, undermining the restorative forces of nature, environmental pollution, reducing its health and aesthetic merits. It leads to the deterioration of the natural environment and does not ensure the conservation of the natural resource potential.

Nature management includes:

extraction and processing of natural resources, their protection, renewal or reproduction;
use and protection of the natural conditions of the human environment;
preservation, restoration and rational change of the ecological balance of natural systems;
regulation of human reproduction and the number of people.

The protection of nature, the rational use and reproduction of natural resources is a universal task, in the solution of which everyone living on the planet should participate.

Conservation activities are focused mainly on the preservation of the diversity of life forms on Earth. The totality of species of living organisms on our planet creates a special fund of life, which is called gene pool. This concept is wider than just the totality of living beings. It includes not only manifested, but also potential hereditary inclinations of each species. We still do not know everything about the prospects for using one or another type. The existence of some organism, which now seems unnecessary, in the future may turn out to be not only useful, but, perhaps, saving for humanity.

The main task of nature conservation is not to protect a certain number of plant or animal species from the threat of extinction, but to combine a high level of productivity with the preservation of a wide network of centers of genetic diversity in the biosphere. The biological diversity of fauna and flora ensures the normal circulation of substances, the sustainable functioning of ecosystems. If humanity can solve this important environmental problem, in the future we can count on the production of new food products, medicines, and raw materials for industry.

The problem of preserving the biological diversity of living organisms on the planet is currently the most acute and significant for mankind. How this problem will be solved depends on the possibility of preserving life on Earth and humanity itself as part of the biosphere.

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:

30,000 years ago. At this time, a person completely adapted to the reality around him, being engaged in hunting, fishing and gathering.
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.
The era of the Middle Ages (VIII-XVII centuries). During this period, the burden on the environment increases markedly, crafts are born.
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.
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;
the 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:

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

Minimization of human impact on nature in the process of using natural resources.
Optimal (full) use of a particular resource.
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.

Term "nature use" was introduced into environmental literature by the Rostov geographer Professor Yu.N. Kurazhkovsky. nature management(according to Reimers, 1990) is the totality of all forms of exploitation of natural resources (PR) and measures for their conservation. Under natural resources understand all natural benefits used as natural sources to meet the needs of material production (mineral, land, forest, water resources). The environment is considered as a source of a wide variety of resources: production (raw materials and energy for industry), agricultural (natural soil fertility, heat and moisture supply for the production of crop and livestock products), health and recreation, aesthetic and scientific (serving as a source of creative inspiration, used to study natural patterns), etc. In many countries, including Russia, so-called natural resource cadastres- a set of information about the quantitative and qualitative state of natural resources, their economic and environmental assessment.

Natural resources are a difficult subject to study. Therefore, to classify them, it is necessary to use various features. According to the degree of their renewability, natural resources are classified into one of two types:

1) renewable (for example, vegetable, geothermal, hydropower, etc.);

2) non-renewable (fossil energy, mineral, etc.).

According to the components of the natural environment, resources are divided into the following types: land, water, plant, climatic, mineral, wildlife, etc.

By industry, they distinguish: resources of the fuel and energy complex, metallurgy, chemical industry, agriculture, etc.

According to the degree of exhaustibility, two types are distinguished: exhaustible and inexhaustible resources. To exhaustible natural resources include those that can be exhausted in the short or long term. This includes, first of all, subsoil resources and wildlife resources. Resource exhaustibility is a relative concept. Usually, a resource is considered exhausted when its extraction and use (including processing) becomes economically unprofitable. It is clear that the latter depends on the level of technology, culture of production, etc. In other cases, the use of the resource turns out to be ostensibly profitable until it is completely exhausted. This, in particular, refers to the complete extermination of certain species of plants and animals, as well as to the destructive use of water resources and ecosystems of the Aral Sea and the Aral Sea.

To inexhaustible include those natural resources that can be used indefinitely. For example, the resources of solar energy, wind, sea tides. However, in this case, inexhaustibility is relative. For each resource there are consumption limits, exceeding which is dangerous for the natural environment. Water occupies a special position among the resources. It is exhaustible, albeit temporarily, due to pollution (qualitatively), but quantitatively inexhaustible. Its reserves on Earth practically do not change, but only its redistribution between individual geospheres and their components (ocean, land, atmosphere) or transformation into various phase states (liquid, solid, vaporous).

The problem of exhaustibility of natural resources becomes more and more urgent every year. This is due not so much to the awareness of the fact of their limitations, but to the intensively increasing consumption. The annual growth rate of resource consumption is several times higher than the population growth rate. The literature provides the following data: at the current average world population growth rate of 1.7% per year, gold production increases by 4% per year, the consumption of mineral resources - by an average of 7% per year.

One of the important concepts of nature management is the natural resource potential. Natural resource potential- this is that part of the natural resources (PR) of the earth and the nearest space, which can be really involved in economic activity, provided that the environment of human life is preserved. Or, in a narrower economic sense, the natural resource potential is a set of resources available to mankind with existing technologies and socio-economic relations.

Nature management includes the following main stages:

a) extraction and processing of PR;

b) environmental protection;

c) preservation (maintenance) and reproduction (restoration) of the natural resource potential.

Currently, there are concepts of two forms of nature management: traditional and rational. Traditional modern nature management is considered as irrational. Rational nature management- a system of economic activity aimed, on the one hand, at inexhaustible(economical) and non-polluting the natural environment, the use of natural resources and, on the other hand, the most efficient mode of their reproduction, taking into account the interests of economic development, the environmentally safe state of the natural environment and the preservation of human health, which makes it possible to organize nature protection as a complementary system of measures.

Therefore, rational environmental management involves:

a) along with the extraction and processing of natural resources, their renewal or reproduction;

c) preservation (maintenance) and rational change of the ecological balance of natural systems, which alone can serve as the basis for preserving the natural resource potential of the development of society;

b) the use of environmentally friendly and environmentally friendly technologies.

From the above, it is clear that the requirements of the ecological safety of the environment act as the most important criteria for rational nature management. Under environmental safety is understood as a set of measures (legal, administrative, socio-economic, biomedical, cultural and educational, technical, sanitary and hygienic, etc.) that provide guarantees for the prevention of environmentally significant disasters and accidents and reduce the effect of hazardous activities to a safe level for the natural environment and humans. environmental factors.

Sustainable development(SD) can be based only on rational nature management and does not imply uncontrolled withdrawal of natural resources, carried out for reasons of maximum profit, but reasonably managed nature management, the criterion of which should be the satisfaction of the essential needs of man and society, including the provision of natural resources for future generations of mankind.

nature managementis a system of measures aimed at changing the processes of using natural resources in a direction desirable for a person and carried out by organizing the economic and environmental activities of society (an economic mechanism for the distribution and reproduction of natural resources, investments in new environmentally acceptable (clean, waste-free) technologies for extraction, transportation and processing of natural resources, investments in the purification of emissions, disposal of industrial waste, etc.). From the point of view of sustainable development, environmental and economic mechanisms for environmental management are needed, based on the optimization of economic mechanisms, taking into account environmental restrictions (both existing and foreseeable in the future).

7.2. Regional uneven distribution

Natural resources in the world

Regional uneven distribution of natural resources- one of the essential properties of the natural environment, manifested in the uneven geographical distribution of the potential of each resource. It is interesting to compare this unevenness with the uneven distribution of population on the globe. On earth, 4 large regions can be distinguished, which are characterized by a significant uneven density and population growth:

1) Europe - high density, low growth.

2) Siberia and North America - low density, low growth.

3) Africa, Near and Middle East - low density, fast growth.

4) India, China, Southeast Asia - high density, fast growth.

Currently, there are more than 200 countries on the planet: only 25 of them are among the developed countries, in which 1/5 of the world's population lives. However, they consume more than 2/3 of the generated energy and smelted metals, more than 60% of food and 85% of timber. In connection with the uneven distribution of natural resources in the world, an uneven picture of the distribution of extraction and use of natural resources has developed. For example, most of the oil is produced in the Middle East, as well as in Siberia and North America with low population density, and is used mainly in regions with high population density.

Food consumption in different regions of the world is also very uneven, not only because of the uneven distribution of the population, but also depending on the level of their economic development. According to the UN, despite a significant increase in prosperity in the world, 460 million people, i.e. almost a tenth of the world's population is not provided with food of the proper quality and in the required quantity. The calorie content of the diet of these people is clearly insufficient, just as there is not enough protein and essential vitamins and microelements in it. On average, the difference between food consumption in highly developed and developing countries with approximately the same annual increase in food production is as follows: their annual increase (due to different population growth rates) per capita in developed countries is 15-20%, and in developing - only 1.5-3%, i.e. almost 10 times less. This is also one of the factors of social tension between the peoples of developed and developing countries.

This unevenness is most typical for the most important natural resources: land, water, energy and mineral (non-energy) resources. Below we give a brief description of each of the mentioned types of natural resources.

Land resources. It was noted earlier that the production activity of man and the products of labor cover, to one degree or another, the entire space of the planet. However, the density of placement of objects and material flows varies greatly and reflects the distribution of population density and the location of modern civilization on Earth. In the 80s. based on aerospace data, the area of land not affected by economic activity was estimated. It turned out that only about 38 million km 2 remained; 28% land, excluding continental ice. The limits for the development of new territories are associated not so much with their low availability for technology and the placement of industrial facilities, but with their low suitability for permanent human life. Therefore, there is the concept of effective territory. According to the European standard, an area with an average annual temperature above -2 ° C and an altitude of less than 2000 m is recognized as effective.

Water resources. The vast majority of living beings on the planet, including humans, need fresh water. If we consider only constantly renewable water reserves in soil, biomass, rivers and lakes as an available fresh water resource for land organisms, then their total instantaneous volume - about 180 thousand km 3 - is only 0.013% of the total amount of water on the planet. Fresh water resources are distributed extremely unevenly. Thus, the annual amount of precipitation in different areas of the land varies considerably: from 0 to 12500 mm. The conditions of moisture evaporation also vary widely: from 150 to 4000 mm. More than 63% of the land area is occupied by areas with a negative water balance, where evaporation exceeds precipitation, and the average relative humidity does not exceed 45%.

Energetic resources. Speaking about the uneven distribution of energy resources, we primarily mean non-renewable resources - fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal). Fossil fuel deposits are unevenly distributed. Approximately 1/3 of potential coal and gas reserves and about 10% of oil reserves are located in Russia. Almost 35% of oil and about 17% of gas is concentrated in the Near and Middle East. North America is rich in coal, gas and oil potentials. These three regions of the world, with a total population of less than a fifth of the world's population, contain approximately two-thirds of the proven reserves of fossil hydrocarbon fuels - the main energy resource of our time.

Mineral resources. The most important mineral resources for the economy are ore minerals, which include ores of various metals. Up to 1 billion tons of iron ore are mined in the world. Russia ranks fourth in iron ore production after China, Brazil and Australia. On the territory of Russia there are significant reserves of manganese, nickel, uranium ores, phosphates, bulk materials for construction, etc.

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