Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Biodiversity Conservation
Natural Resources and Their Uses
Agriculture
90% of the food we consume today is derived from wild plants originating in the tropics. Throughout the centuries, humans have selected countless thousands of varieties of crop plants for food. Farming and ranching were united activities until the present century.
Fishing
Fishery resources are an important food source for humanity. Until this century, it benefited only coastal towns, but with the development of cold storage techniques, the network of consumption has expanded. While in the 1950s only 20 million tons were caught, today 100 million tons are caught annually.
Forest Resources
After food and water, forest resources, particularly timber, have been most important in the development of civilizations. Forests have always been home to many indigenous peoples, providing food, fuel, construction materials, and medicines.
Medicinal Plants
All ancient peoples knew varieties of plants with healing effects. Today, medicine and the pharmaceutical industry are increasingly interested in obtaining active ingredients from plants and wild animals.
Biomass Energy
Biomass can be used as a renewable, relatively clean energy source that requires less complex technologies.
Recreational Uses
There is a growing demand for natural landscapes and forests for recreation: walking, sightseeing, hunting, fishing, and mushrooming.
Environmental Problems and Biodiversity Loss
Biodiversity Loss
Although biodiversity is potentially renewable, the extinction of a species is irreversible. An estimated 15 million species currently exist on our planet, although this figure may change. The rate of species extinction is estimated at about 5,000 species annually, particularly affecting biodiversity-rich areas like equatorial forests.
Deforestation
Deforestation is one of the most important causes of biodiversity loss due to habitat destruction.
Mangrove Degradation
Mangrove ecosystems are highly biodiverse plant communities adapted to flooding and salinity in river mouths of tropical countries. Their degradation is a significant threat.
Coral Reef Degradation
Coral reefs are the most biodiverse ecosystems in the oceans, and their degradation is a serious concern.
Loss of Marshes and Wetlands
The destruction of marshes and wetlands has accelerated in recent decades.
Introduction of New Species
The intentional or unintentional introduction of new species into ecosystems is another factor contributing to species extinction.
Pollution
Both large-scale pollution (increased greenhouse effect, ozone layer destruction) and local/regional pollution (heavy metals, pesticides, radioactivity) affect the ecosystem in multiple, unpredictable, and uncontrollable ways, polluting rivers, lakes, seas, water, soil, and food chains.
Other Causes
Poaching, trade in protected species, forest fires, and over-collecting also impact biodiversity loss. In Spain, the number of summer fires contributing to forest degradation is particularly alarming.
Loss of Genetic Diversity
Due to the green revolution, there has been a loss of genetic diversity in cultivated species. Western countries have imposed crop varieties on varieties that existed for thousands of years worldwide.
Loss of Cultural Diversity
As crop varieties and medicinal plants disappear, so do the cultures and peoples who maintain this diversity. The 20th century saw the disappearance of more human cultures than any other time in history, representing an irrevocable loss.
Biotic Risks
World Hunger
Hunger has always been a constant in human history. Until the 20th century, it was considered a natural hazard dependent on climate and pests. Currently, it is primarily a risk stemming from unjust distribution between countries.
Pests
Since humans became farmers, they have sought exclusive crop production. However, some species invade crops for food and survival. These pests are combated with chemical warfare (pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, rodenticides).
Epidemics
Epidemics are associated with famine and other calamities related to food handling, representing a technological risk.
Sustainable Use
Principle of Sustainable Use
The operating principle for exploiting renewable resources like biodiversity states that the harvest rate cannot exceed the renewal rate. Distinction must be made between exploiting natural forests (fishing, hunting, logging) and cultivating plants and animals.
Exploitation of Natural Populations
Adhering to the sustainability principle, the exploitation of natural populations can occur at different growth stages, removing sufficient biomass production without overconsumption.
Representative Ecosystems of Cantabria
High Meadows and Rocky Mountains
These meadows consist of grasses and weeds resistant to extreme weather. Fauna includes wolves, chamois, golden eagles, and griffon vultures.
Mediterranean Forests
Limestone outcrops with thin soil support oak trees, along with laurel, arbutus, and privet. Fauna includes badgers, dormice, lizards, genets, snakes, and woodpeckers.
Atlantic Forest (Oak and Beech)
Oak forests may contain maples, ash, chestnut, elm, and yew. Fauna includes martens, dormice, red deer, wild boar, foxes, blackbirds, hawks, and owls. Beech forests contain rowan, yew, hawthorn, and bramble. Fauna includes bears, bobcats, grouse, deer, mink, and salamanders.
Rivers and Riparian Forests
Alder and willow dominate the vegetation. Fauna includes otters, water voles, polecats, kingfishers, golden orioles, scops owls, common toads, and grass snakes.
Grasslands and Crops
Meadows contain various herbaceous plants and have formed the basis of the rural economy through cattle raising. Fauna includes shrews, hedgehogs, moles, weasels, voles, worms, and other invertebrates.
Reforestation with Eucalyptus and Pine
Eucalyptus plantations supply pulp to the paper industry, but they eliminate bacterial flora, preventing humus formation and depleting the soil. Fauna is scarce. Pine forests are less harmful to the soil and support martens, birds, and lizards.
Coastal Ecosystems
Beaches and dunes support grasses and pines. Fauna includes skinks, oystercatchers, gulls, sandpipers, and rats. Cliffs harbor birds, lizards, and invertebrates. Marshes contain reeds, rushes, and other wetland plants. Fauna includes otters, mink, water voles, lapwings, gulls, sandpipers, rails, herons, avocets, coots, grebes, ducks, grass snakes, frogs, sea bass, eels, mullet, sea bream, sole, ragworms, crabs, and mullets.