Sustainability

Sustainable Development

Economic development that meets the needs of people today, without limiting the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Sustainable resource

A renewable resource which is being economically exploited in such a way that it will not diminish or run out.

What are the aims of sustainability (5)

1. Preserve environment

2. Ensure resources are available for future gens

3. Allow humans in all societies to live comfortably

4. Enable less economically developed countries (LEDCs) to develop through exploiting their natural resources

5. Create a more even balance in the consumption of these resource between more economically developed countries (MEDCs) and LEDCs.

What is the sustainable way to produce timber on a small scale?

Coppicing (Rotational Coppicing)

• Tree trunk cut close to ground

• New shoots form from cut surface & mature

• Eventually these shoots are cut & in their place, more are produced

How does rotational coppicing maintain biodiversity?

Trees never grow enough to block out light

• Succession can’t occur

• More species can survive

Alt to coppicing

Pollarding

• Trunk cut higher up so deer & other animals can’t eat new shoots as they appear

Large-scale timber production (felling large areas of forest) sustainable methods

• Practise selective cutting, which involves removing only the largest trees.

• Replace trees through replanting rather than waiting for natural regeneration. Helps to ensure that the biodiversity and mineral and water cycles are maintained.

• Plant trees an optimal distance apart to reduce competition. This results in higher yields as more wood is produced per tree.

• Manage pests and pathogens to maximise yields.

• Ensure that areas of forest remain for indigenous people.

Disadvantage of Felling

• Habitats destroyed

• Soil mineral reduced

• Bare soil susceptible to erosion

Sustainable fishing methods

• International agreements, fishing quotas, giving limits on numbers of certain species of fish that are allowed to be caught in an area.

  • Aims to maintain natural population of these species that allows the fish to reproduce sufficiently to maintain their population.

• Using nets w. diff mesh sizes. E.g. mesh sizes can be made sufficiently large enough that immature fish can escape. Only mature fish are caught, allowing breeding to continue.

• Allowing commercial & recreational fishing only at certain times of the year. This protects the breeding season of some fish species & allows the fish levels to increase back to a sustainable level.

• Introducing fish farming to maintain supply of protein food, whilst preventing the loss of wild species