Sub-topic 8.2 Resource Use in Society

Renewable natural capital

Can be generated and/or replaced as fast as it is being used. It includes living species and ecosystems that use solar energy and photosynthesis, as well as non-living items, such as groundwater and the ozone layer

Non-renewable natural capital

Either irreplaceable or can only be replaced over geological time scales, for example fossil fuels, soil and minerals

Sustainable use of renewable natural capital

use of only natural income

Unsustainable use of renewable natural capital

use of natural income plus the natural capital reserves

Natural capital - goods

tangible products such as timber, crops, fruit etc that have "value"

Natural capital - services

ecosystem services such as climate regulation that have "value"

"Value" of Natural Capital goods and services

may be aesthetic, cultural, economic, environmental, ethical, intrinsic, social, spiritual or technological

Valuation of Natural Capital

Use of Valuation - Resources that have a price such as marketable goods, ecological functions, recreational function; and non-use of valuation - resources that have intrinsic value (the right to exist), future uses (medicines, potential gene pool), existence values (Amazon Rainforest), present for future generations.

Natural capital

resource

Dynamic concept of natural capital

whether or note something has the status of natural capital, and the marketable value of that capital varies regionally and over time and is influenced by cultural, social, economic, environmental, technological and political factors, e.g cork, uranium, lithium