Environmental Engineering Reference
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environment group, points to the poorly researched role of institutions in natural
resources management (see Mehta et al. 1999), and focuses on a handful of case
studies: (grazing) land, water, trees. Following these discussions, the paper concludes
that natural resources have both a material and a symbolic dimension.
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As noted,
we are again not offered a precise or concise definition of natural resources. The IDS
scholars do, however, rightly stress that resources have various and often conflicting
uses and meanings for different stakeholders (Mehta et al. 1999: 33-34).
Without a clear definition of natural resources in the scholarly material, let us
turn instead to a dictionary and encyclopaedia for assistance. The Oxford Dictionary
(2013a) describes natural resources as follows: “materials or substances occurring in
nature which can be exploited for economic gain.'' This explanation is a rather limited
view that denies the symbolic dimension of natural resources pointed out by the IDS
group. Wikipedia, on the other hand, provides a more elaborate definition:
[n]atural resources are materials and components (something that can be used)
that can be found within the environment. Every man-made product is composed
of natural resources (at its fundamental level). A natural resource may exist as a
separate entity such as fresh water, and air, as well as a living organism such as a
fish, or it may exist in an alternate form which must be processed to obtain the
resource such as metal ores, oil, and most forms of energy.
This definition seems straightforward. However, do academics and policy makers fol-
low a clear and unified categorisation of natural resources or are they engaged in
another 'Tower of Babylon-like' conversation when discussing natural resources? Let
us inspect some of the key publications that deal specifically with natural resources
(and conflicts) in Africa and beyond.
In
Nature Wealth and Power - Emerging Best Practice for Revitalizing Rural
Africa
, a study commissioned by USAID (2002), a group of scholars presents lessons
learned from 20 years of experience in natural resource-based development. They state
that while natural resources are a major source of wealth and power in Africa, they
are also a key to rural development and good governance. Natural resources - land,
minerals, forests, wildlife and water - are central to the livelihoods of 70% of the
population and dominate some African economies. It is interesting that this author
group restricts living organisms to wild animals only.
In
Entitlements to natural resources - contours of political environmental geog-
raphy
, Dietz (1996: 33) provides a short and simple definition: “Nature becomes a
natural resource whenever people relate to nature, so it is a resource by social defini-
tion. It is not their mere availability or their potential use that makes these elements
of nature a resource, it is their actual use by and impact on humanity.'' He continues
by summarising a list of natural resources: land (including soil resources, but also
solid wastes), minerals, water, air, energy, flora and fauna (including the domesti-
cated animals and plants). Note that unlike the USAID study, Dietz (1996) includes
domesticated animals as a natural resource. Dietz (1996) acknowledges the difficulty in
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Rutten (2010) also stresses this non-physical dimension of land when pointing at the view
among several African communities that land is a resource that is inherited from the older
generation and has to be passed on to the younger generation.
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