Natural Resources Conservation and Advances for Sustainability

Natural Resources Conservation and Advances for Sustainability addresses the latest challenges associated with the management and conservation of natural resources. It presents interdisciplinary approaches to promote advances in solving these challenges. By examining what has already been done and analyzing it in the context of what still needs to be done, particularly in the context of latest technologies and sustainability, the book helps to identify ideal methods for natural resource management and conservation. Each chapter begins with a graphical abstract and presents complicated or detailed content in the form of figures or tables.

In addition, the book compares the latest techniques with conventional techniques and troubleshoots conventional methods with modifications, making it a practical resource for researchers in environmental science and natural resource management.

• Discusses the pros and cons of past and current endeavors related to natural resource management
• Presents recent technologies and methods for management and conservation, particularly with applications for sustainability
• Covers a variety of disciplines, from environmental science to life science
• Includes a graphical abstract as well as a section on significant achievements in the field and future perspectives

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Release date: Sep 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9780128231128

Book preview

Section A

Natural resources management

Chapter 1: Importance of natural resources conservation: Moving toward the sustainable world

Manoj Kumar Jhariyaa; Arnab Banerjeeb; Ram Swaroop Meenac    a Department of Farm Forestry, Sant Gahira Guru Vishwavidyalaya, Sarguja, Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh, India

b Department of Environmental Science, Sant Gahira Guru Vishwavidyalaya, Sarguja, Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh, India

c Department of Agronomy, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

Existence of human civilization depends upon the ecosystem and ecosystem services. Maintaining daily livelihood is a biggest challenge for human kind under environmental degradation and changing climate that is taking place in the 21st century. Development of science and technology has increased the interaction between human and environment, which has leads to rapid depletion of infinite natural resources (NR). This situation is creating alarming issues and leading to unsustainable use of NR. Hence, the major problems such as food crisis, water scarcity, temperature rise, deforestation and environmental pollution are irreversible in nature causing severe damage to the present and future generation. In this context, natural resource management (NRM) is the need of hour that requires a holistic and integrated approach to manage the social, economic and environmental issues for sustainable use of NR. There is urgent need to focus on the importance of sustainable ecosystem with NRM. It will help the future perspective for existence of the humanity on the earth. Sustainable utilization and efficient use should be the central theme of the NRM at various spheres of conservation approaches. This chapter is focused on NRM and conservation toward sustainable development. Therefore, awareness, improve technology as well as changing attitude of people from consumeric to conservative is the need of the hour. In this direction, future research and development, planning, and policy formulation are need to addressed toward natural resource conservation.

Keywords

Ecosystem; Environment; Conservation; Climate change; Natural resource; Sustainability

Abbreviations

C 

carbon

CO2 

carbon dioxide

GHGs 

greenhouse gases

NR 

natural resources

NRC 

natural resource conservation

NRM 

natural resource management

R&D 

research and development

SD 

sustainable development

1.1: Introduction

The term degradation is applicable for various types and forms of resources either human made or natural. Unpredictable and universal changes are taking place rapidly across the world in the environmental issues, putting resources into a questionable form. Further mega events such as species extinction, climate change, anthropogenic disturbances, natural disaster, over-exploitation, land-use changes, etc. are putting pressure more and more on the natural resource (NR) base (Rockstrom et al., 2009; Jhariya et al., 2019a,b). In its turn, NR is imposing its impact on human civilization through resource scarcity and unsustainable use. Natural resource management (NRM) is a major issue in terms of ecosystem sustainability, and its future existence is under severe threat leading to malfunctioning of humankind. From the beginning of the earth, human and its surrounding biosphere is solely dependent on the NR. On the earth, NRs have confirmed the existence of human civilization as well as promoted technological growth for betterment of life and prosperity. NR has got various dimensions in terms of social, economic, and ecological point of view. NR is degrading day by day as well as sustenance of human civilization under questions due to severe threats of extinctions of various resources. Resources are the key players in economy to improve the societal benefit and maintain the ecosystem integrity (FAO, 2020).

Land is also a shrinking resource on the basis of productivity and economic potential associated with the major issue of food crisis, which is hampering the developed and developing nation across the world (Meena et al., 2020b; Khan et al., 2021a,b). As a consequence of that, people are devoid of optimum and nutritious food as well as devoid of healthy environment (FAO, 2011a). Associated with this, the ever-increasing population is putting pressure more on land resource as well as on the food availability of the whole world. As per one estimate, globally more than 9 billion people need to be provided with food till 2050 (FAO, 2011b). Various regions on the earth such as African countries, Asian countries, as well as other allied developing nations are facing a common challenge on food crisis and scarcity (Lal, 2001). The problem of food crisis is under the problem of lack of land resource availability and degradation, therefore posing major threat toward NR base. A global agenda across the world has been addressed by International Fund for Agricultural Development president during 2011 in world food day occasion. The focus was on sustainability that eliminate the hunger and famine (FAO, 2011b).

Environment and sustainability are the two interrelated dimensions, which need to be maintained properly for a healthy ecosystem service globally (Khan et al., 2020a,b; Meena and Lal, 2018). It has been observed that the eco-friendly management of environment often leads to sustainable development (SD) across its various dimensions. Therefore, external factors reflected that the significant influence as externalities is a major issue from NR perspectives. To address sustainability, SD is a need to consider the paradigm of NR centrally. This is due to the fact that more development, more resource exploitation, leads to unsustainable environment from a sustainable one (Hallegatte et al., 2011). To address sustainable issues needs sustainability to stress on NRM along with sustainable use of infinitive resources. Under this context, management of NR across various dimensions requires consideration to achieve sustainability toward development process. Such integrated approach needs to be designed for holistic development in social, economic, and environmental dimension (Jhariya et al., 2019a).

From resource point of view in the nature, any form of resource is depleting in nature as there is a continuous flow between resource reserve and resource use. The harmony between NR base and its utilization rate is the most questionable issue from sustainability and natural resource conservation (NRC) point of view (Tàbara and Pahl-Wostl, 2007). Economic growth also makes the problem much more complicated. It is the resource base that determines or governs the growing or diminishing economy. Accompanied by it, the over exploitation and overuse causes total unsustainable condition creating the necessity of NRC. Poor economy also hampers the daily livelihood of the people as well as overall growth of a country. Maldistribution of wealth often leads to unsustainable consumptive life style leading to zero resource base (Banerjee et al., 2020).

From land resource perspectives, it was observed that anthropogenic disturbances have significantly affected the productive land area across the globe. A major area of land is affected by soil and wind erosion. Other agent like chemical degradation, compaction, and water logging also imposes significant negative consequences over the quality of land area (UNEP, 1993; Day, 2009). Mega events such as global warming and climate change are degrading the global environment directly leading to loss of NR base (FAO, 2020).

SD, environment, and NRC are the three pillars demanding a harmony between growths, development with prosperity of the human civilization. Mere negligence on the issue of NRC has created a fragile environment globally causing depletion of overall resource base of the earth (Raj et al., 2020; Meena et al., 2020). In this connection, over exploitation of natural forest resource base in north east region of India for resource exploitation is a major example. The situation is so severe that fuel, fodder, and fiber availability would be under question due to reduction in the productivity value of degraded lands (Pierce and Lal, 1991; UN, 2017).

Water resource is an important issue from global perspective. Water stress, water scarcity, and lack of availability of safe water are the major issues associated with water resource. The problem is further aggravated by pollution and over-exploitation leading to unsustainable condition from resource point of view (Meena et al., 2020). Globally, it was observed that different activities such as discharge of industrial effluent, accumulation of solid waste, and oil pollution that is threatening the water resource at significant level. Soil resource is another major issue associated with unsustainable environment creating environmental problems both in developed and developing nation (Ulucak et al., 2020). Soil also performs major function in the form of organic C (carbon) reservoir and was reported to be the most efficient store house of C in comparison to natural vegetation (Jhariya, 2014). As a consequence, it was observed that soil loss causes increase in emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) through organic matter decomposition.

From atmosphere point of view, the scenario is rapidly changing due to industrial and deforestation activity. It was found that due to such activities, there is gradual build-up of CO2 gases leading to global warming and global climate change (Raj et al., 2018a). Subsequently, it was found that other greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as methane and chlorofluoro-carbon are increasing gradually after certain time interval. In this context, as per the revision of the rules and regulation of Montreal Protocol, the approximate rise in temperature appears to be 3 K resulting into sea level rise upto 20 cm. It also causes alteration in precipitation pattern under tropical condition lowering the agricultural productivity (Rao, 1991). Such diverse events often lead to all round deterioration of NR both quantitatively and qualitatively. In the modern context, it is therefore an urgent need to prepare a database or inventory in terms of resource potential, resource value, as well as spatial distribution that would fulfill the objectives of SD (FAO, 2016).

NR can be considered as any material that can be utilized for beneficial purpose of human civilization. As the definition suggests, any particular resource such as air, water, soil is not an isolated entity found in nature but also an integrated entity related with each other (Fig. 1.1). Another major problem associated with NR is its resource base, depletion potential, and renewability that would regulate the prosperity of human kind. This, therefore, requires multidisciplinary approach for maintenance and conservation of NR. It means involving people from diverse disciplines for a particular resource problem (FAO, 2020).

Fig. 1.1

Fig. 1.1 NRM—a multidisciplinary approach. (Modified from FAO, 2018. The State of the World’s Forests: Forest Pathways to Sustainable Development. Rome. ISBN 978-92-5-130561-4. http://www.fao.org/3/I9535EN/i9535en.pdf; FAO, 2020. World’s Food Systems Rely on Biodiversity. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1263301/icode/; UN, 2017. The UN Strategies Plan for Forests 2017–2030. http://www.un.org/esa/forests/documents/un-strategic-plan-for-forests-2030/index.html.)

Mineral resource is the key for development of human civilization. From world perspective, the distribution of mineral resource reflects wide variability. Country wise variation and distribution of mineral resource is shown in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1

This chapter addresses the various issues of concern related to NR. The key challenges and problems are need to be understood properly, and then only the sustainable solution of problem can be achieved. The major focus should be on interdisciplinary approach involving various disciplines that would work together in an integrated way to combat the problem of resource depletion, maintain the NR base, as well as develop sustainable lifestyle for benefit of humankind in upcoming years (Tàbara and Pahl-Wostl, 2007).

1.2: Problems associated with the resources

The major problem associated with NR is the maintenance of natural stock as well as sustainable management of them. Globally, there is a big lacuna in terms of reserve of NR as well as exploitation of NR leads to unsustainable environment (Ulucak et al., 2020). The issue of sustainability is intricately related with maximum sustainable yield of NR. To achieve SD in the field of NR, one needs to go for better productivity function along with conservation approach through inventorization and monitoring. Each of natural assets needs to be monitored specifically for their prior conservation and storage. This approach would further lead to SD for future generation. For example, if we consider the case of soil resource depletion, one should have the approaches like biofertilizer application, organic farming, conservation agriculture, zero tillage agriculture, precision farming, and many other suitable farming techniques to maintain the quality and fertility of soil resource. In long term, it would also enhance the productivity in the agricultural sector and would help to address the issue of food security by providing quality food for better health and prosperity (FAO, 2006a).

Harmony between resource exploitation and sustainable yield should be maintained in order to address the issue of SD. Paradigm of SD has two major aspects that include growth and development of economy in one hand and protection of the environment on the other (Jhariya et al., 2019a,b; Meena et al., 2018). Different organizations have represented different viewpoints on SD in terms of their own dimension, but overall, they have synchronized the concept in terms of conservation and protection of environment (FAO, 2019). Such approach leads to conservation of various resources in a holistic way that is eco-friendly and conservative in nature. It is the need of the hour as the population pressure is depleting the NR base to a considerable extent. In this connection, the basic issue of arable land resource is gradually declining starting from 0.3 ha in 2000 to 0.15 ha by 2050 (Lal and Pierce, 1991). Over depletion of NR takes place through various processes that is mediated though increased population pressure. For instance, with a miniature of 55% of land area in the developing countries a total of three-fourth of world population is supported in terms of fuel, fodder, and food. From Indian perspective, nearly 50% of the geographically area is severely affected by erosional activity by wind and water. Therefore, soil erosion is the most critical factor in terms of land resource causing its rapid depletion. Further, the problem is aggravated through anthropogenic influence such as faulty agricultural practices, flood condition along with soil acidity and salinity (Jhariya et al., 2019a).

Resource depletion has become a worldwide phenomenon. In this context, data presented in Table 1.2 reflects that lack of education, technology, as well as awareness has reflected significant level of contribution in resource depletion. For instance, economically poor countries are reflecting 88% share in depletion.

Table 1.2

NRM has diverse approaches to address the issue of resource depletion and maintenance of stock. NRM emphasizes the maintenance of ecosystem services by improving the ecosystem resilience and resistance (Fig. 1.2). Another major issue includes reduction of various forms of biotic pressure to maintain the diversity within the ecosystem. It also emphasizes up gradation of the lifestyle through proper development and reducing the dependency for resources. In order to achieve this, one needs proper accounting and valuation of resources to maintain harmony between environment and sustainability (Ulucak et al., 2020). NRM also focuses on increasing awareness and perception of the common people about NR and their changing nature. Pollution is the results of over-exploitation and unsustainable use of NR leading to degradation of the environment. NRM addresses to work in an efficient way to maintain the reserve as well as lesser pollution that would lead to prosperity of human civilization (Jhariya et al., 2019a; Meena et al., 2020).

Fig. 1.2

Fig. 1.2 Sphere of NRM. (Modified from FAO, 2018. The State of the World’s Forests: Forest Pathways to Sustainable Development. Rome. ISBN 978-92-5-130561-4. http://www.fao.org/3/I9535EN/i9535en.pdf; FAO, 2019. Measuring and Modelling Soil Carbon Stocks and Stock Changes in Livestock Production Systems. Guidelines for Assessment (Version 1). Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) Partnership. Rome, FAO, 170 pp. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; FAO, 2020. World’s Food Systems Rely on Biodiversity. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1263301/icode/; Jhariya, M.K., Banerjee, A., Meena, R.S., Yadav, D.K., 2019a. Sustainable Agriculture, Forest and Environmental Management. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd., Singapore, 606 pp. eISBN: 978-981-13-6830-1, Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-13-6829-5. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6830-1; Jhariya, M.K., Yadav, D.K., Banerjee, A., 2019b. Agroforestry and Climate Change: Issues and Challenges. Apple Academic Press Inc., CRC Press: A Taylor and Francis Group, US & Canada, 335 pp. ISBN: 978-1-77188-790-8 (Hardcover), 978-0-42957-274-8 (E-book). https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429057274; Banerjee, A., Jhariya, M.K., Yadav, D.K., Raj, A., 2020. Environmental and Sustainable Development Through Forestry and Other Resources. Apple Academic Press Inc., CRC Press: A Taylor and Francis Group, US & Canada, pp. 1–400. ISBN: 9781771888110. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429276026; Raj, A., Jhariya, M.K., Yadav, D.K., Banerjee, A., 2020. Climate Change and Agroforestry Systems: Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies. Apple Academic Press Inc., CRC Press: A Taylor and Francis Group, US & Canada, pp. 1–383. ISBN: 9781771888226. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429286759; Meena, R.S., Lal, R., Yadav, G.S., 2020. Long term impacts of topsoil depth and amendments on soil physical and hydrological properties of an Alfisol in Central Ohio, USA. Geoderma 363, 1141164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2019.114164.)

Since prehistoric times human is dependent upon nature on the basis of resources that they procure from nature. The continuous interaction is taking place between human and nature leading to various forms of changes in the environmental segments (Fig. 1.3). For instance, rapid urbanization and rapid industrial development has led to air pollution (Khan et al., 2020a,b). On the other hand, overuse and abuse of water resources lead to water scarcity and pollution. In agriculture sector, alternate land-use, intensive farming, as well as use of diverse form of agrochemicals has deteriorated the condition of soil leading to land degradation (Meena et al., 2020). Activities such as hunting, poaching, and illegal activities lead to depletion of wildlife and biodiversity. Resource dependency is severe in terms of forest resource for the local community stakeholder leading to events such as deforestation, habitat fragmentation, and tourism activities that leads to loss of forest cover and biodiversity (UN, 2017). Such interactions have promoted the problem of NR depletion globally. While developing management policies, one should take due consideration of the interaction aspect between human and environment in order to screen out suitable alternatives for conservation of NR (FAO, 2006b, 2020).

Fig. 1.3

Fig. 1.3 Interaction of resources and human being. (Modified from FAO, 2012a. The State of Food Insecurity in the World, Economic Growth in Necessary But Not Sufficient to Accelerate Reduction of Hunger and Malnutrition. Rome; FAO, 2012b. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2012. Rome; FAO, 2018. The State of the World’s Forests: Forest Pathways to Sustainable Development. Rome. ISBN 978-92-5-130561-4. http://www.fao.org/3/I9535EN/i9535en.pdf; UN, 2017. The UN Strategies Plan for Forests 2017–2030. http://www.un.org/esa/forests/documents/un-strategic-plan-for-forests-2030/index.html.)

1.3: Management of natural resources

Achieving sustainability is the biggest challenge in front of humankind for 21st century. In the modern context, a huge change is taking place across the world in terms of climate, technology, and social regime (Pimentel et al., 2006; Meena et al., 2020a). Therefore, adaptive management in terms of learning by doing is the need of the hour. Adaptive management is the decision-making tools that aims toward conservation of NR as well as explore alternative sources and their management. One of the policies toward this includes reducing the cost and maximizing the output in a sustainable way so that we can move toward a greener, cleaner, and safer world. In the field of NRM, strict implementation of rules and regulations is yet to come in the developing world. From legal perspective, good governess is good management policy to conserve and sustain NR base. Legal framework involves public participation toward conservation of NR, which is the essence of sustainable management of NR (Jhariya et al., 2019a,b).

Resource use is another big issue from the NR context. It was observed that multipurpose and multifunction use of resources often deplete a particular resource to a considerable extent (FAO, 2018). Therefore, special care needs to be taken toward proper management and conservation of resource having multipurpose use nature. Often the used pattern of a particular resource governs the fate of a particular resource and therefore, specific approaches are need to be designed to regulate the resource use pattern. Awareness regarding particular resource stock and reserve is the essential part of resource conservation and management (UN, 2017).

Resource has a particular value in terms of market value along with its ecological value. While exploiting a resource, this diverse nature is misinterpreted and market value jeopardize the ecological value of a particular value of a resource (Surya et al., 2020). Therefore, it creates the problem of resource crisis and increases the cost. In case of resource management, this thing needs to be taken care of in order to sustain and conserve a resource. While utilizing a resource, sustainable harvesting should be the approach in order to prevent the jeopardization of ecological value through economic value. One cannot rule out the diverse nature of ecological role of a particular resource under the economic value. In the process of maximizing profit in most cases, the ecological services of a resource are overruled. Aiming toward sustainability demands sustainable harvesting, sustainable yield along with proper care and recognition of diverse ecological role of NR. Further, when a use value of a resource decreases, it generates the problem of waste accumulations. If properly not managed, it leads to problem of environmental degradation and pollution (Ulucak et al., 2020). Another major issue related to resource includes depletion or degradation of particular resource makes the approach of conservation more difficult. For instance, if the soil quality is degraded, agricultural production declines along with more susceptibility of various crop species toward pest population.

NRM is an integrated management process that follows plan do check act cycle of typical management process to achieve sustainability at various sphere. It involves capacity building, multidisciplinary approach, and preparation of proper resource inventory as well as developing collaboration across the globe toward SD. In order to achieve successful implementation of NRM proper planning, prediction along with community participation would be major steps (Fig. 1.4). Before implementation policy formulation action plan preparation needs to be designed properly in order to achieve SD (FAO, 2016; UN, 2017; Jhariya et al., 2019a).

Fig. 1.4

Fig. 1.4 NRM management strategies. (Modified from Raj, A., Jhariya, M.K., Yadav, D.K., Banerjee, A., 2020. Climate Change and Agroforestry Systems: Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies. Apple Academic Press Inc., CRC Press: A Taylor and Francis Group, US & Canada, pp. 1–383. ISBN: 9781771888226. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429286759; Banerjee, A., Jhariya, M.K., Yadav, D.K., Raj, A., 2020. Environmental and Sustainable Development Through Forestry and Other Resources. Apple Academic Press Inc., CRC Press: A Taylor and Francis Group, US & Canada, pp. 1–400. ISBN: 9781771888110. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429276026; Jhariya, M.K., Banerjee, A., Meena, R.S., Yadav, D.K., 2019a. Sustainable Agriculture, Forest and Environmental Management. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd., Singapore, 606 pp. eISBN: 978-981-13-6830-1, Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-13-6829-5. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6830-1; Jhariya, M.K., Yadav, D.K., Banerjee, A., 2019b. Agroforestry and Climate Change: Issues and Challenges. Apple Academic Press Inc., CRC Press: A Taylor and Francis Group, US & Canada, 335 pp. ISBN: 978-1-77188-790-8 (Hardcover), 978-0-42957-274-8 (E-book). https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429057274.)

Integrated resource management is the most fruitful approach for management of resources nowadays. This is due to the fact that it gives multifacetes of benefits on a single approach (Singh and Jhariya, 2016). In this context, agriculture, agroforestry, and animal husbandry are the typical examples. Under the depleting nature of resources, it was observed that unifunctionality often creates problem in long term. For example, land and soil used for agriculture purpose and other productive land use often creates the problem of declining productivity. Land use as well as resource use should be aimed in such a manner so that it gives self-sustainability, capacity building, and bring benefit to the community stakeholders (Raj et al., 2020). In this case, women are the worse sufferer. The major benefits do not flow properly to the women community as they suffer from poverty, malnutrition, lack of education, and various forms of diseases (Pimentel et al., 2006).

Resource depletion is the economic function resulting from misappropriation of supply and demand of a particular resource. Resource scarcity as a phenomenon governs by multifacetes of factors and interaction of cross sectoral policy network (Fig. 1.5). In these aspects, harmony between economy, environment, and resource capital is the need of the hour (Ulucak et al., 2020). On the other hand, adequate supply of resource on a sustainable way for long-term basis is necessary. Moreover, we must be aware about the capital stock of each and every resource as well as their subsequent depletion rate and potential. In this connection, policy and legal framework of a particular country is very important as they will regulate administration and management toward extensive R&D (research and development) activities aiming toward social, environmental, and economic sustainability. It requires a total change in attitude of entrepreneurship in the form of conservation, sustainable utilization, and more adoption of eco-friendly technology (Jhariya et al., 2019a,b).

Fig. 1.5

Fig. 1.5 Development and management strategies of natural resources. (Modified from FAO, 2020. World’s Food Systems Rely on Biodiversity. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1263301/icode/; Meena, R.S., Lal, R., Yadav, G.S., 2020. Long term impacts of topsoil depth and amendments on soil physical and hydrological properties of an Alfisol in Central Ohio, USA. Geoderma 363, 1141164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2019.114164; Banerjee, A., Jhariya, M.K., Yadav, D.K., Raj, A., 2020. Environmental and Sustainable Development Through Forestry and Other Resources. Apple Academic Press Inc., CRC Press: A Taylor and Francis Group, US & Canada, pp. 1–400. ISBN: 9781771888110. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429276026; Jhariya, M.K., Banerjee, A., Meena, R.S., Yadav, D.K., 2019a. Sustainable Agriculture, Forest and Environmental Management. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd., Singapore, 606 pp. eISBN: 978-981-13-6830-1, Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-13-6829-5. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6830-1; Jhariya, M.K., Yadav, D.K., Banerjee, A., 2019b. Agroforestry and Climate Change: Issues and Challenges. Apple Academic Press Inc., CRC Press: A Taylor and Francis Group, US & Canada, 335 pp. ISBN: 978-1-77188-790-8 (Hardcover), 978-0-42957-274-8 (E-book). https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429057274; UN, 2017. The UN Strategies Plan for Forests 2017–2030. http://www.un.org/esa/forests/documents/un-strategic-plan-for-forests-2030/index.html.)

Mitigating or managing challenges on various resource perspectives is the biggest challenge of 21st century. If we considered individual resources then the problem becomes further aggravated that each resource has its own dimensional problem. In this context, solving a particular problem makes the problem much worser in relation to other resources. This therefore creates the necessity of integrated approach in the conservation perspectives as well as proper understanding of the various factors creating the crisis situations (IPCC, 2019). For instance, lack of productive land resource ultimately leads to decline in agricultural productivity. Most of the research studies in the field of NRC are aimed toward the interrelationship between changing climate and various physical and topographic factors and the resource but the major problems lie in the proper understanding about the role of humans toward modulating these climatic and physico-topographical factors (Banerjee et al., 2020).

As per the reports of the FAO (2011b), the farming community should be well equipped with technologies and implementing policies to combat changing climate and other associated problems. Such approaches require long term funding in order to avoid the environmental hazards (Ulucak et al., 2020). Management of the problems should be done across various levels involving green technologies and strategies that lead toward sustainability. Till date, there are sufficient lacunae in the NRM approaches and other sustainable strategies that can combat the regime of environmental degradation of land (Wild, 2003). According to Chambers (2005), integrated approach needs to be designed focusing on natural restoration and resilience of the ecosystem.

According to Pretty (1998), sustainability is a complex and holistic approach that encompasses the concept of resource conservation and move toward SD. It was observed that most of the action plans and policies in the last few decades have been aimed toward increasing agricultural productivity to feed the growing population. In this consequence, some focused on the production sector and some on conservation of NR. As there is no interlinkage, therefore the livelihood of poor farming community appears to be deemed. Also such approach does not involve community participation too much leading to lesser availability of benefits for the local community stakeholders (Karamidehkordi, 2007). Productivity-oriented approach mainly focuses on farming community who are economically sound along with technology transfer process. On the other hand, in the conservation sector, the dependency of rural people on NR has increased to a considerable extend. Another big problem is that community stakeholders were found to be main responsible for depletion of NR due to over harvesting and exploitation. However, the social paradigm of the problem was not considered and therefore the conservation approach was found not to be fruitful.

The urgent need is to increase the public awareness and participation in the field of sustainable NRM as well as it should be backed with sufficient technical knowledge and information that would promote innovations and design of technology. In agriculture sector, increase in the productivity is the biggest challenge as this would lead to feed the growing population, reduce the poverty and increase the security of the household (McLuskey, 2001). Such diverse objectives can be meet up through technological invention, modification, skill and capacity building as well as proper training of the farmers. Therefore, it becomes problematic for the small-scale farmers to aim toward these diverse objectives under changing scenario. Sustainability in the environmental field generally opposes the concept of increase in productivity. On the other hand, to increase the productivity through intensification practices lead to emergence of global environmental problems that sometimes become unrecoverable (Dumanski, 2006; Jhariya et al., 2021a,b).

1.4: Natural resources management under changing climate

Climatic perturbations and alterations are posing significant threat on human being. On every sphere of human kind climate change is a deleterious factor hampering the prosperity, growth of human civilization. The major event in climate change include rise in temperature, irregular precipitation pattern, early onset and offset of monsoon, irregularities in seasons hampers the NR. Therefore, global food production has declined, loss of biodiversity, prevalence of natural hazards, alteration and changes in quality of NR, imbalance in ecosystem homeostasis causing all round problem to human civilization (FAO, 2020). Countries with low economy are suffering worstly under the existing threat of changing climate that should be added under NRM context. The major agenda is to manage the productivity and output of diverse resources under variable climate (Tàbara and Pahl-Wostl, 2007). In this aspect the issue of health should also be given due consideration.

Under changing climate scenario, there are some biggest challenges that hamper the successful implementation of NRM. Some megaevents such as climatic perturbations, pollution, and environmental degradation are increasing pressure on NR day by day leading to NR depletion as the biggest problem of 21st century (Ulucak et al., 2020). On the other hand, consumptive lifestyle has led to problem of food and water crisis (Fig. 1.6). All these problems are further aggravated by population explosion putting existence of human civilization under question.

Fig. 1.6

Fig. 1.6 Challenges for NRM. (Modified from FAO, 2020. World’s Food Systems Rely on Biodiversity. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1263301/icode/; Ulucak, Z.S., Cagrillkay, S., Ozcan, B., Gedikli, A., 2020. Financial globalization and environmental degradation nexus: evidence from emerging economies. Resour. Policy 67, 101698. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101698; Banerjee, A., Jhariya, M.K., Yadav, D.K., Raj, A., 2020. Environmental and Sustainable Development Through Forestry and Other Resources. Apple Academic Press Inc., CRC Press: A Taylor and Francis Group, US & Canada, pp. 1–400. ISBN: 9781771888110. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429276026; Jhariya, M.K., Banerjee, A., Meena, R.S., Yadav, D.K., 2019a. Sustainable Agriculture, Forest and Environmental Management. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd., Singapore, 606 pp. eISBN: 978-981-13-6830-1, Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-13-6829-5. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6830-1; Jhariya, M.K., Yadav, D.K., Banerjee, A., 2019b. Agroforestry and Climate Change: Issues and Challenges. Apple Academic Press Inc., CRC Press: A Taylor and Francis Group, US & Canada, 335 pp. ISBN: 978-1-77188-790-8 (Hardcover), 978-0-42957-274-8 (E-book). https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429057274; IPCC, 2019. IPCC Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems. Summary for Policymakers, pp. 1–43.)

Globally changing climate is a threat. The impact of climate change is much more severe on developing countries as the NR base of these countries are very much climate oriented (Raj et al., 2018a). Lack of education and technology reduces the adaptability toward changing climate as well as makes them more vulnerable toward the climatic risks. For example, in the agricultural sector a reduction of 30%–50% in productivity was proposed to be observed in African and Asian continent at 2020. On the basis of that, the economic system would be jeopardized upto 7% of gross domestic product by the end of the century (IPCC, 2007).

The influence of changing climate has multidimensional paradigm over NR. Soil erosion leading to land degradation will be enhanced by the activity of climate change through heavy rains. As a consequence, floods and water logging situation would drain away fertile top soil rendering the land total unproductive. Further, high rainfall and incidences like flood may promote structural failure in the hill region causing loss of property and agricultural land. Sea level rise due to climate change is another mega event causing salt water intrusion in the inland area and exaggravate the process of coastal erosion and declining the productivity (Wild, 2003). Increase in temperature leads to higher infestation of pests and diseases to crops and therefore, lowering the productivity. It also creates the situation of drought that puts pressure on water resources as well as tends to hamper the land-use pattern. Further, it was observed with gradual occurrence of events such as flash flood leads to contamination of both surface and ground water resources. These resources are frequently used by humankind for drinking purpose and therefore it is a crucial issue to work for them. Such events may even lead to total extinction of fresh water bio-resources. Climatic events are often found to have its impact on specific ecosystem resources and their services (Raj et al., 2019). For instance, severe storm from the sea area leads to degradation of mangrove ecosystem, coral reef ecosystem, as well as coastal ecosystem (IPCC, 2019).

Irregular precipitation pattern due to climate change tends to regulate the species composition and distribution of forest across the globe (UN, 2017). Further, increase in temperature lead to incidences such as forest fire, desertification, pests and disease infestation, causing reduction in forest cover, and resources (Jhariya and Singh, 2020, 2021). Climate change acts as a stress factors for the biota leading to ecological invasion, spreading of exotic species, and different forms of ecological perturbations altering the food chain and food web of ecosystems (Jhariya, 2017).

Resource depletion is a problem that is integrated with global climate change through emission of GHGs. Higher burning of fossil fuel leads to more emission of GHGs causing global warming and climate change. The global pattern of consuming energy resource as per various sources of energy as well as country in different time frame has been represented in Tables 1.3 and 1.4. The data reflects gradual increase in the consumption of various energy resources on time frame basis. For instance, there is a drastic increase of coal consumption from 1800 to 2018. Therefore, improve technology needs to be designed in order to move toward sustainability and develop green and clean alternatives.

Table 1.3

Table 1.4

1.5: Sustainability and sustainable development

Concept SD issue is serious aspect for modern world. It integrates the systems of economy, society, and environment. It was observed that among the various forms of sustainability, ecological sustainability is the biggest challenge as human civilization is still very much dependent upon nature for livelihood maintenance (Fabricius et al., 2004). It generates the problem of ecological disruption and puts the existence of human civilization questionable. Environmental problem both in macro and micro scale has created the problem of global consequences and therefore, it threatens the existence of human civilization (Ulucak et al., 2020). The major problem is that no such specific and effective measure was taken by mankind to deal with such problems. SD emphasizes the concept of conservation, environment friendliness, and overall generate concern for the environment (Jhariya et al., 2019a). All these problems are rooted toward the change in social and economical dimension of the community and therefore, it is very difficult to combat or work for ecological sustainability. At times, ecological sustainability is also overlooked in terms of net economic gain leading to negative consequence in the system of environment (Tàbara and Pahl-Wostl, 2007).

NR is a kind of material or any form of material that is used for benefits of human civilization. Therefore, it has diverse nature of functions. It includes cultural functions, physical functions, and overall ecological functions aiming toward maintaining ecological integrity. First of all, NR can be considered as the productive function of a commodity in which the survivability of human civilization depends upon. Because we all know that human beings are dependent upon NR to maintain their daily livelihood (FAO, 2019). From environment perspective, resources such as soil, water, agriculture, and raw materials for industry all come from nature. In this aspect, NR have high productive functions. Secondly, NR is intricately related to socio-cultural belief and belonging of human-beings. It also serves the function of amenity, mental well-being, maintaining religious belief, along with conserving the ecological integrity. Thirdly, NR serves diverse function in terms of physical benefit to the humankind. It may include good quality of water and air, proper management of natural hazards (UN, 2017; IPCC, 2019).

NRM is essential for existence of life on earth and therefore moving toward green future. In this pathway, certain policies and strategies are need to be followed that include sustainable consumption and conservative approach for resource conservation (Ahmed et al., 2020). Lifestyle is the root cause of NR depletion as the dependency on NR increases with luxurious type lifestyle. Therefore, change in consumption pattern and alteration in the lifestyle would help to reduce the resource dependency and would lead to resource conservation. Proper policy formulation, project implementation, and legal framework development are a few key aspects of NRC. Another major policy from the perspective of resource conservation includes reduce, refuse, reuse, and recycle policies that would promote sustainable utilization on one hand and reduce the resource dependency on the other. The last approach for greener future includes development of perception regarding NR and its importance through mass awareness programmes. Mass awareness is another key pillar to promote resource conservation at household level. One should go for eco-friendly approach in all spheres of resources to maximize benefits and reducing the hazardous impact of resource depletion (Fig. 1.7).

Fig. 1.7

Fig. 1.7 NRM toward a green future. (Modified from IPCC, 2019. IPCC Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems. Summary for Policymakers, pp. 1–43; UN, 2017. The UN Strategies Plan for Forests 2017–2030. http://www.un.org/esa/forests/documents/un-strategic-plan-for-forests-2030/index.html; Surya, B., Syafri, S., Sahban, H., Sakti, H.H., 2020. Natural resource conservation based on community economic empowerment: perspectives on watershed management and slum settlements in Makassar City, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Land 9, 104. https://doi.org/10.3390/land9040104; FAO, 2020. World’s Food Systems Rely on Biodiversity. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1263301/icode/.)

Sustainability is present at each section of human civilization that needs to be understood in order to achieve SD. For instance, if a particular eco-friendly practice is related with the socio-economic and cultural aspect of local community it should be prioritized rather than applying newer technology and newer development process in the concerned area. In this case one has to take the decision whether economy is important or eco-friendly environment is important (Ulucak et al., 2020; FAO, 2020). Sustainability as a mechanism of substitution emphasizes the change incorporating integrated approach for survivability of organisms. One has to know about the possible outcome and consequences by applying a specific strategy toward achieving SD as substitution may lead to ignorance to a particular resource use and function that may hamper the SD of future (FAO, 2020).

1.6: Sustainability, well-being and development

At the present context, conservation of NR and sustainability approaches should be given prime importance and should be one of the national objectives for both developed and developing nation. It is such an important matter that the existence of human civilization depends upon it integrating the social, economic, environmental, and technological progress leading to environmental protection (Zaharia, 2008). It was observed that the external factors such as climatic variations and global politics tend to increase with increasing assets value of developing countries. As a consequence, the NR base makes the economy stronger and retrieves the systems from external perturbations. Further for technologically advanced country, it was observed that the technology replacement is an easy process in comparison to poor countries and therefore, imposes pressure upon nature (Diop and Leautier, 2007).

From conservation perspectives, nonrenewable resources are putting pressure upon the NR base and therefore, sustainability approach is the need of the hour. Unsustainable harvesting and maximum exploitation lead to full exploitation of the reserve keeping nothing in the hands of future generation (Tàbara and Pahl-Wostl, 2007). Considering this in conservative approach costing of NR should be done including environment as a component as well as resource potential. Therefore, considering the sustainability and well-being of human civilization rational use of nonrenewable resources should be promoted in order to enhance the NR base. Further, more exploitation should be done in the sector of renewable resources, consumption capacity should be within the carrying capacity of the ecosystem, approaches leading to cleaner production, conservative approach to improve the NR base for future humankind and overall integration of ecology, economy, and environment (Jhariya et al., 2019a; Raj et al., 2020).

From global perspective, forest cover is an important aspect for combating climate change environmental sustainability and human well-being (FAO, 2006b; Raj et al., 2018a). Table 1.5 represents top 10 countries across the world having highest forest cover and therefore regulating and combating the climate.

Table 1.5

Data from http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/countries-with-most-largest-area-of-forest.html; http://chartsbin.com/view/44442.

Ecological sustainability refers to development considering the ecological dimension and socio-economic development. In the modern world, ecological degradation is taking place at a rapid rate leading to all forms of unsustainability (Day, 2009). To achieve such sustainability, one should maintain the balance between development and environment in an eco-friendly way. One should recognize the priority issues that should be given due consideration during the developmental process. This is important so that minimum loss, minimum pollution, minimum degradation should occur (Ulucak et al., 2020). Maintaining ecological integrity is another big challenge in front of unprecedented growth of science and technology. As if there is disintegration of ecological integrity, human civilization would be devoid of various forms of ecological services. This is very much valuable as disruption of ecological services may lead to extinction of human civilization. Therefore, future generation should be the focus point in the dimension of development. For proper growth and well-being of human civilization ecological sustainability for future generation should be the central theme for any developmental process (Fig. 1.8).

Fig. 1.8

Fig. 1.8 Ecological sustainability and developmental framework. (Modified from Ahmed, Z., Asghar, M.M., Malik, M.N., Nawaz, K., 2020. Moving towards a sustainable environment: the dynamic linkage between natural resources, human capital, urbanization, economic growth, and ecological footprint in China. Resour. Policy 67, 101677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101677; FAO, 2020. World’s Food Systems Rely on Biodiversity. Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1263301/icode/; Jhariya, M.K., Banerjee, A., Meena, R.S., Yadav, D.K., 2019a. Sustainable Agriculture, Forest and Environmental Management. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd., Singapore, 606 pp. eISBN: 978-981-13-6830-1, Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-13-6829-5. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6830-1; Jhariya, M.K., Yadav, D.K., Banerjee, A., 2019b. Agroforestry and Climate Change: Issues and Challenges. Apple Academic Press Inc., CRC Press: A Taylor and Francis Group, US & Canada, 335 pp. ISBN: 978-1-77188-790-8 (Hardcover), 978-0-42957-274-8 (E-book). https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429057274; Banerjee, A., Jhariya, M.K., Yadav, D.K., Raj, A., 2020. Environmental and Sustainable Development Through Forestry and Other Resources. Apple Academic Press Inc., CRC Press: A Taylor and Francis Group, US & Canada, pp. 1–400. ISBN: 9781771888110. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429276026.)

1.7: Challenges toward sustainability

Sustainability is an issue that includes all round development in an integrated manner in order to achieve conservation at social-economic and environmental dimension. Threats and problems associated with NR and its conservation put a major challenge toward attaining sustainability (Raj et al., 2018b). It is the unlawful exploitation, over-exploitation that has created the problem of NR depletion leading to hindrances in human prosperity and civilization (Pimentel, 2006).

Economic dis-appropriation of wealth and money has created a bigger conflict between rich and poor after the mega event of changing climate has taken place. Previously, there was no such disparity and as a result there is equal distribution of resources. With gradual growth and development, the unequal distributions have caused greater exploitation and depletion of resource. Overall the impact is on the society causing division into high-, middle-, and low-class society (Banerjee et al., 2020; Jhariya et al., 2019a).

From economic point of view, it was observed that the entire world is divided into two categories, i.e., developed and developing world. The major impact was found to occur among the developing countries in terms of scarcity in funding resource, inaccessibility of policy framework, and resistancy from societal point of view. It was observed that continuity in the environmental sustainability goals as well as to identify the priority issue is the biggest challenge to attain the SD (Raj et al., 2020). The major issues like poverty eradication, higher economic growth, and health issues become subdue under the light of knowledge gap between environmental issue and sustainability. In developing countries lack of awareness often leads to mis-appropriation of funds and as a result greater amount of depletion of NR. Further, such conditions lead to higher corruption, low transparency, and lesser involvement of local community stakeholders.

Proper accounting of NR is also essential for attaining conservation approach toward sustainable resource management. Alteration in the land-use has caused significant changes in the productivity of the agricultural systems across the world. This has led to major problems of poverty, food crisis, and security. The impact is severe on developing countries. As per World Bank Report (2011), the impact of poverty, malnutrition, and food crisis are severe in Asian and African subcontinents due to lack of production, technology, productivity, and scientific development. It was very interesting to note that people residing in rural areas of various developing countries depend mostly on agriculture, livestock farming, natural forests, and resources for maintaining their daily livelihood (FAO, 2019). The problem becomes further aggravated in the form of prevalence of diseases. Very interestingly it was observed with gradual increase of food production, the per capita food availability has declined across the world (FAO, 2019). Therefore, apart from technological growth and scientific knowledge, the dependency of human civilization on the NR base is still increasing day by day. It is not only that to feed the human civilization but also to promote eco-friendly life.

Productivity of land is hampered due to over-use and abuse of land through a particular land use. For instance, loss of forest cover is associated with intense mining activity (Kumar et al., 2017). Such form of land degradation may cause decline in productivity of global ecosystems such as various vegetal area as well as agricultural cropland. It has been observed that gradual loss of quality of soil leads to further deterioration of vegetal cover across the world. On the other hand, removal of forest cover exposes the soil to the natural forces such as wind, water, biological organisms to be getting depleted. Therefore, entire world is suffering from the problem of acute land shortage indicating lower productivity. Considering rangeland as resource the situation is further worse where half of the global rangeland is under threat of soil erosion (Pimentel, 2006). Further a huge amount of loss of biodiversity is accompanied with the soil erosion activity creating the problem of species extinction and loss of bio-resource. Some of the earlier researches have also reported that such events may often leads to global phenomenon known as global warming (Pimentel, 2006; Raj et al., 2018b). Therefore, proper scientific knowledge and technical expertise needs to be developed to promote conservation of soil on one hand and by maintaining the soil quality one can also conserve forest cover and biodiversity (FAO, 2020).

Forest resource is gradually becoming a scarce resource that is depleting at an increasing trend across the world. As per FAO it was observed that on a 5-year span, the total forest area appeared to be > 3 billion hectares representing one-third area (FAO, 2010). Further, distribution of forest area appeared to be uneven across the world creating the need for conservation and protection. The major reason behind depletion of forest cover goes to various forms of deforestation activity due to fodder, fuel collection as well conversion of forest area to agricultural land (UN, 2017). From world perspective within a decade, it was observed that countries such as South America and Africa reflected a declining nature in forest cover whereas the scenario reflected an increasing trend in Europe, America Oceania, and Asian subcontinent. Other research revealed C storage in the form of biomass, soil reflected more storage in comparison to the atmosphere. Further, the C storage decreased in Africa, South America, and Asian subcontinent (FAO, 2010; UN, 2017).

Debate regarding conservation of resource arises between developing and developed country ultimately aims toward sustainable management of resources. Various conventions, conferences, and programmes on global perspective were launched in order to address the strategies toward sustainable utilization and conservation of resource along with achieving Millennium development goals (MEA, 2005; FAO, 2020).

Both internal and external factors play significant role toward policy formulation for NRM and its sustainability. Policy encompasses rules, regulations and their effective implementation that governs the conservation issues in various resource perspectives. R&D activities are the next most important part to keep balance between NR stock and sustainability. The matter of conservation and SD must be integrated with the environment in which people’s perception in respect to resource, responsibilities toward environment, eco-friendly behavior should be emphasized. Functioning and operation at various levels like organization, community and household level are very much important to create awareness as well as protection of NR. In this context, environmental management is the frontline policy for proper maintenance of NR base (Drakenberg and Slunge, 2011).

Water resource is also a scarce resource nowadays. For overall prosperity and growth of human civilization water is the essential prerequisite. The scenario of water resource has changed considerably leading to various adverse problems such as water crisis, water scarcity, and water borne disease and health issues in the developing countries. The situation is so worse that even free access to safe water is questionable.

Resource dependency is a major issue that becomes the principal cause of NR depletion. Gradual increase in the dependency toward resource has increased the footprint of specific resources from world perspectives (Banerjee et al., 2021a,b,c,d). Data presented in Tables 1.6 and 1.7 reflects the relative dependency of various nations along with agricultural area coverage of various countries across the world. It specifically addresses the issue of resource dependency of human beings for NR exploration, excavation to earn economic benefits. In this context, land, water, and agriculture are the trinity that is very important from sustainability perspective as proper management of soil and water is required for better production (Wild, 2003; Raj and Jhariya, 2017).

Table 1.6

Data from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area#cite_note-unstats08-4.

Table 1.7