ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some fundamental concepts about environmental resources. Most people would regard fertile farmland, for example, as such a resource, producing food for sale or for direct consumption, and many would see a fast-flowing river as a potential resource for producing hydro-electricity. Environmental resources are parts of nature that humankind considers to be useful or valuable. Resource management aims to provide goods and services, and to maintain essential life-support systems. Resource management is concerned with the physical or biological functioning of part of the environment, but also with the allocation of resource products, within the frameworks of particular legal and cultural settings. It is true to say that many neo-Malthusians assume that resources can be equated simply with certain materials and substances, and remain impervious to the functional view of resources associated with E. W. Zimmerman. Many of the problems encountered in resource management stem from conflicts that develop between different goals.
