ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces some basic economic concepts about the use of environmental resources and reviews the characteristics of different resource regimes. Serious problems of resource scarcity and depletion sometimes occur when the framework of custom and tradition breaks down, for example when a different economic system is established. The economist Adam Smith wrote of the ‘invisible hand’ of the market, which would guide towards maximum economic well-being – at least if certain basic conditions such as the existence of free competitive markets were fulfilled. The condition and availability of environmental resources depends not only on the environment and on our attitudes towards it, but also on how the resources are controlled and managed. Much attention has been focused on the economics of wider environmental and resource management, including issues such as the maintenance of the quality of the atmosphere and of rivers.
