ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses between environmental problems of the renewable-extractive sector and the secondary, tertiary, and consumption sector because the environmental problems of these two sectors have different causes and origins. It focuses on the development of alternative formulations of public policy approaches to rural resource questions. The rural environment, once viewed as having pristine and limitless natural resources, is exhibiting its limits and fragility. The principal issue concerning rural resources and the environment is escalated social demand in the face of limited resources and fragile rural ecosystems. The resurgence of rural population growth is less a single specific cause of rural environmental degradation than it is a symptom of a further set of escalating demands on rural natural resources. Rural sociological research on rural resource issues has proceeded primarily on two interrelated fronts: identifying causes of the origins of rural environmental problems, and investigating the efficacy of present or potential strategies to meliorate these problems.
