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Non-sustainable use of natural resources

The very existence of human society, especially its economic activity and level of welfare, is related to the use of natural resources. The limited nature of resources and their uneven geographical distribution has historically been the cause of many of political, social and economic changes - co-operation, competition, as well as the extinction of countries, nations and peoples. The reasonable use of natural resources is the basis for the national independence and sustainable development of a country. Latvia is not rich in resources and will always be dependent on other countries, especially for the supply of oil, natural gas, coal, metals and minerals.

The use of natural resources can be discussed from the viewpoints of the national economy and the environment.

Many sectors of the national economy are based on the use of non-renewable and partly renewable resources and are therefore completely dependent on the supply and quality of resources.

The economic extraction of non-renewable and partly renewable resources is associated with radical interferences in natural environmental structures that create significant changes in biogeocenosis, including their total extinction - changes of the groundwater regime, accelerated soil erosion, the formation of karst limestone. It should be noted, that such environmental changes are usually irreversible.

The excessive use of a renewable resource leads to its depletion, or destruction of its ability to regenerate. As a result, the supply this resource is rapidly reduced, and it is possible that it will totally lose its natural regeneration capacity. Moreover, the excessive use of one natural resources may have a negative impact on other natural resources, i.e. a biological balance is destroyed and economic conflicts arise.

Measures to ensure the sustainable use of natural resources:

Establishment of a resource management system. This can be achieved by the application of the following instruments:

• establishment of the State cadaster, highlighting technical and information support. The State cadaster should objectively reflect the current situation of all natural resources. To achieve this, it is necessary to establish a stable and all-inclusive system of monitoring and inventorisation, which will require legislative amendments and financial investments;
• quotas and limits of resources. For non-renewable and partly renewable natural resources, annual quotas and limits are more or less stable, so resource reduction depends mainly on the potential to introduce new and more efficient technologies. For renewable natural resources, annual quotas and limits are flexible and depend mainly on economic activity;
• a sliding-scale natural resources tax should be introduced;
• customs duties for renewable natural resources. These should be flexible, depending on the status of a specific natural resource, and the potential to use or process it in Latvia. A positive example of this is the system of customs duties elaborated by the Ministry for Forestry, and revised every three months. The amount of customs duty to be paid for the export of timber depends not only on the possibilities of local processing and use, but also on current prices in world timber market. It is also necessary to develop or elaborate customs duties for other renewable natural resources.
• adoption of the law ‘On the Use of the Earth’s Sub-surface Resources’ and subordinated legislation. This directly influences the use of non-renewable and partly renewable natural resources;
• promotion of the regeneration of renewable natural resources and searches for and assessment of new supplies of non-renewable natural resources;
• include environmental requirements in laws connected with the use of natural resources, for example, ‘On Fishing’, ‘On Forestry’, ‘On Hunting’;
• development of territorial plans at various levels, together with inventories of natural resources, including spatial and recreational resources.

optimization of production structures and elaboration of sectoral programmes, that include economising on resources, substituting exhaustable natural resources with non-exhaustable, e.g. alternative energy sources. The recycling or reuse of raw materials is also an important economic measure (see `Environmental impact of waste`). The optimisation of production structures significantly influences the development and implementation of a national resource management system. Measures listed below are applicable to the use of all natural resources, with the exception of the recently introduced ‘Green Certificate’ system, that applies to the use of renewable natural resources only (Box 25).

Box 25.

• efficient extraction and processing technologies;
• promotion of the regeneration of renewable natural resources and licensing for the extraction of non-renewable natural resources; exploration for and evaluation of new sources of raw materials;
• subsidies for technologies that require less raw materials, substitute for non-renewable resources or recycle materials;
• soft loans for the acquisition of environmentally friendly technologies;
• elaboration and introduction of the ‘Green Certificate’ system of product labeling.

promotion and introduction of environmentally friendly consumption:

• promotion and clarification for consumers of the importance of resource saving and Green Certificates;
• development of new teaching programmes for the entire education system.

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Last updated: November 8, 1996. The information prepared by Valts Vilnitis: fuxis@varam.gov.lv