Natural resources of the world: concept, classification. Geography of world natural resources

Natural resources- components and properties of nature that are directly used in economic activity as means of production, objects of labor and consumption. The search, study and use of natural resources are combined in special kind economic activity - resource use. Currently, more than 200 types of natural resources are used. This required their classification according to generalizing features. Since natural resources act simultaneously as part of nature, as an element of economic activity, and as a component of the human environment, science uses their classification according to three different criteria:

natural - by origin: mineral, water, land, biological (vegetable, animal), climatic, nuclear, space.
economic - by use: fuel, energy, metallurgical, construction, agricultural, forestry, fishing, recreational, health-improving.
ecological - in terms of renewability and exhaustibility: 1) renewable inexhaustible - nuclear and solar energy, wind power and moving water, underground heat, power
living matter - cells and genes; 2) renewable exhaustible - water, soil, flora and fauna; however, at individual sources, they can be destroyed and become non-renewable here; 3) non-renewable exhaustible - mineral raw materials and fuel; they can be partly recovered through waste disposal.

Also, natural resources differ in substitutability.

Sources of natural resources - deposits, lands and others - are involved in the use after the procedure for their measurement and evaluation. At the same time, measurement is the determination of the physical volume, reserve, reproduction of a given resource, and evaluation is the determination of the suitability, manufacturability, cost-effectiveness of its use. Thus, evaluation is the determination of the value of a given resource for solving economic problems.

At the same time, they distinguish:

a) a technological assessment that establishes the possibility of developing and using the resource by accepted technologies;

b) an economic or monetary valuation that determines the cost (price) of a given resource and the efficiency of its development.

Economic valuation can be calculated in different ways depending on its purpose and characteristics of the resource. It can be based on the amount of costs for the development of the resource, the possible profit in the process of its use; their ratio. Valuation often uses rent calculation – i.e. additional profit that arises due to the best natural properties and the best location of a given source of resource compared to worse ones at an equal cost. The assessment also takes into account such factors as possible environmental damage and the costs of its prevention or compensation. For multi-purpose resources, the “lost profit” is determined, which could be obtained with a different method of resource use (for example, when deforestation is lost, the benefits of its hunting or recreational use are lost). The calculations also take into account the past costs invested in natural land in the case of valuation of previously developed land.

In conditions market relations when the price of sale or lease of a particular resource is determined by the supply and demand for its product, such estimates are used to justify it more objectively. These scores are also used for state regulation nature management - to determine taxes on nature use and environmental fines.

When assessing resources, it is important to know their territorial combinations with each other. So, for the development of iron ores, their proximity to coking coal deposits is important; the smelting of non-ferrous metals requires the proximity of large sources of fuel and energy, and the processing of chemical and forest raw materials requires large amounts of water, etc. Such combinations of resources increase the economic efficiency of their use and their overall value.

Phenomena and objects created naturally, regularly used by people to improve the quality of the level of existence, and the formation wealth, as well as creating conditions for the life of the human community are called natural resources.

Existing types of natural resources are systematized into:

Exhaustive.
Recovery (soil, water, biological, recreational resources).
Non-renewable (mineral, technical, chemical, etc.).
Inexhaustible (energy of ebb, tide, sun, wind, etc.).

Formed by fundamental qualities:

sources of origin;
application in production;
degree of exhaustion.

Due to resources have a big impact on the economy , as well as taking into account their natural origin, an appropriate systematization was developed.

Natural (genetic)- which includes the entire stock of natural resources, including minerals; soil, water, forests; energy reserves. Combining plant and animal resources, we get another term - "biological resources".
Ecological- the basis, which included the properties of exhaustibility and renewability of resources.

If we consider the classification in the direction of protected natural area, then there will be a certain significance when dividing in the direction of the level of their depletion. According to the ecological position, the depletion of natural resources is an inconsistency that regulates the balance between the withdrawal of natural resources from the soil of the earth to the needs of society.

When calculating the stock of resources, taking into account the volume that can be withdrawn for use, they use the concept "exhaustibility". According to this characteristic, resources can be:

Inexhaustible. Constant human consumption of this type of resources does not lead to a significant decrease in their supply, either in the present or in the future. For example, solar energy, forces of nature - wind, tide, ebb, etc.
Exhaustible. Stocks that have restrictions on quantitative consumption. However, some of these resources are capable of being regenerated if natural pathways are available or with human support.
Drawable non-renewable. The constant human consumption of this type of resources has the possibility of reducing their stock to a level where it is impossible to use them further, since this process will become inappropriate from the point of view of the economic approach. In addition, these resources cannot be restored in a period proportional to the period of use (mineral resources).
Drawable renewable. Such resources are characterized by the ability to recover using the method of reproduction. However, this process is quite lengthy. Flora, fauna, water resources should be related to such a group.

Economic systematization of resources

Such a group classification of resources is formed at an angle probable economic use. The existing distribution order assumes application-oriented groups in terms of technical capacity(real, potential) and rational economic consumption(replaceable, irreplaceable).

Systematization of resources from the angle of geological study

In maintaining the country's economy to an acceptable extent, an important factor will be the fact of the availability of natural resources. Significant role in human life is allocated to such a resource as mineral raw materials.

Mineral reserves according to the degree of geological research are classified into categories - A, B, C1, C2. The division into groups is directly proportional to the degree of reduction in the level of detail of knowledge to the accuracy of determining the territorial location of the deposit.

In addition, according to the level of economic significance, minerals are divided into:

balance sheet(assume the rationality of operation);
off-balance sheet(suggest the lack of rationality of operation for various reasons).

The division of natural resources, taking into account the features that reflect the materiality in the field of economics and management, is often used classification by direction and types of economic consumption. Such systematics is based on the criterion of correlating resources to different areas material production or non-manufacturing sector. According to such properties, there is a natural division of natural resources - industrial And agricultural consumption.

The pooling of resources in the direction of industrial consumption includes all kinds of natural raw materials that are used in industry. As for the area of non-productive nature, then such resources can be attributed to those reserves that are taken from the outside world, from the territory of reserves.

Other types of classifications

Today, one more classification system of resources can be distinguished, formed according to the principle sources of origin:

biological resources.
Mineral resources.
Energetic resources.

To the concept "biological resources" include all living cells of the biosphere capable of creating a habitat. This includes plants, animals, microorganisms that contain genetic material.

To the concept "mineral resources" include all elements of the lithosphere that can be used in economic use, as mineral raw materials or energy sources.

To the concept "energetic resources" include solar and space energy, as well as nuclear, fuel and thermal energy sources.

Summing up, a logical conclusion suggests itself that humanity has access to almost all the resources provided by nature, including also the resources of climatic and cosmic origin, the resources of the World Ocean, and the continents. However, society should think about the growth of consumer demand, which does not take into account such a thing as "resource availability".

Mineral (fossil) raw materials and fuels are non-renewable exhaustible resources, the reserves of which are replenished by the discovery of new deposits and the reuse of waste from their processing and consumption. As technology advances, the recycling and careful use of mined material becomes an increasingly important source of these resources.

Mineral resources are the basis for the development of modern industry. According to the intended use, they are divided into fuel and energy, metal, chemical, technical and building materials.

The main share (80%) of arable land is located in the European Region. The most fertile array of lands is also located here, well provided with heat, moisture, humus, but they occupy only? arable land. The remaining lands are less fertile and have low productivity. The lands of Russia need fertilizers, the introduction of which has always been insufficient, and in the 90s it decreased by 3-4 times due to the decline of agriculture. Many arable lands and hayfields of the Non-Chernozem Zone need drainage, and the lands of the southeast of the European Region need irrigation. An important problem of land is water and wind erosion, the destructive effect of which affects the most fertile lands of southern Russia.

For industrial lands and cities, the main problem is their destruction and pollution in the process of mining and construction, excessively large land allotments for the creation of new enterprises, and the expansion of cities. Since in the Soviet years the land had no price, the state disposed of it generously. Thus, according to experts, annually 1-1.5 million hectares of land were allocated for new construction, about 1 million hectares of land were disturbed by mine workings, occupied by waste dumps, and recultivated (restored) only
200 thousand hectares.

Water resources

Water is a multi-purpose renewable resource needed by many activities, its supply is unstable, can change with seasons and years, and move around the territory. Water acts like:

ecological resource needed for conservation;
an economic resource necessary for almost all sectors of the economy and household consumers;
Reservoirs - reservoirs of water constitute a component of the landscape, serve as places of recreation, transport routes, fishing grounds, and their banks are the most convenient places for people to settle.

Water belongs to a practically inexhaustible resource, because its total stock is reproduced by the natural cycle. But each specific body of water has a limited supply that can be exhausted.

The water reserve is estimated by the following indicators:

accumulated ("secular") stock, which this moment time is contained in reservoirs. Fresh water stands out in its composition as the most scarce resource. In Russia, its reserve is 38.7 thousand cubic kilometers;
renewable - the annual supply, which is provided by annual precipitation. Its value determines the permissible economic consumption of water. In Russia, it is estimated at 4.3 thousand cubic meters. km/year, in terms of which it is second only to .

Throughout the country water resources placed unevenly. Thus, the basins of the Arctic and Arctic rivers, where 20% of the population lives, account for 90% of their annual supply, and the Black River basins, and only 10% - for 80% of the country's population. And it is in these basins that the main consumers of water are located - cities, large-scale industry and developed agriculture. At the same time, the southern steppe regions also suffer from climatic droughts; insufficient "gross" soil moisture. Therefore, the north-eastern regions of the country are classified as water-supplied, and the south-western regions are water-insufficient.

The largest reservoir of fresh water in Russia is Lake Baikal.

In the use of water, industry occupies the first place, consuming half of its volume, the rest of the water is consumed by agriculture and household consumers. At the same time, the main pollutant of water bodies is the household sector, which provides half of the effluents, industry provides 1/3 of the effluents, and the rest of the effluents come from agriculture. It flushes out the remains of fertilizers, pesticides, waste.

In general, the total water intake from rivers and lakes does not exceed 3–5% of their supply. However, in the Urals, the North Caucasus, in the Central Black Earth regions, where the rivers are relatively small, up to half of their annual supply is taken. These rivers are also the most polluted, the norms of MPC (maximum permissible concentration) of pollution are exceeded several times.

The problem of conservation is also relevant for other regions with actively used water resources - the Central and Volga regions, where their shortage has already become
factor limiting the creation of new water-intensive industries. It is estimated that in the middle of the 21st century, irreplaceable fresh water will become the most scarce natural resource on the planet.

forest resources

Forests are a renewable multi-purpose resource, the reserves of which on the planet are declining due to their deforestation, which exceeds the rate of their renewal. The value of forests is determined by their multifunctionality:

forests are a component of the biosphere that affects climate stability, reproduction of flora and fauna, composition, accumulation of water in soils, purification of air and water from pollution, i.e. acts as an ecological resource.
forests are an economic resource that produces wood, many useful plants and game animals;
forests are an element of the landscape and the environment, improving their aesthetic and sanitary properties, a place of rest and recreation for people.

In Russia, all forests are divided into three groups according to their purpose:

Forests of the 1st group - 22% of the area of forests - nature conservation, prohibited for felling, located on the borders of their growth, in nature protection zones and reserves;
Forests of the 2nd group - 7% - of limited use, the reserves of which have been depleted by felling, are located in developed populated areas;
Forests of the 3rd group - 71% - operational, incl. a) available for felling and b) reserve - remote northern forests. This is the main array of taiga forests in Russia, 80% of which is located in the Asian region.

Reserves are estimated by a number of indicators:

Area of forests and territory– % of land occupied by forest. In Russia, 7.7 million square meters are covered with forest. km, i.e. 45% of the territory, which corresponds to the world average. There are 5 hectares of forest per person - more than in most countries of the world.
Total and operational stock of timber. The total stock of timber in the country is 82 million m3 (1st place in the world), incl. operational - 40 million m3.
annual productivity- forest growth per year. It determines the allowable annual felling - "allowable cutting area". In Asian Russia, it is underused, and in the European region, forests are cut down.

Valuable conifers (larch, spruce and pine) predominate. The country's forests in general are “mature” in terms of age, suitable for felling; in the east of the country they are even “aging”, because. they are not cut down in time, and in the European Region, due to large deforestation for more than 100 years, forests are “younger”. The proportion of immature forests here is about half, which reduces the resources available for logging. In general, in Russia in the last decade, the area of forests has been increasing due to a decrease in the volume of deforestation. However, their quality
worsens, because predatory felling of the most high-quality sites without their restoration has intensified. The volume of work decreased by 2 times. This is especially reflected in the quality of European forests, where the felling rate is 4–5 times higher than in the east of the country.

All regions of the country according to forest reserves are divided into forest-rich, forest-sufficient and forest-deficient. At the same time, the regions of the Asian part of the country, the Northern and Ural regions are forest-rich, the regions Central Russia belong to the forest-sufficient, and its southern strip - to the forest-deficient.

Types of natural resources

1. Natural resources- these are the components of nature used to create material wealth, maintain the conditions for the existence of mankind. Rather, these are the means of subsistence of people, not created by their labor, which are in nature. They can be real and potential. Natural resources used in production activities of a person at a certain stage in the development of productive forces, are considered real, and not involved in production due to harsh climatic conditions, lack of technical equipment, and for other reasons - to potential. Some of them serve as direct conditions for human existence (for example, the environment is air and water, as well as recreational, health-improving, educational and informational and other resources). Others are a source and a factor in the development of production - this is nature as a source of raw materials directly consumed by material production, and a spatial basis for the placement of productive forces.

Natural resources are divided into groups according to the nature of use (industrial, health, aesthetic, cognitive-informational, recreational, etc.), according to belonging to certain components of nature (soil, land, water, biological - flora and fauna resources, mineral, atmospheric resources). , energy), according to the degree of recoverability (exhaustible and inexhaustible). Exhaustible natural resources are divided into renewable, relatively renewable and non-renewable.

Renewable resources are the resources of the biosphere, which, as they are used, can be reproduced (flora and fauna) due to established natural processes. The rate of their spending must necessarily be in line with the rate of recovery. These resources require special protection Key features renewable resources: the ability under certain conditions to reproduce, self-regulate its quantity and quality; the ability, as a result of natural processes and human economic activity, to move from one quality to another; dependence and conditionality of functional and qualitative characteristics on the direction and degree of impact on them; interdependence and interdependence of the state of some resources on the quality and quantity of others.

TO relatively renewable resources include soils, which, as a rule, are formed very slowly (1 cm of the humus horizon is formed in about 200 ... 500 years, and it takes 2 ... 10 thousand years to restore the arable layer destroyed by erosion).

Non-renewable(irreplaceable) - those natural resources that are not restored or are restored much more slowly compared to use in certain periods (for example, coal, oil, gas and other minerals), as well as habitat. Mineral resources must be used sparingly and rationally.

Inexhaustible natural resources - space, climate and water (on a global scale). Space resources - cosmic radiation, solar radiation, the energy of sea tides. Climatic resources - heat, atmospheric moisture, air, wind energy. Water resources are the reserves of water on our planet.

2. Soil and land resources. Soils are an irreplaceable natural resource, the basis of material wealth. The development and productivity of plants, which are the primary source of food and bioenergy material for all other inhabitants of the Earth, depend on them. Soils are the basis of all production, and in agriculture- the main means of production. From correct use Soils depend on the functioning of all sectors of the economy, the welfare of society. The share of land on our planet accounts for about 149 million km2. The agricultural area is 19.4 million km2.

It is believed that soil and land resources are quite rich. In fact, a significant part of them (about 92 million km2) is unsuitable for agriculture, as it is located in a cold climate, represented by swamps, forests, shrubs, and poor pastures. Approximately up to 40% of the territory of Russia is located in permafrost regions (arctic, tundra soils). The best lands almost completely developed or alienated for settlements, industrial enterprises, airfields, roads, pipelines, communication lines, etc. There are reserves of land for development, but their quality is low. The cultivated area is 10.4% of the total land area (about 3% of the Earth's surface). In terms of per capita, the planet has an average of 0.3 hectares of arable land, and this area is declining every year. The need for land for non-agricultural purposes, for the disposal of industrial and agricultural waste is constantly growing. There is a direct destruction of soils as a result of underground and open-cast mining. Soils are destroyed under the influence of water and wind erosion. Land losses are also increasing due to secondary salinization, alkalinization, waterlogging, soil contamination with heavy metals, radionuclides, pesticides and other chemicals. Anxiety is caused by the depletion of soils, the decline in their fertility due to improper, unbalanced use. All these soils require complex land reclamation works: drainage, irrigation, desalinization, liming, gypsuming, and a set of anti-erosion measures.

3. Water resources. Water is the most important irreplaceable natural resource and one of the main components of life. Without water, human activities are impossible. Water is used in many production processes, it serves as a source of cheap energy, goods are transported by water, it is necessary in everyday life. Water resources are the total supply of water in the oceans, seas, rivers, glaciers, as well as the supply of groundwater, soil and atmospheric moisture. From the point of view of material production, water resources are those reserves of water that are technically available and that are economically feasible to use to meet the needs of society.

Water reserves on Earth are 1.5 billion km3 (on land, about 0.07%), fresh water reserves are only 28.3 million km3, i.e. approximately 2% of the total volume of the hydrosphere. Largest reserves waters are concentrated in natural ice, less (0.016% of the total volume of the hydrosphere) falls on the fresh waters of rivers and lakes. Water is in motion, constantly consumed and restored.

Depending on the nature of the use of water resources, water users are distinguished (fisheries, water transport, timber rafting, hydropower and other sectors of the economy that use but do not consume water) and water consumers (industry, agriculture and utilities).

In Russia as a whole, the consumption of fresh water (from natural sources) is 6% of renewable resources, and in a number of areas with highly developed industry - up to 40%. Agriculture, industry and utilities are the main consumers of fresh water. Moscow consumes up to 5.6.5.9 million m3 of drinking water per day. The daily consumption is about 650 liters per person, while in Paris - 290, and in Tokyo - 220 liters. More than 50 countries experience an acute shortage of fresh water. For example, Algeria, Kuwait, United United Arab Emirates, Singapore live on imported water. There is not enough fresh water in Paris, London, Tokyo, New York.

The main causes of fresh water scarcity are population growth; expansion of water-intensive industries; reduction in the flow of rivers due to the drainage of swamps, deforestation, plowing of meadows, etc.; pollution of water bodies by livestock effluents, sewage industrial and municipal enterprises with which heavy metals, radionuclides, petroleum oils, detergents (synthetic surfactants), pesticides, various microorganisms come.

To save fresh water, it is advisable to switch to circulating and re-sequential water supply, reduce the water intensity of production, and use air or air-water cooling in technological processes of the chemical industry.

4. Biological resources. Biological resources include flora and fauna. Without vegetation, the existence of man, animals and microorganisms is impossible. Green plants in the process of photosynthesis synthesize organic matter, purify the air of excess carbon dioxide and enrich the atmosphere with oxygen. Plants supply primary production and oxygen, therefore, are the primary source of the existence of life on Earth. Plants are a source of food for humans and animal feed, raw materials for making clothes, medicines, building materials. They participate in the formation of some minerals (peat, coal, oil, etc.) and soils. Vegetation performs the function of a regulator of the composition of the atmosphere, has a special water-protective and soil-protective value, and is necessary for medical and recreational purposes.

As a result of human activities, the living conditions of plants are deteriorating (salinization, acidification, solonetzization, waterlogging of soils, soil pollution with harmful chemicals, the introduction of pathogens and pests, etc.), which often leads to a weakening of their ability to self-repair, and sometimes to extinction individual types. Thus, approximately 200 species of vascular plants need protection. The export from Russia of certain plant species listed in the Red Book is prohibited.

The animal world serves as a source for obtaining food, fur, industrial and medicinal raw materials, and is also necessary for solving scientific, scientific, educational, educational, recreational and aesthetic problems. In connection with the plowing of meadows, deforestation, chemicalization of agriculture, and urbanization, many animal species (130 species of birds and mammals) have disappeared.

5. Mineral (geological resources). Russia is rich in mineral resources. These include metal and non-metal ores, non-metallic minerals, oil, natural gas, coal, shale, peat. Separate resources are necessary for human life (table salt).

Underground mining results in high losses of potassium salts and condensate, oil shale, iron and copper ores, and valuable components of ores enter the dumps. Only 3.4% (of the total output) of mining waste is used for the manufacture of building materials. Great are the losses of minerals (a third of tin, a quarter of iron, zinc, tungsten, etc.) during the enrichment of mineral raw materials.

The reserves of many mineral resources are very limited, especially fuels and metals, so they should be protected. Separate types raw materials can be replaced by synthetic materials, bio-resources should be used, and the mineral wealth of the oceans and seas should be used more widely.

6. Energy resources. This group includes resources involved in the constant turnover and flow of energy (tidal energy, solar and space, geothermal, i.e. the energy of the Earth's depths, gravitational, bioenergy, atmospheric electricity, atomic decay energy), deposited energy (oil, natural gas, coal, shale, peat), artificially activated energy sources (nuclear energy and thermal power engineering). Non-renewable energy resources include gas, oil, coal, shale, peat, hydrogen, helium, lithium, nuclear fuel; to renewable - the energy of photosynthesis processes, direct use of sunlight, hydropower, tidal energy, wind, thermal, geothermal. The main sources of energy are coal, oil, natural gas, hydropower and nuclear power. The use of solar radiation, geothermal energy, tidal energy, and wind energy is very promising.

Natural resources

By type of use :

1) production;

2) health care;

3) aesthetic;

4) scientific.

1) water;

2) forest;

Exhaustible Resources

- non-renewable;

- renewable;

are relatively renewable.

Non-renewable

Renewable

At the same time, with excessive consumption, renewable resources can become non-renewable.

So every year some disappear rare species animals, fish and birds, meat, skin and other parts of which are the subject of profit. For example: the extermination of whales, sperm whales to obtain ambergris, used in perfumery for the stability of the smell of perfume.

Relatively renewable

These include:

Under direct impact

Characteristics of the main types of natural resources

natural resources by economic content are use value, their usefulness is determined by the degree of knowledge, the level of scientific and technical progress, economic and social feasibility of use.

Economic evaluation natural resource potential includes taking into account many factors (economic, social, technical, ecological and geographical), which determine the spatial differences and the importance of natural resources for human life and activities.

The following parameters are used in the economic evaluation of minerals: the scale of the deposit, determined by its total reserves; the quality of the mineral, its composition and properties, operating conditions; reservoir thickness and occurrence conditions; economic importance; annual production.

I.e economic evaluation natural resources is an assessment of their quantity, quality, determination of national economic significance, valuation.

Land resources. The functional features of land use determined its important place among natural resources. The land is the initial material basis for the well-being of members of society, the spatial basis for the placement of productive forces and the resettlement of people, the basis for the normal flow of reproductive processes of all factors. economic growth- labor, material and technical and natural.

In addition, land is a means of production in agriculture. As a means of production, land has its own specific features, especially in comparison with artificially created means of production. The soil cover of the earth is a renewable natural resource, but it takes hundreds of years to restore it naturally, which means that massifs with a destroyed soil layer are actually excluded from intensive economic activity in the foreseeable future.

It takes 300-1000 years to restore a soil layer 2-2.5 cm thick, and 2-7 thousand years for the entire arable layer 18 cm thick. The earth as a tool and object of labor is inherently indispensable due to the lack of alternative resources, the use of which would satisfy the primary human needs.

The next feature is the difference in land productivity in different regions. The constant location of land resources is also a specific feature of this means of production, since mobility (movement in space) is inherent in most means of production. An important property of the earth is its fertility. stand out the following types fertility: natural, artificial, economic.

Natural fertility - the result of thousands of years of geological, climatic, soil-forming processes.

This is the presence in the soil of nutrients, moisture, their availability for agricultural plants.

artificial fertility arose as a result of anthropogenic influences.

Economic fertility - it is a combination of natural and artificial fertility.

Quantitative-economic fertility finds its expression in the production of agricultural products per unit area (yield).

Land resources have always been the main asset of any country. The land fund of Russia is the largest in the world - 1707.5 million hectares.

ha. In the structure of the land fund, the lands of agricultural enterprises and citizens engaged in agricultural activities account for 38.1%, under settlements 0.4% of the country's territory is occupied, non-agricultural land (industry, transport, communications, military facilities) - 1.2%, natural reserve fund - 1.2%, forest fund - 51.4%, water fund- 1%, the state reserve - 6.9%. The area of agricultural land in Russia is 222.3 million hectares.

hectares, including arable land - 134 million hectares.

The area of cultivated land in Russia is declining, but the provision of arable land per capita remains very high compared to other countries. In Russia, it is 0.8 ha per person (in the USA - 0.6 ha, in China - 0.09 ha, in Egypt - 0.05 ha). The main share of arable land falls on the Central and Central Black Earth regions, the Volga region, the North Caucasus, the Urals and Western Siberia.

Forest resources. Forests in Russian Federation occupy about 800 million

ha, or almost 2/3 of the entire area of the country, and the total stock of forest plantations exceeds 81.6 billion m3. The main forest-forming species are conifers, they account for 82%, softwood - 16%, hardwood - 2%.

Russia accounts for a significant part of the world's timber reserves, for which it ranks first in the world.

Forests in the Russian Federation are mainly concentrated in the eastern regions of the country.

In the Urals, Western and Eastern Siberia and the Far East, forests cover 641 million hectares. In these areas, wood of various species makes up 66 billion m3. In the Urals, the largest forest region is the Sverdlovsk region, in Western Siberia — Tyumen region, in Eastern Siberia - the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Irkutsk Region, in the Far East - the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Khabarovsk Territory, in the Northern Economic Region - the Arkhangelsk Region and Karelia.

The country's total wood reserves are about 82 billion m3.

An important indicator of the assessment of forest resources, according to which Russia ranks 21st in the world (45%), is the forest cover of the territory. According to the indicator - the size of the forest area per capita - Russia occupies a leading position - 3 hectares. Forests are a source of hard and soft (construction and ornamental) wood, raw materials for pulp and paper, hydrolysis, wood chemical and other industries, serve as a habitat for many game animals, and are a source of so-called secondary products.

Forest resources act not only as a source of raw materials, but also as a factor in providing the necessary permanent environment for society.

In terms of forest supply, Russia ranks first in the world, having about 1/5 of the world's forest plantations and timber reserves, and in terms of deciduous and coniferous forests, it is actually a monopolist, having 2/3 of the world's reserves.

Of the entire land fund of Russia, 94% is covered with vegetation, 70% is the area of the forest fund, and 46% is the area of forested land.

In other words, almost half of the territory of Russia is occupied by forests. From the point of view of forest management, they are divided into 3 groups in accordance with their economic or environmental significance.

The 1st group includes forests that perform protective, water protection or recreational functions (forests of urban green zones, anti-erosion forests, windbreaks, etc.).

They account for 20% of the forest fund area. In the forests of the 1st group, forest exploitation is not carried out.

The 2nd group (about 10% of the forest fund) includes forests that have a limited operational value due to depletion due to logging in previous years. They are located, as a rule, near industrial centers and also have a protective value. In these forests, logging is allowed, but on a scale that does not undermine the possibility of their continuous reproduction.

70% of the forest fund is occupied by forests of the 3rd group.

They are the main source of wood raw materials for the needs of the economy.

In general, the total wood reserves in Russia are estimated at 82 billion m3, including 44 billion m3 of mature and overmature timber. With a total cutting of almost 100 million m3 per year, the annual increase is 830 million m3.

m3. With such general indicators it seems that the reserves of forest resources in our country are not only unlimited, but are increasing every year.

Formally, this is so. However, a more detailed analysis allows us to conclude that the process of depletion has also affected these resources, but it is predominantly structural in nature. Forests, like many other types of resources, are unevenly distributed throughout the country. Most of them (about 80%) are concentrated to the east of the Urals, i.e. in the Asian regions of Russia.

Table 1

Forest resources of Russia

Water resources. Water resources in comparison with other types of natural resources have a number of significant differences.

Water is indispensable for anything, knows no administrative boundaries, is in constant motion in the atmosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. Its quantity and quality are constantly changing from season to season and from year to year. According to the rate of renewal, natural waters are usually divided into slowly renewable - secular or static reserves - and annually renewable or water resources.

The need of the national economy for fresh water is mainly satisfied at the expense of annually renewable water resources, quantified by the size of the river flow.

The renewability of water resources in Russia is 250 thousand m3 per year per 1 km2.

The internal distribution of water resources in Russia is extremely uneven.

There is a huge gap between regions in terms of total runoff. So, Far East has on its territory 1812 km3 per year, and the Central Black Earth region - only 21.0 km3 per year.

Currently, 40 large reservoirs with a volume of more than 1 km3 have been created on the territory of Russia, not counting many small ones.

The total area is 107 thousand sq. km2. The largest in the world are: Bratsk, Ust-Ilimsk, Zeya, Samara reservoirs. The largest volume of fresh water is contained in the reservoirs of Eastern Siberia.

In Russia, about 120 thousand

rivers over 10 km long, almost all of them freeze in winter. Most of the flow is flat (Volga). The largest high-water rivers flow into the Arctic Ocean.

Among the 2000 fresh and salt lakes, Baikal, Ladoga, Onega, Taimyr are especially famous.

The most significant exploitable groundwater resources are concentrated in the large artesian basins of the European part - Moscow, North-West, Sursko-Khopersky.

The purpose of water as a natural resource is to support the vital needs of humans, animals and plants.

In production and economic activities, a person uses water for cleaning, washing, cooling equipment and materials, watering plants, hydrotransportation, and providing specific processes (electricity generation). The water environment is used for catching fish, extracting underwater raw materials (manganese, nickel, cobalt) and fuel (oil).

Mineral resources. Russia has a rich and varied mineral resource base.

The most common indicator for assessing mineral resources is mineral reserves, i.e. the amount of mineral raw materials in the bowels of the earth, on its surface, at the bottom of reservoirs and in the volume of surface and groundwater, determined according to geological exploration data. For some mineral deposits, the amount of valuable component reserves contained in them (for example, metal reserves in ores) is calculated. The modern economy uses about 200 types of mineral raw materials.

The classification of minerals based on the technology of their use is widespread: fuel and energy raw materials (oil, gas, coal, peat, uranium); ferrous, alloying and refractory metals (ores of iron, manganese, chromium, nickel, cobalt, tungsten, etc.); non-ferrous metals (ores of aluminum, copper, lead, zinc, mercury, etc.); noble metals (gold, silver, platinoids); chemical and agrochemical raw materials (potassium salts, phosphorites, apatites, etc.); technical raw materials (diamonds, asbestos, graphite, etc.); fluxes and refractory, cement raw materials.

Russia accounts for almost 1/2 of the world's coal resources, about 1/7 of the world's oil reserves, and 1/3 of natural gas.

In terms of natural gas reserves, Russia ranks first in the world.

Explored reserves exceed those of Iran, which is ranked second, by about 2.5 times.

Giant natural gas fields, including those among the ten largest in the world, are also located in Western Siberia in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

This territory accounts for more than 80% of all balance reserves of natural gas in Russia. Significant gas reserves are in the Volga region, in the Urals, in the Northern region, the North Caucasus, the Far East, and Eastern Siberia.

The proven gas reserves in the world are about 173 trillion cubic meters, if we add to them the undiscovered reserves, which, according to preliminary calculations, are about 120 trillion cubic meters, in total, about 300 trillion cubic meters.

This amount of gas will be enough for Earthlings for about 65 years.

The main proven natural gas reserves of the Earth (101 trillion cubic meters) are concentrated in three countries: Russia - about 50 trillion cubic meters. (which is about 28% of all proven reserves in the world), Iran - 28 trillion cubic meters. (16%) and Qatar 26 trillion cubic meters.

(15%). 50 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves have been explored in Russia. Such reserves, taking into account the still unexplored reserves, may be enough for the country for another 100 years. And if we take into account that approximately 25% of all gas is burned for nothing, then with the rational use of blue fuel, you can "live" even longer.

Iran has enough reserves for internal use for 227 years, and Qatar even for all 680 years! Of course, these figures are very optimistic. Every year, the use of natural gas as a fuel in the world is growing by 2.4%, and by 2030 its consumption will double and about 26% of all "burned" hydrocarbon raw materials will fall on gas. The largest gas consumers are industry (45%) and electric power industry (33%).

Approximately 70% of the balance reserves of oil resources are located on the territory of Western Siberia, in the Ural economic region, there are significant reserves in the Volga and Northern regions, there is explored oil in the Far East, in the East Siberian region and in the North Caucasus.

The following oil and gas provinces are distinguished on the territory of Russia: West Siberian, Volga-Ural, Timan-Pechora, North Caucasian, Leno-Tungusskaya, Leno-Vilyuiskaya, Caspian, Okhotsk, Pacific Ocean, Yenisei.

Coal deposits are more differentiated by territory.

According to the category of balance reserves, Western Siberia ranks first (about 50%), Eastern Siberia - 30%, Far East - 9%. It is possible to single out the Ural, Northern, North Caucasian, Central economic regions. In terms of geological reserves, Eastern Siberia dominates - the Tunguska and Kansk-Achinsk giant basins (3 trillion tons of coal). The main coal basins: Pechora, Kuznetsk, Kansk-Achinsk, Irkutsk, Tunguska, South Yakutsk, Taimyr, Moscow region, South Ural, Zyryansk, Nizhnezeya.

An important part of the energy potential is hydropower resources, which are mostly owned by Eastern Siberia, the Far East, and the Volga-Kama region.

Russia has reserves of iron ore of categories A, B, C, equal to 55.6 billion tons.

those. 60% of the reserves of the former USSR.

Within Russia, the most important region, which provides for the needs of the country's ferrous metallurgy and has a huge iron ore potential, is the Central Chernozemny. It concentrates almost 55% of the balance reserves of iron ore in the country. The largest deposit in the world is KMA, it is located mainly in the Kursk and Belgorod regions (Lebedinskoye, Stoilenskoye, Mikhailovskoye deposits, Yakovlevsky mine). There are iron ore reserves in the Urals, Siberia, the Far East, and the European North.

The main part of manganese ores is concentrated in the Kemerovo region of Western Siberia, in the Sverdlovsk region in the Urals, in the Khabarovsk Territory.

Deposits of chromium ores are known in the Urals in the Perm region, in the Arkhangelsk region, the predicted reserves have a wide geography (Karelia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Sakhalin).

Bauxite reserves are known in the Urals, in the Arkhangelsk, Leningrad regions, in Komi, in Siberia.

Phosphate ores are represented by apatites and phosphorites.

The world's largest deposits of apatite ores on the Kola Peninsula (Khibiny, Kovdorskoe), in the Eastern Sayan; Egoryevskoye field (Central economic region), Vyatsko-Kama (Volga-Vyatka economic region), etc.

The main source of potash fertilizers are potash salts, the deposits of which are discovered in the Perm region (Northern Urals).

Salt deposits (chemical raw materials, food products) are located in the Cis-Urals, the Caspian lowland, in Siberia. The largest is Lake Baskunchak in the Astrakhan region.

Large resources of mineral raw materials are contained in the bowels under the waters of the internal and external seas of Russia (shelves, continental slopes), in coastal and bottom sediments of these seas.

The bowels of the shelves have offshore oil and gas deposits, accumulations of tin, gold, titanium, iron, etc.

According to the structure and importance of raw materials and fuel and energy resources, the economic regions of Russia can be divided into five groups:

- with the greatest variety of natural resources, mainly of inter-district significance (Western and Eastern Siberia);

- with a variety of natural resources of inter-district and intra-district significance (Far East, Northern, Ural economic regions);

- with the inter-district significance of some natural resources and the absence or insignificance of others (the Volga region and the North Caucasus);

- with inter-district significance of individual natural resources (Volga-Vyatka and Central Chernozem regions);

- with relatively poor natural resources, which have intra-district significance only in some cases (Central, North-Western economic regions).

Natural resources- these are objects of the natural environment that can be used by a person in the process of production activities in order to meet the material, scientific and cultural needs of society.

There is the following classification of natural resources:

By type of use :

1) production;

2) health care;

3) aesthetic;

4) scientific.

By belonging to various components of nature:

1) water;

2) forest;

3) mineral (minerals);

4) energy (fuel, coal, gas, oil), etc.

All natural resources are finite, but conditionally they can be divided into exhaustible and inexhaustible.

Exhaustible Resources can meet the needs of human society only for a limited time, which depends on the size of the reserves of these resources and the intensity of their use; their self-healing in nature is impossible.

Exhaustible resources are divided into three groups:

- non-renewable;

- renewable;

are relatively renewable.

Non-renewable resources are completely non-renewable or their recovery process is much slower than their human use in the foreseeable period of time (oil, coal and most other minerals).

The protection of non-renewable natural resources consists in their economical, rational, integrated use, providing for the smallest possible losses during their extraction and processing, as well as the replacement of these resources with other natural or artificially created analogues.

Renewable natural resources under certain natural conditions, as they are used, can be constantly restored (flora and fauna, a number of mineral resources, such as salt accumulating in lakes, peat deposits in swamps, soils).

At the same time, with excessive consumption, renewable resources can become non-renewable. So, every year some rare species of animals, fish and birds disappear, meat, skin and other parts of which are the subject of profit.

For example: the extermination of whales, sperm whales to obtain ambergris, used in perfumery for the stability of the smell of perfume.

Relatively renewable- resources, the restoration of which requires much more time than the duration of human life (soil restoration takes several thousand years, the lifespan of Siberian cedar reaches 300 years, i.e. equals the lifespan of several generations of people, sequoias can reach the age of several thousand (up to 6 thousand

years) and a height of 100 m, their bark thickness is over 30 cm, therefore sequoias are fire resistant and are used for building houses (1 sequoia \u003d 45 one-room houses).

The classification of natural resources and environmental benefits is shown in fig.

Inexhaustible (relatively exhaustible) resources These are resources on a planetary scale.

These include:

- space (solar radiation, energy of sea tides, heat of the Earth's core, electromagnetic radiation); These resources cannot be the subject of environmental protection, since humanity does not have such opportunities (protection of the Sun's resources).

- climatic (atmospheric heat, atmospheric moisture, wind energy and air); The composition of the atmosphere can change significantly as a result of pollution by mechanical impurities, gas emissions from industry and transport, as well as radioactive substances.

Therefore, the struggle for clean air is one of the most important tasks of protecting this natural resource. In addition, atmospheric pollution affects climate change on Earth.

- water (resources of the World Ocean, rivers, lakes, springs with fresh water). The supply and quality of fresh water in different parts of the Earth can vary greatly.

The lack of fresh water is felt as a result of the shallowing of rivers and lakes, as well as their pollution. The resources of the World Ocean are practically inexhaustible, but they are threatened by significant pollution with oil, radioactive and other waste, which changes the conditions for the existence of the animals and plants inhabiting them.

There are two forms of human (society) impact on nature (environment): direct and indirect.

Under direct impact on nature is understood as a direct impact, which results in the depletion of natural resources (mining of ore, coal, oil, deforestation).

Indirect impact on nature is a consequence of direct impact, leading to a violation of the natural regime of natural areas.

Mining leads not only to the violation of biogeocenoses (see below) in the territory of mines, mines, quarries, but also to the violation of the hydrological regime of neighboring natural areas, contributes to their local aridity and the emergence of other negative phenomena.

Anthropogenic impact on nature is the impact that man has on the environment and its resources as a result of economic activity.

Biogeocenosis - established natural complexes: a plant community of the same type in combination with the animal world inhabiting it, including microorganisms, on the corresponding section of the earth's surface, special properties of the microclimate, geological structure and water regime.

Irrigation - artificial irrigation of agricultural land.

In the economic sense, natural resources are bodies that, when given level the development of productive forces (means and tools) have been sufficiently studied and can be used to meet the material needs of human society.

The natural resources of the Earth are the main wealth of the planet, which allows people to survive, includes objects of animate and inanimate nature. If in ancient times people used resources to a minimum, limited to gathering plants, fishing and hunting, then over time water, land resources, minerals (metals, clay, coal, oil, etc.) began to be used. All this leads to the fact that some natural resources are almost completely exhausted, and it takes several hundred or even thousands of years to replenish them. In the future, it changes and ecosystems are destroyed.

Classification of natural resources

In order to properly use natural resources, you need to know which of them are present on the planet in large quantities and can be freely used, and which are few and should be used only in a minimal amount.

Experts divide all sources according to renewability and exhaustibility into the following classes:

. These are resources of cosmic origin - solar energy, water, intraterrestrial heat;
. They are on the planet - the world of flora and fauna, organic and mineral compounds;
. A group of these resources has the ability to recover through natural processes. These are animals and plants, rocks and minerals;
. The rate of their recovery is so low that they need to be used rationally in order to leave part of the resources to posterity. These are underground waters, ores of some metals, marble, sand, granite, coal, oil and gas.

Types of natural resources

The most accessible resource of the Earth is wind and solar energy. Its use does not harm environment. One of the sources of life is water. This resource is used to support the life of people, animals, plants, and is needed for many natural processes.

Forest resources provide oxygen circulation, purify the air from harmful substances, and are a source of food for people and animals. Recently, people have been actively cutting down trees, which leads to many environmental problems. Land resources are used in the economic activities of people, but this leads to soil depletion. The variety of mineral resources allows people to use minerals for all sorts of purposes. The more actively they will use various resources, the more damage they will inflict on the planet. Some sources are on the verge of extinction, and if people do not reconsider their actions, they may lose a large number natural benefits.