Community Natural Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Community Natural Resource Management - Essay Example Up to date, there are around 1.2 billion people mostly coming from developing countries who "still lack access to sufficient and safe water to meet their basic needs" (qtd. in WHO and UNICEF, 2000). On the other hand, our biodiversity, which includes "trees, insects, mammals, corals, amoeba, fungi and all aspects of flora (plant life), fauna (animal life) and the dynamic interactions between them", is facing extinction (David Humphreys, p.183). The increasing rate of biodiversity extinction is largely caused by "climate change, pollution and habitat loss; for example, due to urbanisation and tropical forest clearance" (Budds, p.184). Lastly, we have a growing concern regarding food. It is noted that some agricultural practices aimed at increasing productivity have negative effects on the environment. The result is an ever-increasing difficulty to produce food: "farmers complained that they were unable to raise any pigs - the litters were too small and the young only survived a few days. The apple trees were coming into bloom but no bees droned among the blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit. The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with brown and withered vegetation as though swept by fire" (Goodman, p.220). The negative agricultural practices mentioned in the book includes use of agricultural chemicals such as insecticides (Goodman, p.220). In this paper, we take a particular look at the concept of community natural resources management, how they are done, their strengths and limitations and the possible solutions in the future: how community natural resource management can be used for future environmental policies. The discussion will deal heavily with biodiversity and water resources, although we will also be mentioning agriculture once in a while. Community natural resource management' as a key environmental policy response Water resource Although considered natural resources, most water resource management involves human intervention. Construction of dams, for example, are unnatural but are practiced for economic reasons (Budds, p.146). Also indirectly, "people also induce changes to water resources", such as through "the rules, practices, roles and customs through which water management is organised" (Budds, p.146). Recently, the concept of global water crisis is surfacin. It includes both "the decreasing availability of fresh water through increasing demand and consumption (from agriculture, industry, rising populations, cities), pollution and changing climatic conditions, and the lack of access to drinking water among lower-income groups, largely in developing countries" (Budds, p.152). There are various responses to the water crisis. For example, how the Greek government has solved the problem is different from the conception and solution of the Irish government. The Greek government resorted to water demand management, which independent studies warned of "having serious social,