Natural Resource Management and Protection

• Author: Robert L. Glicksman
• Pages: 151-177

CHAPTER 10

Natural Resource Management

and Protection

ROBERT L. GLICKSMAN

“The scale and complexity of our requirements for natural resources have

increased greatly with the rising levels of population and production. Nature is

bountiful, but it is also fragile and finely balanced.”— Report of the World

Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future

I. Introduction

Natural resources are essential to human survival and prosperity. While it

once may have seemed as if natural resources were limitless, it is abundantly

clear that careful management is necessary to preserve our ability to con-

tinue to benefit from the ecosystem services that nature supplies. This chap-

ter addresses four categories of natural resources from which people derive

economic value: timber, minerals, fisheries, and range (or grasslands). It also

covers recreational use of natural resources and preservation of natural

resources. It addresses the laws that govern use of natural resources for each

of these purposes. These laws are typically designed to allow recovery of the

benefits, economic and otherwise, that natural resources provide, while

simultaneously promoting complementary goals or accommodating conflict-

ing goals. These other goals include avoiding environmental degradation,

controlling the pace of development to avoid waste, reconciling potentially

conflicting uses of the same resource, and assuring equitable distribution

and continued availability of natural resource benefits in the future.

For each of the resource use categories covered, the chapter first addresses

public international laws and then provides a comparative law perspective

by briefly describing key natural resource management laws adopted in the

United States and selected other countries that reflect different approaches to

management of each aspect of natural resource development and use. The

comparative law sections are not meant to be exhaustive. Rather, the discus-

sion provides examples of some of the alternatives to natural resource man-

agement and protection reflected in domestic law.

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II. Timber Management

The annual commercial value of wood and wood products is measured in

the trillions of dollars. The value of forests, however, extends beyond the

timber harvested from them. Forests provide a host of important ecosystem

services, including fostering biological diversity, sequestering carbon to miti-

gate climate change, and protecting water quality. Developing countries

often regard exploitation of their timber resources as essential to their eco-

nomic development, while the developed world tends to place greater

emphasis on sustainable management and forest conservation.1 The empha-

sis on the exploitation of timber resources or the conservation of forest eco-

systems differs from country to country. In the United States, for example,

the emphasis on ecological sustainability of the national forests has taken on

increased importance, with concomitant reductions in allowable timber har-

vests. Some developing nations place a higher priority on economic develop-

ment, and may agree to restrictions on timber clearing only if they are

subsidized by developed nations.

A. International Laws Governing Timber Resources

While it has proven impossible to date to negotiate a successful comprehen-

sive, binding global agreement to promote forest conservation, international

agreements address various aspects of forest use and conservation. The 1992

UNCED (Rio) principles begin with the proposition that all nations have the

sovereign right to exploit their own resources (including timber resources)

pursuant to their own environmental policies. They also have the responsi-

bility, however, to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do

not cause damage to the environment of other states or to areas beyond the

limits of national jurisdiction.2 These principles recognize the sovereign right

to manage and develop forests in accordance with their development needs

and level of socioeconomic development.3 They state that forest resources

should be sustainably managed to meet the social, economic, ecological, cul-

tural, and spiritual needs of present and future generations for uses that

include wood products, water, food, medicine, fuel, shelter, recreation, wild-

life habitat, landscape diversity, and carbon sinks.4 The UNCED principles

recognize the importance of forests to the cultures of indigenous peoples and

the provision of renewable energy resources.5 They support the sustainable

management and use of natural forests and the integration of forest conser-

vation and sustainable development policies with economic and trade poli-

cies.6 The 1992 Rio conference also produced Agenda 21, which includes

provisions to prevent deforestation.7

More recently, the U.N. General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolu-

tion in 2008 dealing with forest use and management. It provides that each

state is responsible for the sustainable management of its forests.8 It identifies

shared global objectives on forests that include reversing the loss of forest

cover through sustainable forest management; enhancing forest-based economic,

152 INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW