Conservation of natural

resources
18CV656
 Syllabus-module 1
• Land: Land as a resource, types of lands,
conservation of land forms,
deforestation, e ect of land use
changes. Soil health, ecological and
economic importance of soil, impact of
soil degradation on agriculture and food
security, need for soil conservation,
sustainable land use planning.
 Deforestation
• Deforestation is the purposeful clearing
of forested land.
• Throughout history and into modern
times, forests have been razed to make
space for agriculture and animal
grazing, and to obtain wood for fuel,
manufacturing, and construction.
• Deforestation has greatly altered
landscapes around the world.
• E ects of Deforestation
• Climate Imbalance and Climate Change.
Deforestation also a ects the climate in
many ways. ...
• Increase in Global Warming. ...
• Increase in Greenhouse Gas Emissions. ...
• Soil Erosion. ...
• Floods. ...
• Wildlife Extinction & Habitat Loss. ...
• Acidic Oceans. ...
• The Decline in Life Quality of People.
• What are the main causes of
deforestation?
• Industrial Agriculture, because industrial
agriculture accounts for around 85% of
deforestation worldwide
• Timber Logging
• Mining
• Expansion and Infrastructure
• Climate Change.
• Deforestation not only eliminates
vegetation that is important for
removing carbon dioxide from the air,
but the act of clearing the forests also
produces greenhouse gas emissions.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations says that
deforestation is the second-leading
cause of climate change.
• E ect of land use changes:
• Land use and land cover changes have
signi cant environmental consequences
at local, regional, and global scales.
• These changes have intense
implications at the regional and global
scales for global loss of biodiversity,
distresses in hydrological cycles,
increase in soil erosion, and sediment
loads
• Land-use impacts climate through
deforestation and rapid population
growth, whereas climate change
impacts land use through unpredictable
heavy rainfall and increasing
temperature.
•
• The use of land is determined both by
physical factors such as topography,
climate, soil types as well as human
factors such as population density,
technological capability and culture
• What has caused changes in land use?
•
• The possible forces driving land-use and
land-cover changes can be grouped into
six categories: population; technology;
political economy; political structure;
and attitudes and values
•
• Why is land use change is a problem?
•
• Changes in land cover continue to
impact local- to global-scale weather
and climate by altering the ow of
energy, water, and greenhouse gases
between the land and the atmosphere.
• Reforestation can foster localized
cooling, while in urban areas, continued
warming is expected to exacerbate
urban heat island e ects.
• Exacerbate – make worse
• How does land use a ect the soil?
• Humans use land to grow crops for food, and
the farming methods we use can in uence the
organisms that live in the soil. Soil organisms
do important work, like decomposing organic
matter and releasing nutrients for plant growth.
• The major economic factors a ecting the land
use are the distance from nearby markets, soil
quality, availability of cheap labour etc.
• Human land-use is a primary cause of
biodiversity loss. A recent study shows that
human changes to ecosystems has pushed
global biodiversity loss beyond safe limits,
which could reduce nature's resilience.
• Soil health is a state of a soil meeting its range of
ecosystem functions as appropriate to its
environment. In more colloquial terms, the health of
soil arises from favorable interactions of all soil
components that belong together, as in microbiota,
plants and animals.
• Soil health has been de ned as the "the continued
capacity of soil to function as a vital living system,
within ecosystem and land-use boundaries, to sustain
biological productivity, promote the quality of air and
water environments, and maintain plant, animal, and
human health"
• The Soil Health foundation consists of ve principles
which are: soil armor, minimizing soil disturbance,
plant diversity, continual live plant/root, and livestock
integration.
• Management Practices to Improve Soil
Health
• Reduce Inversion Tillage and Soil Tra c.
Excessive tillage is harmful to soil health in
a number of ways. ...
• Increase Organic Matter Inputs. ...
• Use Cover Crops. ...
• Reduce Pesticide Use and Provide Habitat
for Bene cial Organisms. ...
• Rotate Crops. ...
• Manage Nutrients.
• Tillage—turning the soil to control for
weeds and pests and to prepare for
seeding—has long been part of crop
farming.
• What is the importance of soil health?
• Healthy soil is the foundation of productive,
sustainable agriculture. Managing for soil health
allows producers to work with the land to reduce
erosion, maximize water in ltration, improve
nutrient cycling, save money on inputs, and
ultimately improve the resiliency of their working
land.
• What are the bene ts of healthy soil?
• Healthy soils have a much greater ability to
absorb and hold water, which cuts down on
evaporation and creates resilience to drought
and extreme weather events. With soil microbes
providing nourishment for plants instead of
synthetic fertilizers, nutrient density in foods is
increased which improves public health.
• Ecological Importance of soil:
•
• Soil provides ecosystem services critical
for life: soil acts as a water lter and a
growing medium; provides habitat for
billions of organisms, contributing to
biodiversity; and supplies most of the
antibiotics used to ght diseases.
•
•
• 6 ecological functions :
• air quality and composition,
• temperature regulation,
• carbon and nutrient cycling,
• water cycling and quality,
• natural "waste" (decomposition)
treatment and recycling, and
• habitat for most living things and their
food.
• We could not survive without these soil
functions.
• Importance (Functions) of Soils
• Soils support roots and keep them
upright for growth.
• Soils provide plants with essential
minerals and nutrients.
• Soils provide air for gaseous exchange
between roots and atmosphere.
• Soils protect plants from erosion and
any other destructive physical,
biological and chemical activity.
• The three types of ecological factors are:
• (1) Climatic factors which include
rainfall, atmospheric humidity, wind,
atmospheric gases, temperature and
light
• (2) Physiographic factors which include
altitude, e ect of steepness and
sunlight on vegetation and direction of
slopes
•
• (3) Biotic factors which include aquatic
plants, sh, amphibians, and algae
• Economic importance of soil:
• Soil plays a crucial role in the
economy of countries. Farming and
agricultural industries are probably
the most reliant upon soil,
particularly in respect to crop
production, which has risen
dramatically in the last 50 years in
order to cope with the demands of
an equally rapidly growing global
population.
• Human life is directly dependent
on soil.
• Soil is not only the source of
nutrients and water for plants
which o er human one of their
primary sources of food, but it is
also the reserve of water.
• Without oxygen and water a
human cannot survive.
• Impact of soil degradation:
•
• The e ects of soil erosion go beyond the
loss of fertile land. It has led to
increased pollution and sedimentation
in streams and rivers, clogging these
waterways and causing declines in sh
and other species. And degraded lands
are also often less able to hold onto
water, which can worsen ooding.
• Soil degradation causes include agricultural,
industrial, and commercial pollution; loss of
arable land due to urban expansion,
overgrazing, and unsustainable agricultural
practices; and long-term climatic changes.
• How the soil degradation impact land?
• Soil degradation is the physical, chemical and
biological decline in soil quality. It can be the
loss of organic matter, decline in soil fertility,
and structural condition, erosion, adverse
changes in salinity, acidity or alkalinity, and the
e ects of toxic chemicals, pollutants or
excessive ooding.
• Arable land is any land capable of being
ploughed and used to grow crops.
• Harmful E ects of Soil Erosion
• Loss of Topsoil. Obviously, this is the
biggest e ect of soil erosion. ...
• Soil Compaction. ...
• Reduced Organic and Fertile Matter. ...
• Poor Drainage. ...
• Issues With Plant Reproduction. ...
• Soil Acidity Levels. ...
• Long Term Erosion. ...
• Water Pollution.
•
• The e ects of soil erosion can range from
mild to catastrophic. The biggest e ect is
de nitely the loss of topsoil, the fertile part
of the land that can be used to grow plants.
This alone can cause food shortages and
famine in many parts of the world.
• Soil physical degradation can a ect crop
growth and yield by decreasing root depth
and available water and nutrient reserves
and soil erosion can lead to yield loss by
a ecting soil organic carbon, nitrogen,
phosphorus, and potassium contents and
soil pH.
• Erosion control measures preserve the
nutrient-rich topsoil, help agricultural
operations thrive and prevent nutrient
pollution.
• Erosion increases the amount of dust
carried by wind, which not only acts as
an abrasive and air pollutant but also
carries about 20 human infectious
disease organisms, including anthrax
and tuberculosis.
• Continued environmental degradation
can completely destroy the various
aspects of the environment such as
biodiversity, ecosystems, natural
resources, and habitats. For instance, air
pollution can lead to the formation of
acid rain which can in turn reduce the
quality of natural water systems by
making them acidic.
• possible solutions to soil degradation
• Curb industrial farming. Tilling, multiple
harvests and agrochemicals have
boosted yields at the expense of
sustainability. ...
• Bring back the trees. Without plant and
tree cover, erosion happens much more
easily. ...
• Stop or limit ploughing. ...
• Leave land alone.
• Soil Conservation
• Soil conservation is key to
environmental sustainability: It
helps protect natural resources
and watersheds, restores
habitats for plants and wildlife,
improves water quality, and
makes soil healthier.
• Soil conservation also creates
economic opportunity.
• Soil conservation is proven to
increase the quality and quantity
of crop yields over the long term
because it keeps topsoil in its place
and preserves the long term
productivity of the soil.
• To grow enough food not only for
ourselves; but also for people in
countries where there are food
shortages.
• Advantages of soil conservation:
• Improved Environment:
• Improved soil quality and productivity.
• Reduced erosion.
• Increased water in ltration and storage.
• Improved air and water quality.
• Provides food and shelter for wildlife.
• we should conserve the soil and
prevent soil erosion because the land
slide will not occur at the rainy season
and the slipping of houses may not
happened.
•
• Sustainable land use planning:
• Sustainable land management is the use
of land to meet changing human needs
(agriculture, forestry, conservation), while
ensuring long-term socioeconomic and
ecological functions of the land.
• A sustainable land use system could be a
cattle ranching production system that
includes trees in order to increase carbon
storage in that location and that has good
access to markets so it can earn revenues
from its economic activities.
• Land tenure is good for the environment
for many reasons: It may improve the
quality and management of water,
encourage sustainable agricultural
production as well as eco-friendly urban
and exurban development, and thus curb
climate change, for instance.
• Land sustainability
• They allow ecosystems on which humans
rely to function, and so preserving as much
of this natural wilderness as possible will
remain a hugely important task for
environmentalists for many years to come.
Unfortunately, natural spaces are often at
risk of destruction to accommodate human
developments.
• What is the purpose of land
sustainability in the village?
• Helps in visualisation and translation of
long-term social, economic and
environmental goals into physical plans
that guide sustainabledevelopment.
Helps minimise land use con icts and
competition among sectors through
orderly disposition.
• Sustainable land management (SLM)
comprises measures and practices
adapted to biophysical and socio-
economic conditions aimed at the
protection, conservation and
sustainable use of resources (soil, water
and biodiversity) and the restoration of
degraded natural resources and their
ecosystem functions.
• Sustainable agriculture practices
• Rotating crops and embracing diversity. .
..
• Planting cover crops and perennials. ...
• Reducing or eliminating tillage. ...
• Applying integrated pest management
(IPM). ...
• Integrating livestock and crops. ...
• Adopting agroforestry practices. ...
• Managing whole systems and
landscapes.
• What makes a farm sustainable?
•
• To grow good crops and leave
productive land for future generations, it
is necessary to protect and build soil by
practicing erosion control, planting
cover crops, adding organic matter, and
carefully investigating the potential
long-term impacts on the soil and soil
life when applying agricultural products
to the soil …
• How can farmers farm sustainably?
• Applying the right fertilisers at the right
time will give farmers economic and
environmental wins. Carbon farming will
provide farmers with new income
sources while also improving soil health.
Farmers can reduce their carbon
footprint by using fertilisers with lower
emissions and applying them more
e ciently.
• Practitioners of sustainable agriculture
seek to integrate three main objectives
into their work: a healthy environment,
economic pro tability, and social and
economic equity.
• 4 Examples Of Sustainable Natural
Resources
• Sunlight. Sunlight is a renewable natural
resource that can be used as a clean
source of energy. ...
• Air. The wind is a clean source of
renewable energy, too. ...
• Water. Water can be used for
hydroelectric energy. ...
• Vegetation and Animal life.
•END OF THE MODULE 1