The different conventional type resources are as follows:
1. Water:
Water is essential for domestic use, generation of electricity, irrigation, navigation and also for living organisms.
Currently, a lot of underground water is being used mainly for agricultural purposes, creating enormous load on the eco-system. Sufficient care needs to be taken to manage water efficiently.
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Water is a renewable resource and has a life-cycle (the hydrologic cycle) which should be properly maintained. However, due to large-scale deforestation the water cycle gets disturbed.
2. Forests as a Renewable Resource:
Forests constitute 90 per cent of the global biomass. They are important as they regulate climatic conditions, such as rainfall, humidity, temperature and protect soil from erosion.
Forests provide timber, fruits, medicine (medicinal plants); protect public health by absorbing contaminants of the environment and provide suitable habitats for a number of plant as well as animal species. But due to improper management, vast stretches of forests are lost every year.
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To compensate the loss of forest cover due to its diversion, afforestation should be done so that the net area under the forest cover remains the same. Only then forests act as a renewable resource.
3. Wildlife as a Renewable Resource:
Wild animals provide us meat for food, skin for leather goods and are used for research as well as recreational purposes. Human beings have killed millions of wild animals only to show their supremacy.
The indiscriminate cutting of woods too has resulted in the extinction of at least one mammal and bird species every year.
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In order to make wildlife a renewable resource, proper management and awareness among people is very important.
4. Livestock as a Renewable Resource:
The livestock such as cattle, goats, buffaloes, sheep, horses, camels, as well as fowls, ducks and turkeys, provide meat, milk, eggs, skin, wool and also dung, which can be utilized as biogas and manure. Livestock can be utilized as renewable source only through proper management of their health, breeding and diet.
5. Aqua Culture as a Renewable Resource:
Fish, crabs, prawns, molluscs, etc., are very important sources of animal protein for human beings. The food protein of marine animals is generally obtained from fish.
Marine resources are: the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, numerous gulfs, rivers, lagoons, water lakes and other inland water resources.
Fish is cultured in ponds, artificial enclosures and net pens by providing fertilizers ‘like cow dung, domestic and agricultural waste and also animal excreta.
The aqua culture production can be increased by using composite fish culture, i.e., using the surface, middle and bottom for feeding fish in the same pond, avoiding competition among them for food.
6. Energy:
Although fossil fuels are non-renewable, they still form very slowly as compared to their consumption. Biomass although non-renewable can be made renewable by fuel-wood plantations. However, due to indiscriminate felling of trees, forests have depleted and fuel-wood has become scarce.