The importance of the natural environment for INDIVIDUALS

Place for Recreation

People need places to remove themselves from everyday life activity

Place to undertake positive risk taking activities

Places to relax and challenge our senses Examples:

Employment and commercial products may arise from these activities

Potential loss - result in some destructive risk-taking behaviours, increased levels of stress for individuals, decrease productivity

Examples

Inspiration and creativity

Aesthetic appreciation People enjoy marveling at the beauty of

nature People also get creative ideas from

experience the outdoors, which has both a cultural value, in helping understand our society and economic value.

Examples

Potential loss - result in boredom and financial loss.

Education

We need places to learn about nature as we are dependant on nature, and we need places to learn about ourselves.

People value knowing about places they have visited People desire knowledge about the out door

environment This can occur formally (school) or informally, (visitor

center in NP)

Examples

This can occur formally (school) or informally, (visitor center in NP)

Potential loss – less experience based learning, no learning through participation, limited understanding of nature and self.

The importance of the natural environment for SOCIETY

Resource

Provides for human needs, e.g clean water, timber, tourism, electricity, minerals.

Help sustain a quality of life. Also provides employment; ecotourism and

employment

Examples

Potential loss – decrease standards of living as less food production, profit, fall in life expectancy.

Decrease in medicines cures for disease

Intrinsic values of natural areas

Every living thing has value, it contributes something to nature, a tree is recycling biomass, providing oxygen, sheltering small animals, building soils etc.

Personal satisfaction, knowing that there are environments present without human interference

People are happy know that wilderness exist. Also that species still exist. Giant Panda. White rhino

Areas have the right to exist unspoilt and untouched. People appreciate its beauty rather than its economic value. Even if they have not seen it.

Examples

Potential loss – limited places to rehabilitate troubled members of society.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity needed to ensure sustainability of our society.

Natural environments ensure that biodiversity can be preserved outside of human-made environments which often result in a loss of biodiversity.

The effect of the loss of natural environments on Biodiversity.

Increase risk of disease in plants and animals, resulting in less food production.

Increases in pest numbers.Over use of area by one species

resulting in environmental degradation Examples

Scientific research

Allows us to monitor change within our living conditions and can provide new drugs or medicines.

Used a reference point to monitor the state of the environment and changes that have occurred. e.g salinity, pollution

Provide medicinal needs and the discovery of new cures

Growing a greater variety of food sources.

Examples

Potential loss – polluted waters, less viable agricultural land, decrease in areas where tourism can occur.

Loss of Biodiversity. associated Loss of Biodiversity. associated problems.problems.

With the loss of biodiversity many problems arise. These include: list 20

• Fewer places to find inspiration• Fewer places to recreate• Fewer educational opportunities

– Lead to greater impact (more visitors to the same location)– Decrease in tourism– Therefore a decrease in economy– Decreased employment opportunities

• Increase in endangered species• Increase greenhouse omissions• Decrease air quality • Increase soil erosion, land degradation• Increase in salinity• Increase water pollution• Food shortages• Affect survival of indigenous

– Rely heavily on the environment for survival– Introduced species may relish the changes

Could lose - new medicines- new food sources

- economic value from these