INTRODUCTION (WORLD RESOURCES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION)
As population have grown so have the magnitudes of those resources processes which supply materials. The graph of population growth also describes in general terms, the use of energy or the consumption of food. The important exception is that, world wide some resource processes are increasing situation in volume even faster than the population. Per capita use is also going up; energy and water use are examples. The situation is most striking in the Developed countries where access to technology creates different kind of access to resources beyond those which are necessary to sustain life.
In the Less Developed Countries cultural consumption is by no means absent, but there is much greater emphasis on the provision of necessities such as food, shelter and employment. The contras between the population-resource relationship of different types of countries allows the construction of a regional classification of the type put forward by Zelinsky. The resources are distributed in the following types:
Type A: Regions constitute technological disasters through the ingenuity it confers development are at a high level. This is combined with a large land area which is well stocked with available and potential resources and has low or moderately sized population relative to its size and to other nations. The high level technology means that the people have access to the resources and also create the effective demand to ensure their use, prosperity allows the purchase from other countries of what they lack.
The high levels of material wealth have been gained at the price of widespread environmental damages during the phases of very rapid development and exploitation, and it is not surprising that the strongest public pressures for high quality environments and environmentalist crusading have come from the epitome of this group, the USA. This type of population resource situation may be labelled as the US type, but it also includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the USSR part of Argentina and to some extent Uruguay, South Brazil, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Type B: It is categorized as ‘European types’. This is also a technology source area but differs from the US type because the population is high in both absolute numbers and density, the countries smaller and their heritage of resources less abundant more fragmentary than those of larger nation states. Many of the man-made ecosystems, such as European agriculture, are essentially very stable but the margin of stability is not very wide and most such countries rely on ‘ghost acerage’ of food producing land and water outside their national boundaries.
The European countries themselves provide type-specimens of this category, along with nations like Japan and Israel, In transit to this group are nations like Chile, together with Hong Kong and the island of Puerto Rico, aspiring candidates who have passed some of the examinations would appear to be Mexico and Libya, the People’s Republic of China is now adopting ‘modernism’ would seen to be aiming for this category.
Type C: In this category population are relatively low, so the there is very little sense of pressure upon resources, except in the urban areas, but material standards are low as well. Their status is not permanent; increased technological development will allow them to move into European category, but absence of such development if combined with rapid population population growth in order to try and achieve it faster. This group may be labelled as Brazilian type and is concentrated in three main area: Indo-China-Malaya but excluding Vietnam, Java and north and central Philippines, tropical Africa and South America.
Type D: In this group there is a deficiency of appropriate technology but the population presses hard upon the resources with the growth rate of 2 per cent per annum or more. The capacity to deal with population-resource imbalances is frequently lacking so that both the means of subsistence and the means of employment are deficient. Institutional factors may exacerbate the troubles of such nations. This type include part of Southern Europe as well as Africa , Latin American and Caribbean areas like Haiti, Jamaica, Central America and The Andean highlands, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, , Sri Lanka, Syria and the Islands of the Pacific and Indian Ocean.
Type E: This territories possess low resources bases because of the constraints of physical geography and their populations are lo, consisting either of people living on subsistence economy or those engaged in developing resources like minerals and oil. This ‘artic-desert’ type also encompasses the oceans only the fringes of which are subject to any form of inhabitation.
Forest Resources and their distribution (WORLD RESOURCES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION)
Forest resources constitutes one of the most prominent geo-ecological features in the world. A forest in more than an area covered by trees because it includes smaller plants, animals soils and water. It is estimated that over 40% of the lands of the earth, exclusive of the polar regions or about 23 million square miles were originally covered by forests. About 15.4 million square miles of forest are not left over. Thus, the forest that constitute one of man’s great resources have declined through the centuries because man has cleared vast area for forest products and for land to use for crops and pasture, especially in the temperate hardwood forest.
The economic activities of man are greatly influenced by forest. Man gets food fuel, fiber, timber, drugs, nuts, tan materials, cork, rubber, balata and various other things from forests. Besides, forests indirectly affect climate, stream flow soil conditions, especially in the areas of drainage basins and thus influence agriculture, grazing, recreation and wild fire.
Forests prevent soil erosion, leaves of trees fall on the ground. They become decomposed and add nitrogen to the soil. Thus forests increase fertility and by controlling flood, forests indirectly influence agriculture. Various industries have developed depending on forests products viz. wood pulp and paper industries, rayon, plastic, artificial rubber industries etc. Besides wood is greatly demanded in the manufacture of furniture, in ship building industry, in making railway sleepers and in the construction industries.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE PROCES OF PLANTS GROWTH:
The growth of forest depends on a number of factors like soil temperature, rainfall, altitude, contour, distance from sea, thickness of human sunshine and light, wind and aspect of slope.
Rainfall: It is an important factor influencing the growth of plant. Various types of plants grow in different areas having different amount of rainfall.
Temperature: It has been experimented that plant requires at least a monthly average temperature of 6º C for its growth. If the monthly average falls below 6º C plant life comes to an end. Excessively high temperature is also fatal to plant and many put to plant growth.
Altitudes: Altitude affects plant growth as the temperature falls with the rise in the altitude. Plant species differ with the elevation.
Soil: The chemical contents of the soil favor the growth of different plants. The forests does not make great demands on soil fertility, but it is more exacting in its moisture requirements than praries grass bush vegetation.