resursimajandus

Resursimajandus, often translated as resource economics or resource management, is a field of economics that deals with the provision and management of resources. These resources can be natural, such as land, water, minerals, and forests, or they can be human-made, like capital and technology. The core concern of resursimajandus is to understand how societies allocate scarce resources among competing uses to maximize societal well-being.

This field examines various aspects of resource utilization, including extraction, production, consumption, and disposal. It considers economic principles like supply and demand, externalities, and market failures as they apply to resource markets. A key focus is on sustainability, aiming to ensure that resource use today does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This involves analyzing the environmental impacts of resource extraction and consumption, such as pollution and habitat destruction, and exploring policy solutions to mitigate these effects.

Resursimajandus also delves into the economics of renewable and non-renewable resources. For renewable resources, such as timber or fisheries, the focus is on managing harvest rates to ensure regeneration and long-term availability. For non-renewable resources, like fossil fuels or minerals, the challenge lies in managing depletion and considering the transition to alternative resources. The economic valuation of natural resources, which often have non-market benefits like aesthetic beauty or ecosystem services, is another important area of study. Ultimately, resursimajandus seeks to find efficient and equitable ways to manage our planet's finite resources.