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Economic Geography and Resource-Based Economies: A Sustainable Perspective

Explore the primary economic activities, resource-based economies, and sustainability in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries to understand the impact of economic geography worldwide. Discover how people earn a living, the cultural and technological conditions, and the interconnections between places. Delve into Von Thünen's land use model to analyze agricultural patterns and the significance of transport costs.

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Economic Geography and Resource-Based Economies: A Sustainable Perspective

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  1. Class 4a: Natural Resources and the Economy • Primary economic activity • Resource-based economies (Gabon) • Agriculture and trade (Chile)

  2. Economic geography • How do people earn a living? • Physical environment • Cultural conditions • Technology • Politics/economic system • How does that vary by place? • How does it connect places?

  3. Economic geography • Primary economic activity • Closest contact with natural resources • Generally, lowest income • Secondary: value added (manufacturing) • Tertiary: services for primary or secondary • Quaternary: information-based services

  4. Primary economic activity • “Gathering” industries • Fishing • Forestry • Commercial vs. subsistence • Potentially renewable resources • Maximum sustainable yield

  5. Fisheries • Protein for 1 billion people • Inland 6%, aquaculture 23%, oceans 71% • Tragedy of the commons

  6. Forestry • Commercial use or fuelwood • Coniferous (softwood) for paper, lumber • Deciduous (hardwood) for furniture, etc. • Tropical hardwood for fuelwood, furniture • And clearing land

  7. Tropical forests • Land and fuel under pressure from growing population • Beef more profitable than timber • Gone: Central America 70%, Asia 50%, Africa 50%, South America 40%

  8. Tropical forests • Forests as carbon sink • Rain forests and biodiversity • Costa Rica birds = North America • 72 species of ant on Peruvian tree • Medical resources • Ecotourism

  9. Primary economic activity • “Extractive” industries • Mining • Quarrying (gravel, sand) • Nonrenewable resources • Huge capital investment: then what?

  10. Resource-based economies • Multiple scales (from countries to towns) • Dependent on one commodity • Volatile commodity prices • Boom-and-bust cycles • Need value-added activity

  11. Example: Antofagasta, Chile • Founded in 19th century for nitrate mining • Wealth led to Chile’s first banks • Chemical substitutes by 1930s • Port for Bolivia

  12. Example: Antofagasta, Chile • New technology made copper mining possible • Nationalized in 1970s • 1990 boom when reopened to private investment • Today: 9% of GDP, 33% of world copper • But: foreign investment, no value-added

  13. Agriculture • About 1/3 of Earth’s land • Subsistence, traditional, commercial

  14. Subsistence agriculture • Your responsibility! • Extensive vs. intensive • Nomadic herding, shifting cultivation, intensive subsistence • Where and why

  15. Commercial agriculture • Maximizing profit, not food security • Specialization by location • Off-farm sales • Interdependence of producers and consumers

  16. Agribusiness • Focus on minimizing risk • Producers want standard products • Farmers want guaranteed markets • Contracts between farmers and corporations • Political pressure for subsidies • Political pressure on health

  17. Von Thünen’s land use model • German landowner in 1800s • Noticed pattern of agricultural land use • Three assumptions: • Isolated city (no trade) • Surrounded by homogenous landscape • All that matters is transport costs

  18. Land value Distance from market

  19. Land value Distance from market

  20. Land value Distance from market

  21. Land value Distance from market

  22. Land value Distance from market

  23. Land value Distance from market

  24. Von Thünen’s land use model • So what? • Connections between city and country • General patterns of agriculture • Can be applied to urban settings, too • Decreased transport costs make the pattern larger

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