Mainly these ten methods are important for conservation of resources:
1. Effective control on population growth: When populations increases more than the availability of resources then the speed of resources exploitation increases. In such situation, due to excessive exploitation, the non – renewable resources quickly get exhausted. So, for resource conservation in a country, effective control on population growth is necessary.
2. Holistic view in planning: Proper use and conservation of different environmental factors is called holistic view in planning. The different environment factors are inter related. The shortage of a single factor of environment causes imbalance. Thus, in making development plans, it is necessary to keep in mind the holistic view. In doing so, help is obtained in maintaining environmental balance, and on the other hand, there is a contribution in conservation of resources.
3. Maintaining biotic balance: For the existence of man, water, air, vegetation and animals are considered the biotic basis. Thus for sustained development and for resource conservation, it is necessary to keep in mind the biotic balance at the time of execution of economic planning. Biotic imbalance creates problems of environmental pollution and ecological imbalance, and as a result, in place of economic development, the possibility of disasters increase.
4. Maximum use of non – conventional resources of energy: For the conservation of resources, the use of solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy and thermal energy is necessary. This helps in conservation of petroleum, coal, atomic minerals, and along with it the problem of environmental pollution can also be reduced.
5. Search of alternative energy resources: There are limited reserves of non – renewable resources in the world, so it is necessary to discover and utilises such alternative resources so that non – renewable energy resources remain available to the coming generations. For example, by developing alternative energy resources like solar/wind energy, petroleum resources can be conserved.
6. Use of priority bases: In nature, the limited and exhaustible resources should be used only for urgent need in activities of national interest and the alternatives of such resources should be used more.
7. Recycling: In this method, after using once, a product is reused by melting it. It is an important method of resource conservation.
8. Use of artificial things: In place of using natural resources, use of artificial things is an alternative. It can help the availability of natural resources to be maintained for long time. For example: the use of plastic articles in place of wooden articles.
9. Advanced and sophisticated technology: While using natural resources, if advanced and sophisticated technology is used then energy and other resources can be saved. For example: land resources can be saved by making multistoreyed buildings.
10. Multipurpose use of resources: When several purposes are fulfilled in the execution of a single project, it is called a multipurpose project. Such projects help in conservation of resources – for example several aims are fulfilled by making dams on the rivers for irrigation, drinking water, hydroelectricity production, fisheries, flood control, forest development, soil conservation, supplementation of underground water, water transportation, etc.
