Nature provides many potential resources, but which of these are eventually developed in what manner and to what extent, depends very much on the government policies and actions. It is the aim of every government to harness and develop the available natural resources in its area of justification. The ideal thing would be for each government to achieve even development of all the available resources. But by its policies, a government may unknowingly promote the development of certain resources to the detriment of others. An over concentration on a few resources may have an adverse effect on the sustained yield of those resources and the stability of the ecosystem as a whole.
It is therefore noteworthy to maintain that, with geographical knowledge, policies concerning the development of natural resources can be used to achieve a balanced result.
Forestry is an example to illustrate the effect of geography on the development of natural resources. Nigeria’s forest resources have been excessively and wastefully exploited in recent times. The area of natural forest remaining is very small. Also, certain trees species were favoured more than others. This bias towards certain species let to the practice of selective logging whereby only the merchantable species such as the Iroko, Mahogany, Obeche e.t.c. were heavily exploited. With facts from geographical ideas, this bias has now been eliminated. The idea now is that all three species are useful for productive activities.
Furthermore, the over-concentration on the development of the oil sector has received much criticism from geographer in the country. Oil has replaced agriculture as the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. Unemployment rate has increased because everyday wants to work in an oil company. There is balance of payment deficit and a host of other disadvantages. Geography gives room for equal development of all the sectors of the economy as they all will contribute a large percentage to the national income.
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