Every society draws on its natural capital. The question is whether anything is steering that drawdown. Governments have two basic tools — make the harmful option expensive, or make the sustainable option easy — and neither works alone. NGOs, communities and individuals fill the gaps that policy leaves behind.
📘 What you need to know
Sustainable management of natural capital balances human needs against environmental conservation.
Governments write national action plans to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.
Interventions that reduce use: taxes, fines and legislation, such as carbon taxes and emission restrictions.
Interventions that encourage sustainable use: subsidies, legislation, publicity campaigns, research and education.
NGOs and social movements raise awareness and drive societal change through campaigns and protest.
Local communities and social media act at smaller scales but reach large numbers.
The most relevant SDGs are 6, 7, 12, 13 and 15, with SDG 12 the closest fit to resource management.
Government management
National action plans
Governments set out formal plans to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. The UK’s 25-Year Environment Plan, published in 2018, includes actions to improve air quality, restore habitats and reduce waste. India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change focuses on renewable energy and water conservation.
These plans matter because they turn a global goal into national commitments that can be measured and argued about — which is exactly what makes them worth naming in an answer.
Two directions of intervention
Neither side works alone. Taxing petrol without providing public transport just makes people poorer; subsidising solar without limiting coal simply adds capacity rather than replacing it.
Reducing or stopping use
Carbon taxes raise the cost of fossil fuels, so demand for them falls.
Emission restrictions push industries to lower their greenhouse gas output. The EU Emissions Trading Scheme is the standard named example.
Fines and legislation make unsustainable practices legally risky as well as expensive.
Encouraging sustainable use
Subsidies for renewable energy such as solar and wind, and financial incentives for sustainable farming practices.
Legislation banning single-use plastics, or requiring green building standards such as LEED certification.
Publicity campaigns such as the UK’s “Love Food, Hate Waste” initiative.
Research and education, funding innovations such as carbon-storing concrete that absorbs CO2 during production, recyclable wind turbines that cut waste when parts are replaced, and biological ammonia production replacing the energy-intensive Haber process.
Those three technologies are gold dust in an exam. Most students can name a carbon tax; very few can name carbon-storing concrete. One specific example like that lifts a whole answer.
Beyond government
These levels interact. Public pressure creates the political room for a law; a law then makes the community-level behaviour the default instead of the exception.
Campaigns and advocacy. NGOs and social movements raise awareness and drive societal change. Greenpeace campaigns against deforestation and overfishing. Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil use peaceful protest to press the urgency of climate change.
Local community action. Recycling programmes that reduce waste and conserve materials; urban gardening initiatives that add green space and produce food locally.
Social media influence. Platforms amplify messages and mobilise public action, and viral campaigns such as the plastic-free challenge push individual responsibility.
The SDGs and resource management
The Sustainable Development Goals are 17 goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015, aiming to balance environmental, social and economic sustainability. They apply to all member countries and depend on global partnership.
Goal
Name
Link to natural resources
SDG 6
Clean Water and Sanitation
Promotes sustainable water use and equitable access
SDG 7
Affordable and Clean Energy
Focuses on renewable energy and energy efficiency
SDG 12
Responsible Consumption and Production
Encourages sustainable resource use and waste reduction — the closest fit to this topic
SDG 13
Climate Action
Aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change
SDG 15
Life on Land
Supports conservation and sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems
You do not need detailed knowledge of all seventeen. What you need is to link one or two goals to a specific management example. SDG 12 is the one to know best, because responsible consumption and production is the heart of sustainable resource management.
Sustainable resource management in practice
Area
Approaches
Water
Water recycling, rainwater harvesting, improved irrigation systems
Energy
Shifting from fossil fuels to solar, wind, hydro and geothermal sources
Waste
Minimising waste and maximising recycling, moving towards a circular economy where waste becomes raw material
Forest and land
Afforestation, rewilding and sustainable agriculture to prevent soil degradation and biodiversity loss
WORKED EXAMPLE
Evaluate the effectiveness of government intervention in managing natural capital. [6]
StrengthsGovernments can act at national scale and enforce compliance. Carbon taxes and schemes such as EU emissions trading change the economics of pollution directly, and legislation such as plastic bans removes the option entirely.Subsidies and research funding accelerate alternatives, for example renewable energy or carbon-storing concrete.LimitationsPolicies depend on political will and can be reversed by the next government; enforcement is often weak; and taxes can hit low-income households hardest, creating resistance.National action alone cannot solve problems that cross borders, such as ocean plastics or emissions.JudgementEffective when push and pull measures are combined and backed by public support, weak when either is missingBringing in NGOs and community action as the thing that sustains political will is a strong way to close a 6-mark evaluation.
💡 Exam tip
Split interventions into reduce use and encourage sustainable use. That structure alone makes an answer look organised.
Have three named policies ready: EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the UK 25-Year Environment Plan, India’s NAPCC.
Learn one specific technology — carbon-storing concrete or biological ammonia production — for research-and-education marks.
Know SDG 12 by name and number, and be able to link it to a real example.
Include non-government actors. Questions often ask about “strategies”, not just “government strategies”.
In evaluations, name a real limitation such as political reversal or weak enforcement.
⚠️ Common mix-up
Listing intervention types with no example attached. “Legislation” alone is worth very little.
Confusing taxes (raise the cost) with subsidies (lower the cost of the alternative).
Thinking the SDGs are legally binding. They are targets requiring global partnership, not law.
Assuming government action is always effective. Enforcement and political stability decide that.
Ignoring NGOs and communities, which are explicitly on the syllabus.
Treating a circular economy as just recycling. It is designing waste out of the system entirely.
Up next: Environmental Impact Assessments — the process that decides whether a development goes ahead, and who gets a say.
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