This book develops and articulates a new perspective on the relationship between natural resources and development by foregrounding issues of innovation, knowledge, and industrial dynamics. Despite growing academic attention to the relationship between economic development and natural resources in social sciences, the issue has received rather limited attention in the field of Innovation Studies. This is problematic given the centrality of innovation and technological change for growth and development. Against that background, this book makes three contributions. Firstly, it summarizes and synthesizes existing insights about learning and innovation in Natural Resource Based Industries. Secondly, it develops new insights based on original research work. Thirdly, it distils and explains the remaining research challenges in the field. Containing important insights for researchers, businesses, and policymakers, this book will be useful to all those with an interest in navigating a natural resource based development pathway. This book was originally published as a special issue of Innovation and Development.

Managing the natural environment is fundamental to many businesses, yet management scholars have understudied how natural resources are acquired and deployed, how they constrain and challenge strategy and innovation, and how they differ from more conventionally studied resources in management. This book captures leading and thought-provoking conceptual and empirical contributions on how organizations (ought to) interact with such natural resources. The authors apply and extend management theories to the natural resource context, thereby opening up multiple avenues for future research.

This book includes contributions from scientists and representatives from government and non-governmental organisations working in the field of land management and use and on management of fires. The book is truly interdisciplinary and has both a research and application-oriented dimension. The list of topics includes sustainability and water management; sustainability and biodiversity conservation; the future sustainability of nature-based industries such as agriculture, mining, tourism, fisheries and forestry; sustainability, people and livelihoods; sustainability and landscapes planning; sustainability and land use planning; handling and managing forest fires. The papers are innovative and cross-cutting, and many have practice-based experiences. Also, this book, prepared by the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) and the World Sustainable Development Research and Transfer Centre (WSD-RTC), reiterates the need to promote a sustainable use of land resources today.

This book provides insight into how governments are using a variety of innovative fiscal and non-fiscal instruments to develop circular economies with significant economic and environmental benefits. It emphasises the urgent need for these circular economies and to move away from our current, linear model that has led to environmental degradation, volatility of resource prices and supply risks from uneven distribution of natural resources. Natural Resource Management and the Circular Economy illustrates how governments have promoted the development of an economy that can provide substantial net material savings; mitigate price volatility and supply risks; and improve ecosystem health and long-term resilience of the economy. Through a series of case studies, it details the various innovative policy instruments which can be utilised, including regulations; market-based instruments; incentives; research and innovation support; information exchanges; and support for voluntary approaches. The book also proposes a series of best practices for different countries, both developed and developing, who are implementing their circular economy.

This book develops and articulates a new perspective on the relationship between natural resources and development by foregrounding issues of innovation, knowledge, and industrial dynamics. Despite growing academic attention to the relationship between economic development and natural resources in social sciences, the issue has received rather limited attention in the field of Innovation Studies. This is problematic given the centrality of innovation and technological change for growth and development. Against that background, this book makes three contributions. Firstly, it summarizes and synthesizes existing insights about learning and innovation in Natural Resource Based Industries. Secondly, it develops new insights based on original research work. Thirdly, it distils and explains the remaining research challenges in the field. Containing important insights for researchers, businesses, and policymakers, this book will be useful to all those with an interest in navigating a natural resource based development pathway. This book was originally published as a special issue of Innovation and Development.

The rapid emergence of China as a major industrial power poses a complex challenge for global resource markets. Backed by the Chinese government, Chinese companies have been acquiring equity stakes in natural resource companies, extending loans to mining and petroleum investors, and writing long-term procurement contracts for oil and minerals. These activities have aroused concern that China might be "locking up" natural resource supplies, gaining "preferential access" to available output, and extending "control" over the world's extractive industries. On the demand side, Chinese appetite for vast amounts of energy and minerals puts tremendous strain on the international supply system. On the supply side, Chinese efforts to procure raw materials can either exacerbate or help solve the problems of high demand. Evidence from the 16 largest Chinese natural resource procurement arrangements shows that Chinese efforts—like Japanese deployments of capital and purchase agreements in the late 1970s through the 1980s—fall predominantly into categories that help expand, diversify, and make more competitive the global supplier system. Investigation of smaller projects indicates the 16 largest do not suffer from selection bias. However, Chinese attempts to exercise control over mining of rare earth elements may constitute a significant exception. The investigative focus of this analysis is deliberately narrow and precise, assessing the impact of Chinese resource procurement on the structure of the global supply base. The broader policy discussion in the concluding chapter raises other separate important issues, including the impact of Chinese resource procurement on rogue states, on authoritarian leadership, on civil wars, on corrupt payments and the deterioration of governance standards, and on environmental damage. Such effects may make patterns of Chinese resource procurement objectionable, on grounds quite apart from the debate about possible "control" of access on the part of China and Chinese companies.

"A study prepared by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)".