Assessing Sustainable Use Of Natural Resources For SDGs

After the expiration of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals(MDGs),challenges such as poverty,imbalanced development,climate change and environmental degradation,resource constraints and bottlenecks continue to affect global development,and the risks and vulnerabilities of human society are becoming increasingly prominent.In this context,the 17 Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)formulated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will continue to promote sustainable human development.The 17 SDGs imply a large number of requirements for the use of natural resources.Therefore,promoting the sustainable use of natural resources is very important to achieve SDGs.At the same time,for the majority of developing countries,the development and utilization of natural resources is still a key link affecting sustainable development.China is vigorously implementing SDGs and building modern natural resource governance system.Evaluation and research on sustainable use assessment of natural resources for SDGs is necessary.This study first revealed the coupling relationship between SDGs and the system of sustainable use of natural resources by theoretically interpreting SDGs and analyzing the connotation of sustainable use of natural resources.The study further analyzes the internal requirements and goals for sustainable use of different natural resource elements of each SDGs.Based on the ideas of linking SDGs with the natural resource governance system and differentiated evaluation,the study constructed an integrated evaluation framework that couples all dimensions of SDGs(horizontal)and elements of natural resources(vertical).Finally,based on the principles of representativeness and operability,this study combined with the localization of China's relevant policies and measures,selected the evaluation indicators of each element target,and selected Lishui City,Zhejiang Province to conduct an empirical evaluation,verified the evaluation scheme proposed by the study.The core of SDGs-oriented sustainable use assessment of natural resources is to promote the realization of SDGs that include economic development,social prosperity,and environmental quality by improving the use of natural resources,improving human well-being,and maintaining renewable capabilities.According to the connotative structure of SDGs and the practice of classified management of natural resources,this study constructs integrated evaluation scheme of vertical and horizontal coupling composed of four horizontal SDGs dimensions including economic development,social prosperity,environmental quality and efficient governance,and six vertical natural resource elements including land resources,water resources,marine resources,mineral resources,biological resources and climate resources.This plan takes international SDGs and localized natural resource utilization characteristics as the core,constructs a reasonable index system,selects appropriate evaluation scales,and comprehensively reflects the SDGs levels of various natural resource elements in different dimensions in the region.This study selected Lishui City,Zhejiang Province which is typical and representative as a case area.Through empirical analysis,the evaluation scheme proposed in this study has certain advantages in terms of evaluation scale and dimensions,index system and weight,calculation methods and processes.Taking the township administrative area as the basic unit of evaluation can improve the accuracy of the evaluation results and better show the regional differences in SDGs in natural resource utilization.The selection of indicators for different factors in different dimensions is representative,and the logical relationship is clear;the calculation process is operational and calculation results is repeatable.The empirical analysis found that the evaluation of the various elements of natural resources in the dimensions of economic,social,environmental and governance capabilities can provide highly operational policy recommendations for the sustainable use and management of regional natural resources and promote the realization of sustainable regional development.