Distribution of Resource Access

Resource access describes a relationship between humans and their needs and wants as obtained from the surrounding environment. A geographic analysis of the relationship evaluates how humans differ in the ways they acquire resources at different localities and, more important, the local and extralocal factors that influence their ability to acquire these resources. Much research on [Page 779]resource access is embedded in a broader study of human-resource relationships that also considers resource availability and the resource use practices of humans. For example, applied research and development planning regarding food security evaluates how the natural endowment of resources and production strategies influences food availability, how household incomes can be provided and improved to gain access to food resources, and how household practices and individual discrimination influence the distribution and quality of food for use. Access to resources and how it varies geographically relate to the need of regions and households to gain incomes to supplement local livelihoods and what sources of income can be made available to these populations. Regional studies of resource access are therefore linked to studies that examine the magnitude and problems associated with regional poverty at different geographic scales.

Garrett Hardin's classic work on the “tragedy of the commons” emphasized that when resources are free or open to communities, overuse or exploitation will affect future generations. Access to “common” resources should therefore be managed under environmental regulations that dictate who gains access and for what purpose. The ways in which environmental (resource) regulations differ geographically and are directed at certain populations add a political dimension to the distribution of resource access. These regulations are defined by local “traditional” practices and/or by extralocal agendas designed to promote resource conservation and sustainability. Communal access and community management as directed by the local populations and their traditions are compared with the controls that may be imposed by authoritative structures. Resource access is therefore dictated more by boundaries and controls on the use of common resources than by environmental conditions and processes that influence distribution patterns. Moreover, the distribution of resource access is redefined by political structures that allocate ownership of common resources and/or authority over their use. Embedded in these political debates on resource access are questions about whose knowledge matters and who is in the better position to ensure the long-term sustainability of common property resources.

Geographic studies in historical ecology also document interesting relationships between the distribution of resource access and land cover dynamics. Technological changes and regional patterns of development can promote access to resources and consequent human activities. For example, historical change in the agricultural land use of the Central United States relates significantly to technological developments that provided access to the Ogallala aquifer, just as deforestation in the Amazon basin can be related to the development of roads and consequent settlement patterns. Resource access, while it is related to endowment, can be altered by technological development that provides and limits distributions among regions. Access to water resources have been grossly modified through the development of dams, irrigation canals, wells, and other access strategies that promote its distribution to some locations while limiting access to other locations. The distribution of resource access and its modification by technology and human resource practices can intensify differences in regional endowments in ways that lead to conflict across regional and state boundaries.

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