Over the last three months our department began running a Responsible Resource Use course. The aim is to introduce the concept of Responsible Resource Use and entrench it widely as a way of thinking about all resource use activities. It is a great initiative because the course provides us with a knowledge on how to use resources in a responsible way. The ideas being to educate people who are already employed in the sector to make decisions in their workplaces and communities on responsible resource use.
The first course was successfully completed in Barberton this quarter and another four were done in the Pafuri area of the Kruger National Park. The courses all went really well and there was good feedback from the students who participated. The College will host two more of these courses on campus before the end of the year, which we are looking forward to. We also launched the online version of this course, meaning students can attend from wherever they are, even remote locations, which means a wider impact can be made in achieving our goal in entrenching responsible resource use.
The concept underlying responsible resource use is sustainability. This means meeting our own current needs without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs. However, the term Responsibility differs from Sustainability, with responsible resource use typically being a practice or action, while sustainability is a theoretical concept or goal. This proves that whilst we have been talking about sustainability we have not been putting in the required action.
Responsible Resource Use works hand in hand with the sustainability goals which depend on three spheres which are Economic, Social and Ecological and all must be given equal priority that when we use our resources we must be responsible and accountable for our actions, we have all the resources at our disposal but they must not be exhausted by our own human activities and behaviour.
Being responsible with our resources requires us to be holistically and ethically responsible, regenerative and inclusive. The characteristics help us to be responsible in our actions when coming to our resources since they have to be conserved for generations the same characteristics will also play a huge roll in their time to sustain the resources.
