Russia is a truly vast country. To get to know her well, you need to devote many years to traveling to various places. Her extraordinary nature will never cease to amaze. This is indeed so, since Russia unites many different natural and climatic zones. Many regions are very different from each other. The natural wealth of our country is also great and quite diverse. The article will talk about what kind of resources Russia has, it will talk about their types and features.
Natural wealth - what is it?
To begin with, it is worthwhile to deal directly with this term. In a broad sense, natural wealth is the resources that can be obtained in a particular place. Thus, we can say that these are all things and benefits that a person can receive from nature. All of them are constituent parts of the environment, from where people receive them. For many years, these resources have been used by man for various purposes, without them it would have been impossible to develop society and the emergence of new technologies in all sectors.
Probably, many will be interested in what includes the natural resources of Russia. The answer to this question can be very extensive. Among these resources, we can separately distinguish forest, water, biological, recreational, minerals, fertile soils, and much more. People actively use all these components for various purposes. Thus, it becomes clear that the wealth of natural resources in our country is truly great. It has been actively mastered for many centuries.
Oil, gas and coal reserves
Of course, the first thing to talk about is the raw materials and fuel and energy reserves of our country. Russia's natural resources include a large number of deposits of such important resources as oil, coal, and natural gas. Tin, aluminum, gold, nickel, platinum, mica and many other materials are also actively mined.
It is interesting that in our country more than 20 thousand various deposits are already known. If we compare Russia with other countries in terms of mineral reserves, you can see really interesting data. Our country is in 1st place in the world in terms of natural gas and 6th in terms of oil reserves. Mostly their deposits are located in the northern part of Russia.
It is necessary to tell about such an important resource as coal. Russia is in 3rd place in the world in terms of its reserves. There are several areas where active coal mining is in progress. The main ones are the Kuznetsk, South Yakutsk and Pechora coal basins.
Other minerals
It is important to note other stocks of various raw materials in our country. Russia is rich not only in oil and gas, but also in peat, shale, and iron ores.
Peat in Russia is extracted in many regions, both in the European part and in Asia. The largest deposits of this material are in the Northern Urals and in Western Siberia.
Sources of oil shale are also being actively developed. They are mainly located in the European part of the country. The largest of them is located in the St. Petersburg region. In addition to it, in Russia there are 3 more large shale basins.
Another natural wealth of our country is iron ore. On the territory of Russia there are many sources, for the most part they lie deep.Large deposits are located in the European part, the most famous of which is called the Kursk magnetic anomaly.
Forest resources
We met with the minerals of Russia. Now it’s worth talking about forest resources, which also make up the natural wealth of our country.
If we talk about large green areas, then they make up more than 40% of the territories of the Russian Federation. Coniferous forests are more common. They are found in about 80%. The remaining forests are broad-leaved. Most often they are located in the European part of Russia. Coniferous forests are mainly represented by spruce, fir, cedar, pine. Many types of wood are of great importance for industry and production. There is one feature - this is the uneven distribution of forests in the country. Most of the green spaces are in the Far East and Siberia.
Of course, the industrial importance of forest resources is quite large. However, they are used for other purposes. Some forests play an important role in nature conservation. They are water protection and sanitary zones. Some of them have the status of national parks or reserves.
Another group of forests is environment-forming and protective. They allow you to maintain the necessary ecological balance in places where it is especially necessary, for example, in large cities and other places with a large population, dense buildings and developed transport networks.
Water resources
So, we discussed the mineral resources and forest resources of Russia. Of course, their list does not end there. The main natural resources include water resources, which in our country are also very numerous. These include all water bodies that are used in national economy. These include lakes, rivers, reservoirs, canals, seas, groundwater and some other sources. The rivers have been considered the most important since ancient times, since they served as trade routes. The main settlements were located along the rivers, and large cities began to appear around them.
Now, for the most part, water resources are used to generate electricity. Many hydropower plants operate in Russia. They provide electricity to a large share of the country. In addition to these goals, water resources are also used for water supply, transportation of goods, shipping, recreation and more.
Biological resources
Of course, it is necessary to pay attention to such an important component as biological resources. This is another element that makes up natural wealth. A man has long been interested in the animal and plant world. Then biological resources began to be used for the benefit of society. These include various types of plants and animals that participate in human activities. We can say that they are evenly dispersed throughout the country. The same group includes land. The most effective of them are meadows, since they are used in livestock farming as pastures and occupy a large share of the territory of our country.
