Sustainable resource extraction

Describing the use of materials available in nature in a way that does not affect its balance. Usually however, sustainability is based on some kind of cost-benefit analysis, where one has to accept some damage (or human caused unbalance) to the ecosystem. Sustainability is the main concept that includes also the use and disposal of materials i.e. the life-cycle, whereas extraction refers mainly to the process of actual harvest.

In resource extraction, sustainability is often achieved when the possible damages of it are minimized and the future of the ecosystem is ensured. One example of sustainable resource extraction is forestry, when it tries to imitate nature's own processes and plant or seed the new forest.