Natural Resources
Historically, much of the United Kingdom was forested. Since prehistoric times, man has deforested much of the United Kingdom.
Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanised, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with only 1% of the labour force. It contributes around 2% of GDP. Around two thirds of production is devoted to livestock, one third to arable crops.
In 1993, it was estimated that land use was:
- Arable land: 25%
- Permanent crops: 0%
- Permanent pastures: 46%
- Forests and Woodland: 10%
- Other: 19%
- Irrigated: 1,080 km²
The UK has a variety of natural resources including:
- Geological: coal, petroleum, natural gas, limestone, chalk, gypsum, silica, rock salt, china clay, iron ore, tin, silver, gold, lead.
- Agricultural: arable land, wheat, barley, sheep
The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves; primary energy production accounts for 10% of GDP, one of the highest shares of any industrial nation. Due to the island location of the UK, the country has great potential for generating electricity from wave power and tidal power, although these have not yet been exploited on a commercial basis.
Read more about this topic: Geography Of The United Kingdom
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