Natural Resources,Innovative Milieux and the Environmentally Sustainable Development of Regions1

Traditional economic theory views natural resources as production factors to be exploited for the benefit of society. However, for this exploitation to be sustainable it must take into account the conservation and/or renewal of the resource. Increasingly, development projects have come to regard natural resources as essential elements of the local environment that must be exploited in ways that ensure future generations can also benefit from them. This process has been termed “patrimonialization”. In this article it is shown that the constructive development of natural resources and the environmentally sustainable development of regions are closely linked and the role of innovative milieux in defining the nature of local development projects is examined.