Natural resources are derived from the environment.  Some of them are essential for our survival while most are used for satisfying our wants.  A natural resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity and geodiversity existent in various ecosystems.  An ecosystem is a community of living organisms (plants, animals and microbes) in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water, and mineral soil), interacting as a system.

At its fundamental level, every man-made product is composed of natural resources.  A natural resource may exist as a separate entity such as fresh water and air, as well as a living organism such as a fish, or it may exist in an alternate form which must be processed to obtain the resource such as metal ores, oil, and most forms of energy.