Overexploitation

Overexploitation, also called overharvesting or ecological overshoot, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish itself. The term applies to various natural resources such as water aquifers, grazing pastures and forests, wild medicinal plants, fish stocks, and other wildlife.

In ecology, overexploitation describes one of the five main activities threatening global biodiversity. Ecologists use the term to describe populations that are harvested at an unsustainable rate, given their natural rates of mortality and capacities for reproduction. Such practices can result in extinction at the population level and even extinction of whole species. In conservation biology, the term is usually used in the context of human economic activity that involves the taking of biological resources, or organisms, in larger numbers than their populations can withstand. The term is also used and defined somewhat differently in fisheries, hydrology, and natural resource management.

Overexploitation can lead to resource destruction, including extinctions; however, it can also be sustainable, as discussed below in the section on fisheries. In the context of fishing, the term "overfishing" can be used instead of overexploitation, as can "overgrazing" in stock management, "overlogging" in forest management, "overdrafting" in aquifer management, and "endangered species" in species monitoring. Overexploitation is not an activity limited to humans. Introduced predators and herbivores, for example, can overexploit native flora and fauna.