ЕКОСИСТЕМНІ ПЛАТЕЖІ ЯК ІНСТРУМЕНТ РЕАЛІЗАЦІЇ ЕКОСИСТЕМНОГО ПІДХОДУ В УПРАВЛІННІ ПРИРОДОКОРИСТУВАННЯМ

Abstract

Growing environmental threats and the depletion of natural resources urge to review the scientific concepts of society's interaction with nature. At the same time, the ecosystem approach is slowly being implemented in environmental economics, although theoretical and methodological principles of the approach have not yet been properly put into practice in Ukraine. In this regard, peculiarities of transformation of the present natural resource management mechanism with implementation of ecosystem approach applying its key economic tool – the ecosystem payments – are substantiated. The ecosystem approach to natural resource management is the management strategy considering complicated biological relations within ecosystems, the natural resources of which are used if planning and implementing any nature management measures. The approach also represents the comprehension that these relations are worthy, since they are able to affect the state, capacity and output of key ecological functions of ecosystems. The hierarchical structure of the ecosystem approach implementation procedure in the natural resource management has been reflected in the guiding principles of the Convention on Biological Diversity. From both theoretical and practical points of view the principles should be divided into organizational-economic and ecological-economic. Ecosystem payments are payments for usage, non-usage of ecosystem resources or services, compensation for their pollution or degradation; all payments paid in the framework of the ecosystem approach aiming to protect and preserve ecosystems, provide rational use of their resources and support the functions. They include obligatory payments for the usage of ecosystem resources, their pollution, depletion or degradation; compensatory payments which the state pays to citizens for the usage of their ecosystems or to farmers for non-usage of ecosystems or usage if introducing new technologies; payments for ecosystem services; equivalent payments. The criteria to determine the type of payments are their optionality; the type of budget they are paid from; predominance of ecosystem’s worth over market prices; goal of the payments; the possibility to regulate payments with civil contracts, delay payments and change the amount; dependency of payments on the results of economic activity; mutual benefits.