ЗНАЧЕННЯ ЕКОСИСТЕМНИХ АКТИВІВ ДЛЯ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ СТАЛОГО РОЗВИТКУ ТЕРИТОРІЙ

Abstract

National environmental policy in Ukraine declares introducing of the ecosystem approach into all aspects of social and economic development, as well as conservation and restoration of natural ecosystems. The legislative acts sustain support of ecosystem services will enhance sustainable development of the society and ecosystems. One of the Sustainable Development Goals for Ukraine until 2030 concerns protection and restoration of terrestrial ecosystems like inland freshwaters, mountains, forests and meadows. It proves ecosystem management tools are relevant for the environmental policy and methodological basis for those tools being applied is assessment of ecosystem assets and services. Concept of ecosystem assets is quite innovative in Ukraine, and its definitions and visions of functions differ a lot. Both Ukrainian and foreign researchers focus mostly on ecosystem services, approaches to assess them and administration of the payments. Ecosystem assets and issues on their evaluations well as introduction of the ecosystem approach into the managerial practices are still underdeveloped. The paper is to define economic sense of ecosystem assets for provision of the sustainable development of territories. Evaluation of ecosystem assets is important for local communities in order to assess scope of ecosystem payments, elaborate local development strategies, and make decisions if economic activities communities carry on have to be altered. There are no universal rules for such the evaluation, and with foreign experience alone it is difficult to decide how territorial communities can assess their ecosystem assets and which tangible benefits they will get from it. Therefore, it is needed make more efforts in Ukraine too in order to introduce the tool and identify priority areas for its application, i.e. land and water use, biodiversity and so on. So that enhance implementation of the ecosystem approach into the management practices, considerable amendments in the legislation are required. Pilot projects on evaluation of ecosystem assets would be helpful and confirm feasibility of the approach. Even more, such the projects would assist to assess ecosystem services particularly produced by protected areas, water, soils and landfills.