Land footprint: theory, methodology, and applied ecological-economic principles in Ukraine

Abstract

This article justifies methodological approaches to determine the land footprint using scientific research on ecological, water, and carbon footprints. Foreign scholars define the land footprint as the amount of land used to produce goods until the products are finally consumed in another country or region. This means that the system can account for the relocation of production to other parts of the world. In Ukraine, several indicators have been proposed to assess the ecological consequences of agricultural land use. They allow for monitoring, control, and prediction of changes in land, identifying crisis situations in agricultural land use. In our opinion, them should be use to characterize the «land footprint». The article analyzes the ecological consequences of the reorientation of Ukrainian producers exclusively on the market demand of grain crops for the purpose of export. It establishes that in adapting agricultural production to market conditions in Ukraine, a new land use system has formed, which benefits large landowners, preference is given to market-driven grain and technical crops, an increased burden on land resources, their depletion is occurring, and negative values of the «land footprint» are observed from such land use.