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Section 7. Economics of nature management
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20534/EJEMS-17-3-49-57
Shurda Kseneya Eduardovna, Ukrainian Scientific Center of Ecology of Sea, Leading Researcher, Doctor of Economics, E-mail: shurda@i.ua
CONTEMPORARY REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT NATURE EXPLOITATION IN CONDITIONS OF CRISIS
Abstract: The essence and content of the concept of "nature exploitation" is revealed. The relationship between economic categories associated with the process of nature exploitation has been explored and determined. The subject and tasks of the nature exploitation economics have been studied, the ecosystem functions and environmental services of natural capital have been studied.
Keywords: nature exploitation, natural environment, ecological and economic systems, natural resource potential, human development index, natural capital.
Nature exploitation in the broad sense is the inter- of the natural environment in its various manifesta-action of society and nature, that is, virtually any kind of human activity associated with the use of natural resources and conditions and changes in the state of the natural environment. In a narrow sense, nature exploitation is a system of specialized types of activities people performing primary appropriation, use of natural resources, and environmental protection [1].
In general, nature exploitation is the impact of people on the natural environment in the process of their economic use. It is also a scientific discipline that studies the inherent methods of using a natural environment for satisfying one's needs.
Currently, nature exploitation is considered: at fist, as a purposeful activity to ensure the needs of society in natural resources and preserve the necessary quality of the environment; secondly, as a system of relations between society and nature, arising in the process of their interaction [2]. Nature exploitation can be considered a special kind of human activity, directly or indirectly related to the transformation
tions. The following types of nature exploitation are distinguished:
- main (agriculture, forestry, water economy, hydropower engineering, etc.);
- auxiliary (water use in production processes);
- side-pollution of the environment.
From the point of view law, nature exploitation is carried out in two forms: general and special. General nature exploitation does not require any special permission. It is carried out by citizens because of their natural rights arising from their birth and existence. Special nature exploitation is realized by citizens and economic entities (enterprises, firms, organizations) on the basis of laws, regulations and permits of competent state authorities. It has a purposeful character and is divided into land use, subsoil use, water use, forestry, and the use of wildlife resources and atmospheric air.
The nature exploitation is a large sphere of the economy, has a complex organizational structure [3].
At the macro level, it is represented by a system of industries specializing in operations to identify, account for natural resources, protect and reproduce them, and environmental protection. The composition of these sectors is now becoming more complicated. For example, a specialized block of environmental engineering and instrument-making, as well as the sector of environmental services, is being actively formed.
At the regional level, sphere of nature exploitation is formed by enterprises and organizations of the regional environmental infrastructure, waste disposal and waste recycling systems, integrated treatment complexes, sewerage systems, regional environmental monitoring services, a network of specially protected and protected territories.
At the micro level, environmental units (services, departments, workshops) of enterprises and firms are in the sphere of nature exploitation. Their task is to implement measures to protect the natural environment from technogenic impact, taking into account the specifics of technical and technological methods used at specific subdivisions, raw materials, the nomenclature of waste generation and manufactured products.
Distinguish between rational and irrational nature exploitation. Rational nature exploitation is reduced to the transformation of the linear economy into a circular economy, which should significantly reduce the burden on ecosystems and ensure the balanced nature exploitation. Irrational nature exploitation is an activity that does not ensure the preservation of the ecological-economic potential. It includes many negative processes of anthropogenic impact on the environment (pollution of the environment, destruction of the natural landscape, certain species of animals and plants, disruption of links between elements of the ecosystem, etc.). Irrational nature management leads to ecological crises. If nature exploitation is rational, it is possible to obtain not only additional material benefits from the same natural resources, but to a certain extent the environment is preserved, that is, nature protection is simultaneously carried out.
Rational nature exploitation as an economic category is a certain system of economic relations reflected in the mind about the use of natural resources and the environment [4]. In concrete reality, it consists of a series of closely interrelated and interdependence processes and phenomena [5]. Rational nature exploitation is the processes of rational use natural resources, reproduction of individual natural resources and elements of the environment, as well as nature protection. The totality of these processes should be aimed at maintaining the ecological-economic potential at the optimal level.
In Fig. 1 shows some categories that are associated with the process of nature exploitation. In the article only generalized (synthetic) concepts are considered. In a specific field of nature exploitation, specific activities characteristic of a particular activity are carried out. From the presented scheme it follows that "nature protection" is a narrower concept than "rational nature exploitation", but it manifests itself in all interconnected components of the latter.
For example, the rational use of natural resources means simultaneously reducing the anthropogenic load on natural systems, that is, it fulfills to some extent the function ofprotecting the environment [6].
Specialists solve the following tasks in the sphere of nature exploitation:
- research of means, methods and forms of rational nature exploitation, achievement of favorable conditions for life activity;
- development and justification of activities aimed at the integrated use of resources;
- justification of the ecologization the economy;
- development of methods for optimizing the interaction between society and nature, taking into account the interests of future generations (ensuring the transition of humanity to the model of sustainable development);
- formation of an effective system of state and regional environmental management;
- analysis and synthesis of best practices in the sphere of nature exploitation, etc.
Figure 1. Interrelation between categories of nature exploitation
Considering the content of tasks in the sphere of rationalizing nature exploitation, they are all related to the allocation of funds, the definition of the effectiveness of measures, etc. This caused the need to develop the economy of nature exploitation as an economic discipline [7].
In modern crisis conditions, all economic schools link economic development with ecological problems. But deep theoretical research in the sphere of economy of nature exploitation are related to the welfare economy and the theory of externalities. The task of the welfare economy is to describe the conditions of the economic optimum. Within the framework of this theory, the relationship between competition (market) and the economic optimum is established, the necessary condition of which is Pareto optimality. The presence of external effects leads to a discrepancy between public and private estimates of the economic effect [8].
Simultaneously with the visible deterioration of the environmental situation in many countries, environment economics began to be formed or — the economy of nature exploitation, an analysis of the interrelations between the natural environment and economic growth began. Forecasting on its basis and working out of scenarios for the development of mankind in the future, the possibility of a market
mechanism in the field of environmental protection, etc. began to be implemented [9, 10].
The economy of nature exploitation is part of a group of economic disciplines that have arisen at the intersection of sciences, hence it is interdisciplinary.
The economy of nature exploitation is a science that studies with the help of economic methods the processes and results of interaction between society and the natural environment, which considers a set of interrelated problems of rational nature exploitation. This is a relatively independent branch of economic knowledge, the subject of which is the study of people's relations in the process of using, protecting, reproducing the resources of nature in order to satisfy needs, as well as the mechanism of action and use of ecological-economic regularities. The immediate subj ect of the nature exploitation economy is the processes of reproduction of the quality the natural environment as a specific public good in conditions of amplify limitation the natural-resource potential and environmental protection.
The main task of the nature exploitation economy is to overcome the departmental approach and unite the branches of the economy with the aim of realizing the principles optimal interaction between society and nature and the formation of
ecological-economic thinking. In general, it should ensure the transition of society to the model of "sustainable growth". More specific tasks of science are in the search for acceptable forms of economic realization of ownership of natural resources, in the formation of an economic mechanism nature exploitation for the use of natural resources on the basis of paid nature exploitation, market levers through regulation from the state in the person of social subjects of property natural wealth [11].
In general, the practical aspect of the nature exploitation economy unites three groups of problems:
- economic assessment of natural resources;
- calculations (assessment) of economic damage from environmental pollution;
- ways of involving ecological factors in the economic mechanism and the decision-making process in society.
The economy of nature exploitation is closely connected, apart from nature management, to economic theory (studying the contradictions of needs and limited resources, externalities, demand, supply, etc.), functional and sectoral economic disciplines (finance, statistics, forest economics, water economy etc.), social and economic geography, as well as a number of natural (first of all it's ecology) and technical sciences.
The economy of nature exploitation explores its subject at a higher level of abstraction, with macro-economic positions and the economic-ecological priority. It also deals with the analysis of microeco-nomic processes (problems of environmental entre-preneurship, marketing, etc.).
This discipline in its research uses an arsenal of well-known techniques used by many sciences. First of all, it applies the following methods: dialectical, balance, normative, system, economic-mathematical, statistical, cartographic, modeling. Its methodological tools have now been significantly updated due to software-targeted optimization. The economy of nature exploitation is formed on the principles of objectivity, scientific character and historicism.
The analysis of the object and the subject of the nature management economy shows that its basic and key concepts are: "the natural environment", "the environment", "the biosphere", "the noosphere", "natural resources and natural conditions", "natural-resource potential", "nature exploitation", "nature protection", "pollution of the environment", etc.
Nature in the economy of nature exploitation is considered as a closed, self-sufficient, self-developing system, which without human intervention is maintained in an equilibrium state.
The natural environment is the environment of human habitation and production, including elements of an artificially created environment.
Humanity is born of the biosphere (an area of active life, where alive organisms and their habitat are organically bound and are a dynamic system) beyond which it can not exist. The thickness of the biosphere is 20-30 km. The "film of life" is mainly concentrated on the earth's surface. The main structural elements of the biosphere are landscapes and biogeocenoses.
At present, the theory of ecological-economic systems, that is, the integration of economy and nature is widely spread. Unlike ecosystems, ecological-economic systems are not of a closed nature and are open. An important task of the development of ecological-economic systems is the maximum use of natural material, the transformation of production into a more closed system.
Ecological-economic systems consist of three main components: society, livelihoods and environment. All three components of the ecological-economic systems are connected through a cycle of substances in nature.
The process of nature exploitation is always carried out within a certain territory and therefore allocates a regional ecological-economic system. Its structure predetermines relations of six types, reflecting the corresponding processes:
1) socio-economic — direct links in the sphere of production;
2) ecological-direct links in biocenoses (ecosystems);
3) economic-ecological — the impact of the environment on the conditions of social production;
4) ecological-economic — nature exploitation and other types of economic impact on the natural environment;
5) socio-ecological — the impact of the natural environment on people's health and living conditions;
6) ecological-social — the direct impact of the population on the natural environment.
Totality of natural elements, properties and phenomena that can be mobilized, brought into use, used to ensure the functioning of the economy, presented as a natural potential or ecological-economic potential. This potential determines the possibility of economic development.
Nature presented as a potential, being outside the economy. The natural potential acts on the one hand as a resource potential, and on the other hand as an external environment of the economy that provides the general conditions for its functioning, the possibility of involving in production and consumption of resources, recycling, a receiver ofwaste life, that is, as an ecological potential.
The same objects of nature can simultaneously belong to the resource and ecological potential (forests, atmosphere and hydrosphere). The natural-resource potential and ecological potential differ, first of all, by the role of the elements related to them in social reproduction. The natural-resource potential usually represents the substance of a social product, and its use presupposes the preliminary expenditure of labor. The ecological potential provides external conditions for involving elements of the natural-resource potential into the economic turnover, presenting for this purpose space, natural-climatic factors, the possibility of receiving production and consumption wastes. The ecological potential renders its services to a certain point without any preliminary labor costs. Individual components of the
natural-resource potential are usually used separately and become an object of ownership and, accordingly, purchase and sale.
Ecological-economic potential means only the possibility of the participation objects of nature in social production and ensuring the vital activity of people. When opportunity becomes a necessity, the elements of nature are transformed into natural resources and natural conditions [12].
Statistics show that the rate of decline in GNP, in most cases, is faster than the rate of decline in the values of environmental indicators, which means an increase in specific indicators of resource consumption and pollution per unit of GDP.
Consumption of water and fish catch increased in comparison with the dynamics of GDP. The extent of deforestation has decreased, primarily due to the unsustainable practice of deforestation and the need to develop remote and hard-to-reach arrays. The volume of fertilizer application in the soil has sharply decreased, which is largely due to their high cost.
The specific indicators of discharge of polluted sewage and the formation of toxic waste have grown (the latter even in absolute terms). Specific indicators of emissions of pollutants from stationary sources into the atmosphere have practically not changed. This was primarily due to the suppression of emissions of solids while maintaining high specific values of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. At the same time, the total flow of pollutants into the atmosphere from mobile vehicles increased in percentage terms, with the bulk of these emissions coming from road transport.
The dynamics the one of the most important indicators characterizing the stability of economic development — energy intensity (energy consumption per unit of GDP) is deteriorating. In fact, this indicator can be considered as one of the main indicators of the ecological efficiency of economic development. It is steadily growing and for example, in Ukraine [13] this indicator is several
times higher than the average for OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The high energy intensity of the Ukrainian economy is characterized by its anti-ecological, unstable type of development.
Science economics studies methods of distribution limited (rare) resources of any kind, including material, financial, human, etc. When analyzing the methods of distribution limited resources, the economy seeks the best, in which the greatest possible satisfaction of needs is achieved. The problem of choosing directions for the use of rare resources is posed and solved by people, therefore the economy examines not the resources as such, but the economic behavior of people who distribute these resources and solve the problem of choice for themselves. Based on the general principles of scientific methodology and proceeding from the fundamental premise of rational human behavior, the economy integrates the achievements of its private sections, such as demography, statistics, financial analysis, the firm's economy, etc.
The economy of nature exploitation is part of economics and studies the behavior of people who distribute natural resources, and including the assimilation potential characterizes the ability of the natural environment to self-recover. A limited resource — a clean environment is not adequately accounted for in traditional economic decisions about the production of goods and services. The economy of nature exploitation reveals the reasons for this state of affairs and rectifies the situation. It is widely used data of natural sciences: geography, ecology, biology, etc. The economy of nature exploitation as a science was formed at a time when it became obvious that natural goods are exhaustible, should be economically valued and can not be considered a free gift of nature.
At the same time, ecological problems have become extremely acute, which have turned from local to national and global threats. Priorities of the
domestic and foreign policies of states have been the struggle against pollution of the atmosphere and reservoirs, control over energy resources, protection from toxic waste and the conservation of endangered plant and animal species. The economy of nature exploitation has proved to be in demand by decision-makers to search for and justify the effectiveness of accounting for the ecological factor in their economic policies, and to identify a set of tools that effectively manage the nature exploitation process.
The ecological crisis, which has as its primary cause an excess of anthropogenic load over the limits of the recovery capacity the biosphere, has demonstrated the limited possibilities of the existing economic models development (centralized planning system, unregulated market economy) to successfully solve environmental problems.
International organizations of the United Nations developed a methodology for assessing human development, which includes life expectancy, education, literacy and real GDP per capita. Ideally, the Human Development Index (HDI) is equal to one — when the actual values for the listed parameters coincide with the maximum values. The value of the HDI for Ukraine was 0,743 points in 2016. This indicator belongs to a high category of human development and puts the country on the 84th position out of 188 countries and territories. This indicator should be supplemented with an ecological component, namely, it should also reflect the degree of provision the population with eco-services (eco-benefits). To eco-services in our case should be attributed part of the natural potential, actually used by society, which is estimated in value form.
According to research and development of representatives the school of ecological economics, natural capital performs the following basic ecosystem functions and represents ecological services (see Table 1).
Table 1. - Ecosystem functions and services of natural capital
No. Ecosystem services Ecosystem functions Examples
1 Regulation of the composition the atmosphere Regulation of the composition the atmosphere The balance of СО/О levels SO , the 2 2 х content of ozone
2 Climate regulation Global regulation of temperature and precipitation Greenhouse gas regulation, cloud formation
3 Support of stable states natural environments Ecosystem resilience to natural fluctuations Protection against winds and floods, which is provided mainly by the structure of vegetation
4 Water regulation Regulation of hydrological flows Provision of water resources for agricultural, industrial and transport needs in a sustainable mode
5 Water supply Water storage and retention Provision of water by rivers, lakes, etc.
6 Soil formation Processes of soil formation Accumulation of organic materials
7 Erosion control, soil conservation Preservation of the soil layer Loss prevention
8 Provision of food cycles Storage, processing and presentation of nutrients Processes of nutrition, trophic chains
9 Waste assimilation Restoration of nutrient stocks, etc. Absorption of waste, detoxification, disposal of pollutants
10 Pollination Transfer of pollen Ensuring reproduction of plant communities
11 Biological control Regulation of the dynamics trophic processes Control by predators of the number of herbivores
12 Food production Provision of natural resources used as food Reproduction of fish herds, commercial animals, mushrooms, berries, nuts, etc.
13 Natural raw materials Provision of natural resources used as raw materials for economic activities Wood, useful minerals
14 Genetic resources Sources of unique biological materials and products Provision of materials for the needs of medicine, genetic engineering, decorative plant and animal species
15 Recreation Providing conditions for recreational activities Ecotourism, recreation, sport hunting, fishing, etc.
16 Ensuring cultural needs Provision of conditions for non-commercial use of wildlife Aesthetic, artistic, educational, spiritual and scientific values of ecosystems
The ecological component (CE) of the human development potential index in this case is:
CE = VH + VA + N (1)
where is
VH — volume of health benefits, UAH;
VA — volume of aesthetic benefits, UAH;
Nj — number of jobs related to environmental protection and reproduction of natural-resources potential, UAH (volume of ecological services and activities provided).
To obtain the ecological component, both the cost data (the cost of recreational man-days) and the physical (the production of oxygen by 1 hectare of forest) can be used in relation to the mean values throughout the country.
To assess the role of regional ecosystems in sustainable development of the region, the index of sustainable nature management (I) is proposed:
1 = PcP (2)
where is
PC — volume of commercial products derived from the use of ecosystems, UAH;
P_ — the actual volume of their eco services, UAH.
For selected regions and ecosystems, not only the health-improving functions of these ecosystems for
the local population should be taken into account, but also their contribution to improving the global ecological situation.
In the future it is necessary to obtain zonal (normative) cost volumes of eco services in the calculation of UAH per 1 hectare of different types of ecosystems (forest, steppe, plowed land, etc.) that can be used to assess future and present losses of natural-resource potential in the region, for the development of a payment system (in particular, for transferring from forest land to non-forest) with the receipt of payments not to resource users, but to special sustainable development funds.
The ecological economy offers cost methods of interpreting sustainable development indicators compatible with the current system of economic payments and taxes. Its tools are estimates of the wear and tear of natural capital — losses and damages in various forms of ecologically unfavorable social activities, in general terms — when consuming natural-resource potential of the region. At the same time, it is important to take a more comprehensive account of the interests of participants in the nature exploitation process to assess regional or national economic benefits in the transition to sustainable types of nature exploitation.
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