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UDC 630*652
ECONOMIC ESSENCE OF FOREST RESOURCES
Dubas R.G., Associate Professor Kiev State University of Management and Entrepreneurship, Kiev, Ukraine
E-mail: dubasr@ukr.net
ABSTRACT
The economic essence of the forest as an object of ecological and economical estimation is theoretically grounded. It will allow to determine the ways of the effective exploitation of forest resources and to increase their protective functions. It will help to create ecological, social and economic advantages.
KEY WORDS
Forest resources; Cost estimation; Forest geobiocenosis; Natural resources; Ecological and economic evaluation.
Ecological and economic evaluation of forest resources presupposes researching into the economic conception of forest and defining the constituents of forest resources, which are the objects of evaluation. Scientists formulated the conception of the forest as an economic phenomenon and as an element of the economic sphere. This assumption is based on the fact that forest is included in the processes of public production and distribution of wealth; relations of public production among people are embodied in forests. Forest experts are inclined to believe that the economically untapped forest, yet arranged even in the form of compartments, is already a phenomenon of economy, which is included in the sphere of material production [1,2,3]. The forest becomes an economic factor only when there are functioning economic relations among people and the proclaimed right of ownership of forests is exercised. To put it in a different way, legal relationships based on economic ones emerge in case of the economic exploitation of the forest. Then the natural factor of forests is converted into an economic factor.
Economic basis underlies the valuation of forests. Being an object of labour, forest possesses certain characteristics of quality and location. Forest can potentially bring differentiated income to sales or provision of services. The objects of valuation are not land or natural resources of forests, but their capability to satisfy human needs [3,4].
Forest resources play a role as a source of timber raw material (standing timber), as an important mean of forestry (forest land) and as an element of the biosphere and nature preservation (forest ecosystem). The economic aspect of forest resources includes both standing timber and forest land, which, taken together, are the main means of production in forest industry. The distinctive feature of forest resources is the fact that any part of the forest is at the same time a source of raw materials, a mean of production and an ecosystem [5]. The only difference is in the predominance of one of these features on a particular area.
The natural environment and the whole range of the natural resources (soil, forest, water, wildlife), combined with the natural conditions (air, light, heat, etc.) constitute an objective and indispensible premise for the process of the renewal of forest resources. The role of natural processes in forest life is so important that the presence of natural sources of seed production or seedlings, reforestation and subsequent forest growth occurs without human intervention. The ability of the forest for self-recovery is sometimes considered as a specific feature of the forest. It is not quite true, as forest industry should not be confused with the natural characteristics of the forest as of a natural renewable resource [5].
The renewal of forest resources is possible only when there are two co-occurring processes: forest growth - the creation and preservation of certain producing standing trees, and tree felling - the exclusion from the process of growing those forest areas that has lost their productivity. These two sides of a single process of the renewal of forest resources are
contradictory since an increase in forest exploitation depends at the same time on the decrease in produced reserves and vice versa.
ANALYSIS OF THE RECENT RESEARCH
Silvicultural conceptions of forests is especially well-grounded in the works of Morozov, G.F. and Sukachyov, V. [7,8]. In these works the subject of the development of the theory of forest management was the organic unity of standing trees, soil and other components of the forest (which form an ecosystem). According to Suckachyov [8], any part of the forest with homogeneous composition, structure, properties of its components and relations between them, i.e, an area of forest homogeneous in living elements of nature (vegetation, soil and hydrological conditions) connected by metabolism and energy exchange establish forest biogeocenosis. The analysis of scientific approaches which define the essence of silvicultural and economic conception of the forest somehow expands the meaning of this conception. It presents a more reasonable approach to the choice of the object of assessment and valuation of forest resources.
Objectives of the article. Expanding the theoretical conception of the forest as of the economic phenomenon and developing a matrix of components of forest resources, which are the objects of their environmental and economic evaluation.
THE MAIN RESULTS OF THE STUDY
The theory of forest management (biogeocenosis) of the above-mentioned scholars is reduced to the conception of the forest as a form of flora. This theory views forests as an organic unity of the living and non-living elements of the forest, in which the leading active principle is the living matter. Thus the forest is a component of biosphere. It constantly interacts with the environment. Each type of biogeocenoses has its own special ecosystem balance of light and heat energy, organic and non-organic matter. Soil and soil-forming parent rock, water and atmosphere are the initial material, whilst plants, animals and microorganisms are transformers of metabolism and energy exchange. They are also the result of the interaction of the different components of ecosystem. The indicator of the intensity of the ecosystem processes in each biogeocenosis is the formation of biomass. Biomass is the amount of substance that is accumulated in biocenosis (a total range of plants and animals) or in the biosphere at any time. Biomass is expressed in units of wet and basis; it is sometimes equal to the units of energy (calories) per unit of surface or volume (the plant biomass is 99% and the animal biomass is only 1% in the biosphere). [9]
Consequently, the forest (forest ecosystem) is more or less large area which s characterized by a relatively high density of trees. It is one of the main types of vegetation that combines different plant groups (phytocenosis) with a dominant layer.Plants that form forests interact with each other, multicellular animals, microorganisms and the atmosphere.
Silvicultural aspect of the theory of forest management is scientifically important for the economy of forest industry due to the fast that silvicultural and economic views on the forest should be related to one subject and reveal different aspects of the same real object - the forest.
The ability of the forest land and other forest resources to satisfy human needs is marked by the fact since the initial stage of the development of human society forests were included into a sphere of material production. The necessity to satisfy human needs for timber and other forest products has led to the separation of particular spheres of human labor, later named forestry.
The essence of ecological and economic evaluation of forest resources should be bases on the interpretation of the term "evaluation". Evaluation constitutes an axiological problem. [3] The value shows the actual relation between the human and the environmental phenomena. The value should not be given the same status as the object itself, but should display the value of an object through its ability to satisfy the needs of society. In this case,
the needs of people are a subjective factor to the values, and the values are identified by objective features of the subject of evaluation, which possesses the value.
Therefore, according to the laws of dialectics, the objective and subjective sides of the value of the subject interact in the course of evaluation. As the value is determined by the double dependence, it cannot be imputed to the subject which is a possessor of the value, because it is not a natural property of an object, although it is associated with it as a possessor of the value. The subject, the property of which is the need, can acquire value from the object which possesses certain features only in practical interaction [10].
Hence, the valuation of forest resources should be carried out through the assessment of their influence on the results of public production. Useful features of forests make it possible to evaluate their economic resources. However, there are inaccessible forest resources which are very remote or of such poor quality that they do not establish any demand and are not used for any economic purpose. Such resources are purely natural, not the economic ones. Nevertheless, the considerable majority of forests can be used for creating one or more types of products and services. So, the object of valuation is the capacity of forest resources to satisfy the needs of society.
Forest lands and standing timber are economic resources if they are used in production of other resources, products or services. Besides, forest resources, which are used with a definite economic target, are a component of the general productive resources. The conception of production resources, concerning the forest, is an evaluated part of the general physical reserves of the forest [6]. Forest resources belong to one of two groups of productive resources. Forest lands of the first group are differentiated by productivity which allows creation of rent for the best areas as opposed to the worst. Thus, forest lands are means of production, and standing timber falls into category of capital and is evaluated mainly through the final cost of goods and services which can be received as a result of forest exploitation [6].
It is not only labour input, but nature as well participates in creation of the main resource of the forest - a timber reserves. A material result of natural and productive forces which affect a forest biogeocenosis is the current gain of organic compounds (timber, organic matter of the objects of minor forest production, fauna, etc.) which remains a part of biogeocenosis and therefore cannot produce any commercial output. The forest as biogeocenosis or the "standing timber - soil" complex does not change significantly (this can be said about the soil) in the course of silvicultural activity. The forest is just stored and it predominantly improves. The forest biogeocenosis also does not deteriorate in the course of forest exploitation and hence the costs of forest growing should be related to timber in the course of timber harvesting and selling as to a material embodiment of labour and the possessor of cost [3,11].
In evaluating forest resources it is necessary to consider the whole effect from the exploitation of various products and utilities by the society. Such valuation is possible if the forest is regarded as the range of resources and the properties, exploiting of which provides such an effect. It is thus reasonable to estimate the real and potential cost of each of the constituents of forest resources.
Results of the valuation of forest resources are necessary for: maintaining the State Forest Cadastre; recording forests as a part of national wealth of the country; choosing the best option of alienation of forest lands; justifying the reasonability of transformation of forest lands into agricultural lands and vice versa; calculating the amount of payments for the exploitation of forest resources and for the rent; estimating the economic efficiency of the measures for improvement of forest exploitation and restoration of forest resources; estimating the damage caused by natural disasters and anthropogenic factors; generally analyzing economic activity of the silvicultural enterprises.
Depending on the above-stated purposes, the subjects of the valuation of forest resources are: forest as a type of land and object of multi-purpose using; land as the main mean of production in silvicultural activities; standing timber as a subject and a product of labour; resources of minor and lifetime forest exploitation.
The objects of valuation are various elements of forest resources which in aggregate form the complex assessment. The assessment shows the economic effect of multi-purpose exploitation of the resources (Fig. 1).
Figure 1 - The constituents of the forest and its useful functions as objects of valuation of forest
resources
The structure of the evaluated resources of minor forest production consists of: haying; cattle pasture; permanent and temporary agricultural exploitation; use of wild-growing nut-bearing and fruit and berry plantings; collecting mushrooms, hops, moss, forest laying, medical and technical raw materials; procurement of scirpus and other grass-like species. Tree sap and galipot, which belong to a group of the resources of tapping, are also procured. Woody forage, bass, bast, birch bark, tannic bark, New Year trees, eradication, etc. are raw materials of a timber origin. Peat, sand, clay, slates, granite, pebble, gravel, chalk, mineral water and so forth are resources of a mineral origin.
However, this list of the constituents of forest resources does not exhaust all the variety of useful resources that appear during social development. The increase in exploitation of forest raw material resources and the growing importance of social and protective functions of forests make forest resources more important for national economy.
REFERENCES
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