The Main Directions of Development of Ecological and Economic Assessment of Lands in the Russian Federation

• Published in: Moscow University soil science bulletin 2023-09, Vol.78 (3), p.187-198
• Main Authors: Makarov, O. A., Kuznetsov, M. S., Tsvetnov, E. V., Bondarenko, E. V., Abdulkhanova, D. R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acidic soils; Agricultural economics; Agricultural land; Alkaline soils; bulls; Damage; Degradation; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; economic analysis; Economic conditions; Economics; Ecosystem assessment; Ecosystem services; ecosystems; Environmental degradation; Environmental economics; Environmental risk; Environmental tax; Green economy; Gypsum; Historical Geology; humans; income; Land degradation; Land pollution; Low level; Mineral fertilizers; Paleontology; Pollution; Risk assessment; Russia; soil; Soil degradation; Soil quality; Soils; Taxation
• ISSN: 0147-6874; 1934-7928
• DOI: 10.3103/S0147687423030092

Approbation was performed for various types of ecological and economic assessment of lands on the territory of the Russian Plain. They were systematized both from the standpoint of the ratio of making profits and causing losses associated with nature management, attributing these varieties to areas of economic science that define the role of human economic activity in different ways in ecological systems. The predominance of those techniques and methods of environmental and economic assessment that are associated with the determination of damage/harm from pollution, degradation, and littering of land in the Russian Federation was shown. The results of approbation of the “Methodology for determining the amount of damage from soil and land degradation” (1994) for agricultural enterprises located in various regions of the Russian Federation—in Volgograd, Belgorod, Kaliningrad, and Penza oblast—are presented. It has been found that the damage caused to agricultural lands of all the studied regions is caused by the low level of agrotechnical measures carried out here, mainly, insufficient application of organic and mineral fertilizers, liming of acidic soils, for example, in Kaliningrad oblast, and gypsum of alkaline soils in Volgograd oblast. Methods that compare income and losses, such as the method of J. von Braun, which adjusts the value of land based on information about their ecological state, are the most difficult to implement, but the most promising from a practical point of view. The results of the adjustment of the cadastral value of land in the Western Administrative District of Moscow based on the calculation of the indicator of the loss of the ecological quality of soils are presented. In a number of cases, the reduction in the cadastral value of land plots amounted to 71% compared to the initial value. It has been established that the assessment of environmental damage belongs to “environmental economics”; the assessment of ecosystem services of soils and lands, the adjustment of the cost of land based on information about their ecological state, and the assessment of environmental tax/environmental payments belong to “ecological economics”, and the methodology of von Braun and assessment of environmental risks of pollution, degradation, and littering of land belong to the direction of “green economics.”