Economic valuation of natural resources: concept, goals and basic principles

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

There are non-economic and economic evaluations of natural resources. The latter concerns the definition of their social benefit, that is, their contribution to meeting the needs of society through consumption or production.

Extra-economic evaluation shows the importance of the resource, not expressed in economic terms. These are cultural, aesthetic, social or environmental values, but they can also be expressed in monetary terms, since society decides to sacrifice this amount in order to preserve this natural object unchanged. Here there is a production economic assessment of natural resources, that is, a technological one, where differences of one type are determined based on its natural characteristics. For example, coal grades: brown, anthracite and the like.

Rating options

Indicators are used different -barrel, hectare, cubic meter, ton and so on. These are points in which the relative value and economic importance of the source of the resource is calculated. This is a monetary assessment that determines the market value of a given resource, as well as payment for use, coverage of environmental damage, and much more. The economic assessment of natural resources always concerns the economic effect in its monetary terms from the use of a source in one way or another. Thus, it turns out that each resource contains a monetary equivalent of use value.

Let's consider the main goals for which the economic evaluation of natural resources is made and absolutely necessary. Specialists necessarily determine the profitability of its development (calculate the cost). After that, the optimal option and parameters of use, that is, the operation of the facility, are selected. The financial efficiency of investing in this natural complex is assessed. The economic assessment of natural resources performs the functions of analysis in cases of insufficiently rational use of them. The share of this source in the overall structure of the nation's we alth is accurately calculated.

In addition, the economic assessment of natural resources performs the functions of a tax service. Payments and excises are established for the use of this national property, and fines are also established if damage is caused to the state. The economic assessment of natural resources allows you to determine the collateral value of each resource and object, which is also necessary. After this procedure, it is much easier to planand predict the process of using this source. The economic assessment of natural resources allows you to determine the amount of compensation for the disposal or change in the purpose of the purpose of this object. It also helps to justify the most rational forms of ownership of certain natural objects.

Principles of economic valuation

The use of various types of natural resources always requires the most versatile characteristics of each object, while maintaining uniformity in the methods of assessing activities. This requires compliance with the basic principles developed and agreed between the experts. The economic assessment of the use of various types of natural resources is carried out, first of all, according to the principle of complexity, which involves taking into account both the used objects of nature and those affected by the negative impact. Each of the resources used must be considered in terms of all the benefits it brings to the country's economy.

Methods of economic evaluation of natural resources are different, but all of them are taken into account according to the results: as the cost of manufactured products, as the total cost of operation during processing and transportation. All of the above applies to the assessment of the resources of the first group. Those objects that cannot be used at the main stage of development and therefore are subjected to one or another impact with deterioration in quality or complete destruction are evaluated as resources of the second group. A special accounting formula is used in the valuation of the main natural resources to record all this as a cost.

On the planet, there are also renewable we alth that can be reproduced. The methods of economic evaluation of natural resources of such a plan operate on the principle of imperative, when part of the exploited renewable resources (for example, forest) is exposed to an impact in which their quantity decreases or deteriorates in quality. Therefore, this part must be restored in the same form, quantity and quality that it was before industrial development.

If natural resources are not renewable, deductions are taken into account for their economic reproduction or to ensure their replacement with other materials with the same use value. Here, all types of economic assessment of natural resources will operate on the principle of ensuring reproduction. When a property receives the highest rating, its natural resources are considered and valued according to the principle of optimization.

The object can be a variety of sources - forests, deposits with valuable minerals, as well as land. The nature of this economic assessment of the use of natural resources is rather sectoral. In addition, a regional assessment is carried out regarding the totality of we alth in a territorial combination.

What are natural resources

The main natural resources without which mankind cannot exist are soils, water, animals, plants, minerals, gas, oil and so on. All this is used inprocessed or directly. This is our shelter, food, clothes, fuel. These are energy and industrial raw materials from which all comfort items, cars and medicines are made. An economic assessment of natural conditions and resources is necessary, since many types of gifts can run out, that is, they are used once. Such natural resources are called non-renewable, or exhaustible. For example, these are all minerals. Ores can serve as secondary raw materials, but their reserves are also finite. Now there are no conditions on the planet under which they would form again, as happened millions of years ago. And the rate of their formation is low, as we spend them very quickly.

Water or forest can regenerate, no matter how much we use them. However, if we destroy the soil, the forest will not be able to renew either. Therefore, an economic assessment of natural resources is necessary, socially justified, so that the next generations do not have to live on bare land. Let the forest and water today be considered inexhaustible or renewable resources, but their transition to the opposite group is quite possible. That is why each region should study the state of its land and biological we alth in order to take into account and make an economic assessment of natural resources. Firstly, this is a cost estimate with certain justifications for choosing uniform methods and a system of indicators that would reflect all aspects of the value of a particular resource.

For example, an assessment should be madeland to determine the amount of taxation and cost indicators of areas with high environmental value. Prominent foreign and domestic scientists de alt with these issues. Among them are I. V. Turkevich, K. M. Misko, O. K. Zamkov, A. A. Mints, E. S. Karnaukhova, T. S. Khachaturov, K. G. Hoffman. Abroad, the problems of economic assessment of natural resources were considered by F. Harrison, N. Ordway, D. Friedman, P. Pierce, R. Dixon and others. Thus, a unified methodology was developed to determine the cost value of land and biological resources using indicators that are comparable in significance and adequate to the actual value of the object.

Russia's natural potential

The nature management system is always provided with a complex characteristic, where the natural resources of a particular region are presented in aggregate. Like accounting for industries, the value of natural we alth flows into a system that means much more than just a list of certain properties of categories that add up to a certain amount. Resources must be balanced so that the internal tension of the accounting system is not created when, for example, there is no assessment of the economic complex. With a shortage of natural resources, the system acquires some signs, and with an excess - completely different, however, an integral idea of the main properties of the environmental management system can be obtained, since the accounting system performs just such functions. The economic assessment of natural resources gives exactly the integral potential of natural resources available in the region.

In Russia, the Sakhalin Region and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug are the richest in them. The economic assessment of natural resources makes it possible to reasonably determine that the Jewish Autonomous Okrug, the Tomsk Region, the Komi-Permyatsky and Yamalo-Nenets Districts, and the Krasnoyarsk Territory have slightly lower indicators. The Irkutsk, Arkhangelsk, Ulyanovsk, Tambov, Orel, Lipetsk, Belgorod, Kursk regions, as well as Udmurtia and Komi, are well provided with resources. A minimum of useful resources in the Caspian regions. These are the Astrakhan region, Kalmykia and Dagestan. The leader in the intensive use of national we alth is the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. It should be noted that these data relate to accounting, socio-economic assessment, and forecasting of natural resources. The main purpose of the assessment was to analyze the structure of regional nature management.

Classification

When studying various resource groups, the volumes of their development are revealed, which helps to solve the problems of analysis in the system of nature management. The economic assessment of natural resources is expressed in the display of structural diversity, as well as the possibilities of adaptation among the characteristics of a particular region in the process of developing objects. With a minimum imbalance in the system of nature management, the object is the core, according to the accepted terminology. Regions with a large imbalance are called the periphery.

Types of imbalance can be different. Most often, these are cases of insufficient use, for example, of rich deposits, or too intensive development of poor ones. SoThus, the peripheral type of nature management belongs to the conservative or crisis subtype. Nuclear or peripheral properties can also be expressed in different ways, which affects the final results. To obtain them, complementary methods are needed: state diagrams in coordinates that reveal the degree of adaptive stability. The types of economic valuations of natural resources listed above are used here.

In the regions there is always a different balance of nature management. For example, the economic evaluation of natural resources in Russia shows a high degree of heterogeneity. The imbalance is significant in regions where rich nature is not used enough, as well as in areas where the system of nature management is absolutely unprofitable. These are Mari-El, Chuvashia, Komi-Permyatsky Autonomous Okrug, Gorny Altai. A better balance, where resources are used with completeness and diversity, is observed in Ingushetia, Tuva, Kamchatka, Yakutia and some other areas from the same group, classified as a crisis type (periphery).

If nature management is carried out in a complex, but monotonous and monotonous, problems of a different nature appear. Natural potential is drying up in the Orenburg, Rostov, Astrakhan regions, Dagestan and Kalmykia, as well as in the Stavropol Territory, because it is used too intensively, despite the fact that initially there was not much we alth here. The economic classification and evaluation of natural resources in the northern regions, where industry is highly developed (Murmansk, Magadan, Chukotka, Taimyr, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), presents another picture.sharp contradictions. Here, nature has long been demanding compensation for the damage done to it.

Why rich regions suffer more than poor regions

Evaluation of natural resources and economic classification show that regions where there is little we alth in the bowels use them very irrationally. However, it is possible to balance the interaction of economic complexes with nature management. For example, in Astrakhan, Dagestan and Kalmykia, a very small number of forms of using the gifts of nature available there should be used in production. Only then will their developments become effective. The same can be observed in the Taimyr and Nenets districts. This also applies to Murmansk, Magadan, South Urals.

In the Caucasus, for example, there is a shortage of many resources. However, their use is very intensive. In such cases, small private forms of management come to the fore. Each enterprise with a narrow specialization in such regions is bound to grow. For example, nature created the steppes of Kalmykia for sheep breeding, and the same massifs in Orenburg are clearly intended for agriculture, which can be determined by their composition. However, climatic features suggest constant instability in both regions. Sums most often water use. The economic assessment of China's natural and labor resources in the northern and northwestern provinces is very similar to our Kalmykia.

Harmonious and balanced nature management system is observed in the metropolitan areas(Moscow and Leningrad), as well as in the Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk, Ryazan, Vologda regions, in Bashkiria, Khakassia and in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Here the proportions are stable, nature management is complex, along with industrial leaders, small enterprises are quite developed. In the structure of management there are diversified and single-industry producers with highly specialized production. This is reflected in the accounting and economic evaluation of natural resources.

Self-sufficient regions of the country

Regions with key resources always fit well into the economic space of the state (unlike those that nature has deprived of resources). The nature management system of self-sufficient krais and regions fully allows for their autonomous life with a minimum of export and import of raw materials for enterprises and products for the population. The tasks of the economic assessment of natural resources also include the calculation of the self-sufficiency of individual regions by taking into account the needs of importing products for various industries (total demand plus interest to it) and exceeding the development of resource sources against intra-regional needs (total production of goods plus a percentage of it). Summing up these indicators, one can calculate the degree of involvement of a given economy and a given region in the all-Russian exchange of natural resources.

The degree of resource self-sufficiency can be characterized by the size of enterprises that have nothing to do with either export or import. This is how the opportunity is used with a sufficiently high degree of objectivity to assess the sovereignty of each region andits potential. This is especially important if the level of integration of the region into the all-Russian economic space is not high enough. For example, in the Norilsk industrial region, the degree of self-sufficiency reaches 85%. The same is true in the Astrakhan and Sakhalin regions.

In the Koryak Autonomous Okrug, Murmansk, Kaliningrad, Irkutsk, Kamchatka regions, in Komi, on Taimyr, in the Primorsky Territory, this figure is about 80% (it is noteworthy that almost all these regions are coastal). On the other flank of integration are Kabardino-Balkaria, Kalmykia, Ryazan, Orel, Lipetsk regions, Kuzbass, Moscow, Yakutia, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Their level of self-sufficiency in resources without external supplies was only about 58% of the total mass of goods. Of these regions, only Yamal has direct access to Russia's external borders. True, this helps him quite a bit, since there is no sea transport on the peninsula, there are no ports at all.

If we consider the economic assessment of China's natural and labor resources, it should be noted that it will be very different from that in our northern regions, because the geographical and climatic conditions are completely different, although there are also places inaccessible to transport. It is much easier to get to Taimyr - there are Yeniseisk and Dudinka. The assessment of all these factors is also included in the functions of the economic assessment of natural resources.

Modern nature management and its impact on the well-being of residents

Economic valuationregional resources is necessary because they play a decisive role in social production and are part of the country's public domain. This is the most important area of research and practice of economical use of national we alth. The assessment in its content consists of different components, it is not just economic, but also social and environmental.

The need for such studies is obvious, since all natural conditions are taken into account together with the calculation of the possible degree of integrated and rational use of natural resources, as well as the impact of resource development and exploitation on the state of the environment.

Thus, the results of a comprehensive analysis fundamentally affect the well-being of future generations. If we do not adequately evaluate our activities in the field of nature management, the descendants may end up with completely bare, depleted land with gutted pantries.

Calculation methods reflect both domestic and foreign experience. This includes the results of scientific research and practical work. The socio-economic policy of the state controls the use of resources so that society can develop, changing its attitude towards the individual and nature as a whole.

State importance of this work

At present, the economic assessment of natural resources should reflect the feasibility of involving in the economic circulation of a particular object, for example, a deposit, taking into accountlimited and recoverable, possible terms of use, license, tax, environmental and other payments, possible losses from improper development and damage due to external negative factors.

The main purpose of the assessment is to accurately determine the value of the resource in its value terms in the developed mode of rational, integrated, safe use. It also takes into account all restrictions of the environmental plan on the conduct of economic activities or work related to the exploration and development of natural resources.

In this case, tasks are solved for which an economic assessment is necessary. The balance of resource development, their consumption and efficiency (actual, planned, potential) is substantiated. It is also obligatory to take into account each natural resource as part of the rest of the country's we alth. We need a forecast and a plan for the development of the economy. Only in this way is it possible to solve the strategic issues of the economic security of the state.

Mechanisms are being developed to transfer the possession or use of the country's we alth, also on the basis of an economic assessment of natural resources. In addition, systems of economic incentives and taxation in this area are being established. Strategies, medium- and long-term development plans in the social and economic spheres of both the state as a whole and individual regions and territories are substantiated. Indicators of economic assessments of natural resources are included in the system of public relations, in resolving issues of a national scale.

Microeconomic level of valuation of natural resources

operation. An economic assessment is necessary when choosing the optimal terms of use, volumes and technological tasks. It is necessary to determine the economic efficiency of investing in a complex of natural resources, the expected losses.

Also, economic assessment helps to take into account national we alth in the overall structure and in the balance of the we alth of all the people of the country. In addition, with its help, excises and payments for use are established, the amount of compensation is determined in cases where a natural resource changes its intended purpose or ends. There are a lot of tasks for economic evaluation. All of them are associated with an increase in the rationality of the use of certain natural objects.

Valuation today helps to solve a huge number of problems of the national economy. First, a mechanism is being created for accounting for national we alth and a system for their reproduction. Principles for investing in operating industries are being developed, new management methods for developing reserves are being introduced, resource conservation issues are being resolved, development of territories is being ensured that does not violate the overall balance, and much more. Secondly, with the helpThe economic assessment takes into account a variety of losses, which are often associated precisely with the misuse of natural resources, and evaluates in monetary terms the consequences of the impact of economic activity on the ecology of the region.

Three concepts

It should also be noted that it is not entirely correct to understand by economic evaluation only cost conclusions about the state of certain natural resources. All of the above types of assessments are only stages of completion and finality of conclusions. Here it is necessary to single out three interrelated concepts, historically and methodologically developed over a long period of research and practice. The first is costly, the second is market, and the third is social value.

When determining the cost concept, methods are used in the following sequence:

1. The costs are determined: pre-production, direct production and reproduction.
2. Costs are determined: reduced, closing and break-even.
3. Differential costs are estimated: transport, accommodation, etc.

When determining the market concept, the following indicators are evaluated:

1. Rent.
2. Investments.
3. Environmental benefit and harm from activities.

The social value concept takes into account the following assessments:

1. Eco-economic.
2. Socio-economic.
3. Accounting cost.

Andonly on the basis of these three concepts of the approach to resource assessment can one accurately determine the economic significance of a particular natural object, taking into account the goals and objectives set.