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Fundamentals of Environmental Management Lectures. Ecology and rational nature management as one of the global problems of mankind

The nature of the relationship between nature and man has changed over the course of history. For the first time, they began to think seriously about rational nature management somewhere in the middle of the twentieth century. It was at this time that anthropogenic pressure on the environment became maximum. What is rational nature management and what are its principles - this will be discussed in this article.

The essence of the concept of "nature management"

This term has two meanings. According to the first, nature management is understood as a set of measures for the use of natural resources in order to satisfy economic, industrial, medical and health-improving or other human needs.

The second interpretation provides for the definition of the concept of "nature management" as a scientific discipline. That is, it is, in fact, a theoretical science that studies and evaluates the process of human use of natural resources, and also develops ways to optimize it.

Today it is customary to distinguish between rational and irrational use of natural resources. We will talk about them further, focusing on the first type. For a complete understanding of what rational use of natural resources is, one should also understand what types of natural resources are.

Natural resource classification

Natural resources are understood as those objects (or phenomena) not created by man, which are used by him to satisfy a number of his needs. These include minerals, soil, flora and fauna, surface waters, etc.

All natural resources by the nature of their use by humans can be divided into the following classes:

  • industrial;
  • agricultural;
  • scientific;
  • recreational;
  • medicinal, etc.

They are also divided into two large groups:

  • inexhaustible (eg solar energy, water);
  • exhaustible (oil, natural gas, etc.).

The latter, in turn, are subdivided into renewable and non-renewable natural resources.

It is worth noting that a particular resource can be attributed to a specific group only conditionally. Indeed, even our Sun is not eternal and can "go out" at any time.

Rational nature management provides for the protection and competent use of all types of natural resources and components.

History of nature management

Relationships in the "man - nature" system were not always the same and changed over time. Five periods (or milestones) can be distinguished during which the most important changes in this system of relations took place:

  1. 30,000 years ago. At this time, a person fully adapts to the reality around him, hunting, fishing and gathering.
  2. About 7000 years ago - the stage of the agricultural revolution. It was at this time that a person's transition from gathering and hunting to cultivation of the land and cattle breeding began. This period was characterized by the first attempts to transform landscapes.
  3. The era of the Middle Ages (VIII-XVII centuries). During this period, the load on the environment increases markedly, and crafts emerge.
  4. About 300 years ago - the stage of the industrial revolution that began in Britain. The scale of human influence on nature is increasing significantly, he is trying to fully adapt it to his needs.
  5. The middle of the twentieth century is the stage of the scientific and technological revolution. At this time, relations in the "man - nature" system are qualitatively and strongly changing, and all environmental problems become more acute.

Rational and irrational nature management

What does each of these concepts mean and what are their fundamental differences? It should be noted that rational and irrational use of natural resources are two antipodes, terms. They completely contradict each other.

Rational use of natural resources implies such a way of using the natural environment, in which the interaction in the "man - nature" system remains maximally harmonized. The main features of this type of relationship are:

  • intensive farming;
  • application of the latest scientific achievements and developments;
  • automation of all production processes;
  • introduction of waste-free production technologies.

Rational nature management, examples of which we will give below, is more typical for economically developed countries of the world.

In turn, irrational use of natural resources is understood as unreasonable, unsystematic and predatory use of that part of the natural resource potential that is the most accessible. This behavior leads to the rapid depletion of natural resources.

The main features of this type of nature management are:

  • lack of systematicity and complexity in the development of a specific resource;
  • a large amount of waste during production;
  • extensive farming;
  • great harm to the environment.

Irrational use of natural resources is most typical for the countries of Asia, Latin America and for some states of Eastern Europe.

A few examples

First, we will consider a few activities that can describe environmental management. Examples of such activities include the following:

  • recycling of waste, creation and improvement of waste-free technologies;
  • the creation of nature reserves, national parks and nature reserves, in which the protection of the flora and fauna of the region is in full swing (not in words, but in deeds);
  • reclamation of territories that have suffered from the industrial development of mineral resources, the creation of cultural landscapes.

In turn, we can cite some of the most striking examples of the irrational attitude of man to nature. For example:

  • thoughtless deforestation;
  • poaching, that is, the extermination of certain (rare) species of animals and plants;
  • discharge of untreated wastewater, deliberate pollution of waters and soils with industrial or domestic waste;
  • predatory and aggressive development of accessible subsoil, etc.

Principles of rational nature management

For many decades, scientists and ecologists have developed those principles and conditions that could help optimize the relationship between man and nature. The fundamentals of rational nature management lie, first of all, in effective management, which does not provoke deep and serious changes in the environment. At the same time, natural resources are used as fully and systematically as possible.

The main principles of rational environmental management can be distinguished:

  1. The minimum (so-called "zero level") consumption of natural resources by humans.
  2. Correspondence of the volume of natural resource potential and anthropogenic load on the environment for a particular region.
  3. Preservation of the integrity and normal functioning of ecosystems in the process of their industrial use.
  4. Priority of the environmental factor over economic benefits in the long term (the principle of sustainable development of the region).
  5. Coordination of business cycles with natural ones.

Ways to implement these principles

Are there ways to implement these principles? Is it possible to solve all the problems of rational nature management in practice?

Ways and ways of implementing the principles of nature management actually exist. They can be summarized as follows:

  • deep and comprehensive study of the features and all the nuances of the development of natural resources;
  • rational placement on the territory of industrial enterprises and complexes;
  • development and implementation of effective regional economic systems;
  • determination of a set of environmental protection measures for each region;
  • monitoring, as well as forecasting the consequences of one or another type of human economic activity.

Economy and ecology: the relationship of concepts

These two concepts are closely related to each other. It is not for nothing that they have the same root - "oikos", which means "house, dwelling". However, many still cannot realize that nature is our common and only house.

The concepts of "ecology" and "rational nature management" are practically identical. The so-called paradigms of ecological nature management can reveal them most clearly. There are three of them:

  1. Minimizing human impact on nature in the process of using natural resources.
  2. Optimal (full) use of a specific resource.
  3. Making the most of a particular natural resource to improve the welfare of society.

Finally

Rational use of natural resources and nature protection are concepts that have become extremely important on the threshold of the new millennium. For the first time, mankind seriously thought about the consequences of its activities and about the future of our planet. And it is very important that theoretical principles and declarations do not diverge from real deeds. This requires that every inhabitant of the Earth realizes the importance of correct and rational ecological behavior.

Nature management is a practical human activity in the use of natural resources in order to meet the material and cultural needs of society.

Since man has existed on Earth, he has been continuously interacting with the nature around him. This interaction is both direct and mediated. The basis of direct human interaction with his natural environment is the biological metabolism common to all organisms. However, the most specific and significant for people as social beings is an indirect way of interacting with nature through the use of various technical devices. With such an interaction, an exchange of substances occurs between man and nature, but the pace of its development differs significantly from direct exchange, since its growth is not limited to the natural size of the bodies of organisms, but is due to the development of knowledge and the improvement of technical devices used by people. Thus, the interaction in this case develops according to the principle of positive feedback: the more techniques and technologies are improved, the larger masses of natural matter are set in motion by them, and this process can go on with a continuous increase until some external insurmountable obstacle arises. If our ancestors limited their activities only to adaptation to nature and the appropriation of its finished products, they would never have left the animal state in which they were originally.

Only in opposition to nature, in a constant struggle with it and transformation in accordance with their needs and goals could a creature be formed that had traveled from animal to human. The beginning of a person could only be given by such a not entirely natural form of activity as labor, the main feature of which is the production of certain objects (products) by the subject of labor with the help of other objects (tools). It was labor that became the basis of human evolution. Labor activity, having given a person colossal advantages in the struggle for survival over other creatures, at the same time put him in danger of becoming in time a force capable of destroying the natural environment of his own life.

All previous history can be viewed in an ecological sense as an accelerating process of accumulation of those changes in science, technology and the state of the environment, which, in the end, turned into a modern ecological crisis. The main symptom of this crisis is a sharp qualitative change in the biosphere that has taken place over the past 50 years. Moreover, not so long ago, the first signs of the development of an eco-crisis into an ecological catastrophe appeared, the signs of which are the processes of irreversible destruction of the biosphere. Many experts consider the destruction of the ozone screen in the upper atmosphere, the ever-increasing dehydration of the continental territories of the planet, the loss of climatic stability, and many other trends in the change in the natural environment as such signs.

The ecological problem has put humanity in front of a choice of a further path of development: should it still be focused on unlimited growth of production or this growth should be consistent with the real capabilities of the natural environment and the human body, commensurate not only with the immediate, but also with the distant goals of social development.

All these questions require deep understanding, since a borderline situation of an extraordinary order has arisen. First, it concerns not individuals or human collectives, but all of humanity as a whole. Second, the pace of events is unusual; they clearly outstrip the possibilities of their knowledge, not only at the ordinary level, but even at the level of scientific and theoretical thinking. Thirdly, the problem cannot be solved by a simple use of force, as was often the case before; In many cases, solving environmental problems requires not so much building up technical power as abstaining from activities that, not being a prerequisite for human existence, can be terminated or significantly limited to an environmentally acceptable framework if they are associated with a large consumption of natural resources. The activities that are mandatory for human existence must be carefully thought out in an environmentally friendly manner in relation to both natural resources and human health.

Thus, the time has come for a critical revision of all areas of human activity and those areas of knowledge and spiritual culture that serve them. Mankind as a whole holds an examination for true rationality in the face of the new requirements that the biosphere places on it. These requirements are:

· Biosphere compatibility based on knowledge and use of the laws of conservation of the biosphere;

· Moderation in the consumption of natural resources, overcoming the wastefulness of the consumer structure of society;

· Mutual tolerance and peacefulness of the peoples of the planet in relations with each other;

· Adherence to universally significant, environmentally thought-out and deliberately abandoned global goals of social development.

All these requirements imply the movement of mankind towards a single global integrity based on the joint formation and maintenance of a new planetary shell, which V.I. Vernadsky called the noosphere.

The problems of the environment and the use of natural resources consist of a complex of state, international and public events, the implementation of which is directly dependent on the socio-economic system of various states and their technical capabilities.

The facts characterizing the deterioration of the environment and the wasteful use of natural resources are largely associated with miscalculations, mistakes and vicious practices of some planning and economic bodies, scientific, survey, design and construction organizations, who believe that the achievement of the nearest economic, economic, environmental and other goals has a certain priority over the solution of long-term tasks of preserving the biosphere.

Thus, the deterioration of the natural environment is explained by the following reasons:

1. insufficient knowledge about ecological systems, the boundaries of their sustainable functioning;

2. inability to predict changes in the environment and their impact on human health;

3. departmental and narrow professional limitations in solving economic, engineering and technical issues, underestimating measures to prevent degradation and protect the natural environment and natural and economic facilities;

4. insignificance of developments or lack of technological foundations of waste-free production and economic research aimed at developing criteria for the development of production in order to maintain the balance of the environment;

5. unpreparedness of production;

6. low qualification of personnel working at treatment facilities;

7. a certain psychological unpreparedness and inertia (until recently, issues of nature protection were considered secondary).

Today, the main strategic line in the scientific and economic activities of people should be the formula: to understand to anticipate, to anticipate in order to use it rationally. therefore nature management now it is considered not only as a process of using natural resources, but also as a science that develops general principles for the implementation of any activity related to the use of natural resources and the impact on them, which make it possible to avoid an ecological catastrophe.

It can be conditionally distinguished 3 levels of nature management:

1. Local - the level, limited by the scope of ownership of one subject: household, yard, enterprise or farm;

2. Regional - a set of subjects of one region or country

3. Global - a set of all countries and regions of nature management.

It is important to understand that the direct impact on nature is only at the local level, but the total force of such impacts can cause significant damage to the ecosystem of the region and the biosphere as a whole.

The development of methods and control over the functioning of such a system is carried out at the regional level. In addition, environmental restoration measures are carried out at the regional level. The state as the strongest social institution now exerts the most significant influence on the level of destruction of the ecosystem in a particular region.

The most important tasks nature management as a science is the study of the natural environment as a resource-reproducing system and ways to increase its productivity on the basis of the regularities of the functioning of natural ecosystems, as well as the disclosure of the mechanisms of stability and self-restoration of natural complexes. In other words, a person needs to learn to foresee the future and develop a strategy for designing and creating the natural and technical environment he needs. It should be borne in mind that the environmental problem has at least three aspects:

· technical and economic (associated with the threat of depletion of natural resources);

· ecological (associated with the biological balance of human society with nature under global environmental pollution);

· socio-political, (these problems are associated with the need to solve them not only within individual regions and even countries, but also on a global scale, covering humanity as a whole).

Academician A. V. Sidorenko, formulating the tasks facing science in the field of environmental protection, wrote: “Some 'conservators of nature' advocate the preservation of nature in a pristine state, for leaving nature untouchable in conditions of continuously developing creative human activity In fact, it is necessary to find such methods of economic management, which would take into account natural equilibria towards either minimal harmful effects, or would lead to an improvement in natural potential. "

Developing the stated idea, we can formulate the essence of the concept of "environmental protection".

Protection of Nature (natural environment) - a system of international, state and public events aimed at the rational use, reproduction and protection of natural resources, to improve the state of the natural environment in order to meet the material and cultural needs of both existing and future generations of people.

In other words, nature conservation is a system of measures to optimize the relationship between human society and nature. In nature conservation activities, the protection of the atmosphere, waters, bowels, soil, vegetation, and fauna is distinguished.

Nature management and nature protection are very closely linked. This is already evident from the definitions of these concepts. Therefore, in some cases, nature protection is considered as an integral part of nature management, in others, these concepts are not distinguished. It depends on what is meant by nature management in a particular case.

Depending on the consequences of human economic activity, natural resource use is distinguished between irrational and rational.

Irrational use of natural resourcesleads to depletion (and even disappearance) of natural resources, environmental pollution, disruption of the ecological balance of natural systems, i.e. to an environmental crisis or disaster.

The reasons for the irrational use of natural resources are different. This is insufficient knowledge of the laws of ecology, weak material interest of producers, low ecological culture of the population, etc. In addition, in different countries, issues of nature management and nature protection are solved in different ways, depending on a number of factors: political, economic, social, moral, etc.

Rational nature management is a system of human activity that ensures the most efficient reproduction and economical exploitation of natural resources, taking into account the promising interests of a developing economy and preserving human health; This is an integrated scientifically grounded use of natural resources, in which the maximum possible preservation of natural resource potential is achieved, with minimal disruption of the ability of ecosystems to self-regulation and self-recovery.

Rational nature management obliges to consider natural (ecological) processes and human economic activity as a single bioeconomic system “production - environment”. Consequently, the problem of managing social production develops into an incomparably more complex problem of managing the bioeconomic system. In its most general form, it can be formulated as follows: choose such a ratio between the achieved level of capacity of technological systems and the rate of their growth, which would ensure the preservation of the quality of the environment within certain strictly specified limits.

A rational approach to environmental management should be based on two fundamental principles:

1.the full use of the natural resource is possible,

2. bringing unused production wastes to such a state that they can be assimilated by ecological systems.

Modern practice of using the gifts of nature has developed other principles of rational nature management:

· Exclusion of harmful emissions and waste into the environment;

· Application of non-waste technologies and closed water consumption cycles in all sectors of the national economy;

· Integrated use of mineral resources;

· Full assessment of geological conditions in industrial construction;

· Improving the living conditions of people in all regions of the country by preserving and improving the environment, the main components of which are clean air, clean water, sunlight and moderate temperatures, as well as the beauty and grandeur of nature, which affect the psychological mood of a person.

Ecology is the theoretical foundation for rational nature management and nature protection. The ultimate goal of rational nature management and nature protection is to ensure favorable conditions for human life, economic development, science, culture, etc., to meet the material and cultural needs of the entire human society.

The right to use natural resources is understood in two meanings. In an objective sense, the right to use natural resources is a set of legal norms governing relations regarding the use and protection of natural resources.

The following groups of relations in the field of environmental management are distinguished:

· Relations of ownership of natural resources;

· Relations of use of natural objects;

· Relations on the protection of natural resources.

In a subjective sense, the right to use natural resources is a set of rights and obligations of a specific user of natural resources for the use and protection of a natural object. Legal entities and individuals can be subjects of the right to use natural resources.

The right to use natural resources is derived from the property right to natural resources. Users of natural resources exercise their right either by virtue of their ownership right to a natural object, or on the basis of the title right to use a natural object provided by the owner of natural resources, for example, the right to lease, the right to permanent or temporary use, etc.

Objects of the subjective right to use natural resources are specific natural objects or their parts, areas. The object of the right to use natural resources can be only those natural objects that can be individualized in accordance with the established legal procedure. Such objects are land, mineral resources, water bodies, fauna, forests. The subject matter of the right to use natural resources does not include, for example, relations with the use of atmospheric air for breathing, the use of solar energy to satisfy physiological needs. These relations are the subject of regulation of environmental law. The content of the right to use natural resources consists of the rights and obligations of users of natural resources and legal relations aimed at exercising these rights and obligations.

The essence of economic incentives for nature conservation is to create a direct material interest among nature users in the implementation of environmental protection measures. Economic incentives can be carried out by methods of positive and negative motivation. These two sides of economic incentives can be defined as measures of interest and measures of responsibility. The economic mechanism of nature management should not only counteract violations of established rules and regulations with sanctions and fines, but also encourage enterprises and individuals that contribute to the preservation of the natural environment.

Economic mechanisms are based on the principle of maximum profit, which stimulates market participants to minimize costs. It should be noted that such an incentive is valid only in a competitive market, which means that the most important task in the implementation of an economic program for environmental protection is the creation of a competitive environment in all sectors of environmental management.

The total costs of the entity for the exploitation of any natural resource will consist of the following costs:

Resource fee (license, quota)

Fines for poor resource use

Losses from pollution (drop in harvest, decrease in capitalization)

Social losses (loss of consumer confidence, staff dissatisfaction)

· Costs for nature protection

The level of pressure on the environment will be inversely proportional to the costs of nature conservation, and the size of the remaining losses will be in a non-linear relationship to this load.

This dependence can be schematically represented in the form of a graph (Fig. 10).

Figure 10. Graph of dependence of costs and environmental load

The curves characterize the costs of nature conservation, resource fees and other costs (fines, losses). The costs of the subject for the conduct of nature management activities will be the sum of these functions and reach a minimum at point V 3. Accordingly, it is necessary that the point V 3 corresponds to the assimilation potential of the environment (APOS), and the funds received in the form of payment for pollution were directed to increase this potential.

Thus, for the economic stimulation of rational environmental management, it is necessary to assess the assimilation potential of the environment in relation to a specific type of pollution, to build a curve of costs for its cleaning and a curve of losses of the user himself from pollution, and then to develop a system of payments and fines so that the amount of costs reaches a minimum at the level of AOS ...

The introduction of fines and fees for the use of natural resources is the most obvious, but not the most optimal method of economic stimulation. As you know, such payments are very difficult and expensive to administer, in addition, they create preconditions for the growth of corruption, so it is necessary to make efforts to increase the environmental awareness and social responsibility of the population. Creation of a system of environmental education, raising public awareness of the environmental situation, support of public environmental organizations can bring significant environmental and economic benefits

The system of economic mechanisms for the protection of nature and the human environment includes:

· Keeping cadastres;

· Planning and financing of environmental activities;

· Setting limits for the use of natural resources, emissions and discharges of pollutants into the environment and waste disposal;

· Establishment of standards for payments and amounts of payments for the use of natural resources, emissions and discharges of pollutants into the environment, waste disposal and other types of harmful effects;

· Environmental insurance;

· Environmental and economic incentives.

Natural resource inventories - these are systematized collections or a kind of databanks, including qualitative and quantitative descriptions of resources, and in some cases, their ecological and economic assessment. They are necessary to organize the efficient use of resources, rational placement and determination of the specialization of economic facilities, for environmental protection measures. On the basis of cadastres, the economic assessment of natural resources, their sale price, and the cost of measures to restore and improve the environment are determined.

There are two main approaches to the compilation of inventories - sectoral (for certain types of natural resources) and regional (for the republics and regions of Russia). Sectoral cadastres include land, minerals, water, forestry.

Most elaborate land Registry... It includes information on the natural, economic and legal status of lands, data on types of land use, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of land by type of land, qualitative assessment (appraisal) of soils, economic assessment of land. Cadastre materials are used in planning the use of land, distributing them for their intended purpose (in the case of provision or withdrawal), in determining payments for land and assessing the degree of rational use of land. The land cadastre is maintained by the State Committee for Land Resources and Land Management of the Russian Federation.

Mineral cadastre includes information about the value of each deposit, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of resources, mining, economic, environmental conditions of their development. Its materials are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation (MNR of Russia).

Water cadastre is a systematized, constantly updated and updated collection of information about water bodies, constituting a single state water fund. It contains data on stocks, regime, quality and use of water. The inventory consists of three sections:

1.surface waters (rivers and canals; lakes and reservoirs; quality of land waters; mudflows; glaciers; seas and sea estuaries);

2. groundwater;

3. use of water.

Within the framework of the water cadastre, on the basis of observations conducted by Roshydromet, a data bank on water resources and an automated information system are being created. On the basis of the cadastre materials, the intended use of waters is determined, the certification of water bodies is carried out, the most valuable waters are withdrawn from the economic circulation, and restrictive measures are introduced in order to protect water sources.

Forest cadastre compiled by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia. It contains information on the legal regime of the forest fund, on the quantitative and qualitative assessment of the state of forests, on the group subdivision and category of forests according to their protection, and gives an economic assessment of forest resources. Cadastre materials are used to determine the economic and ecological significance of forests, when choosing raw materials for timber harvesting, for reforestation, replacing low-productivity forests with highly productive forest lands.

The functions of inventories are performed registers hunting animals and fish stocks, on the basis of which quantitative and qualitative registration of animals of the hunting fund and fish resources is carried out, set limits on hunting and catching for those species that show a steady tendency towards population decline. The question of creating a cadastre of landscapes has been raised, work is underway to compile a set of data on specially protected natural objects and recreational areas.

Environmental measures are planned taking into account state forecasts of socio-economic development, federal programs in the field of environmental development of the Russian Federation, target programs in the field of environmental protection of the constituent entities of the Federation on the basis of scientific research aimed at solving problems in the field of environmental protection. Environmental programs and measures to preserve the natural environment are financed from the republican budget, regional budgets, funds from enterprises, institutions and organizations, environmental funds, bank loans, etc.

Funding for environmental activities, including environmental programs at various levels, is carried out from the following sources:

· Budgets of all levels;

· Funds of enterprises, institutions and organizations;

· Environmental insurance funds;

· Bank loans;

· Loans in foreign currency;

· Funds of the population, including voluntary contributions of foreign legal entities and citizens.

Limits in the field of environmental protection - one of the forms of environmental restrictions, which are the volumes of the maximum use of natural resources, emissions and discharges of pollutants into nature and the disposal of industrial waste established by enterprises-users of natural resources for a certain period. When they are introduced, the activities of enterprises in the field of environmental management for some time are regulated not by the standards of maximum permissible emissions and maximum permissible discharges, but by individually established standards, i.e. temporarily agreed emissions.

For a long time, nature management in our country was free, i.e. enterprises used land, water and other natural resources, and also polluted the environment without any compensation. Only in the case of very severe pollution with catastrophic consequences for man and nature, they were forced to pay fines. Such irresponsibility led to the waste of natural resources. At the same time, the state had to invest heavily in prospecting for groundwater and mineral resources, in preparing for their extraction, in planting deforested forests. In the early 90s of the XX century. a payment for the use of natural resources was introduced, including payment for the right to use almost all natural resources, for pollution of the environment, disposal of production wastes in it and for other types of impact. Purposes of paid nature management:

· Rational and comprehensive use of natural resources;

· Stimulation of environmental protection activities;

· Equalization of socio-economic conditions of management when using natural resources;

· Formation of special funding funds for the protection and reproduction of natural resources.

At the same time, the payment for over-limit use and pollution is several times higher than the payment for use and pollution within the limits established by the enterprise. Payment for use and pollution does not exempt the user of natural resources from measures for environmental protection and compensation for damage. Conditions and procedure for the use of natural resources, rights and the obligations of the user of natural resources, the amount of payments are fixed in the agreement and the license (permit) for integrated use of natural resources.

Environmental insurance - this is the creation at the expense of the funds of enterprises, organizations, citizens of special reserve funds (insurance funds) intended to compensate for damage, losses caused by adverse events, environmental and natural disasters, accidents and disasters. In fact, this is, firstly, liability insurance of objects - potential culprits of accidental, unintentional pollution of the environment, and secondly, insurance of their own losses arising from sources of such pollution. The purpose of such insurance is the most complete compensation for environmental damage. The insurance indemnity includes compensation for damage, the costs of cleaning up the contaminated area and bringing it to a suitable condition, the costs of saving the life and property of persons who have suffered harm as a result of the insured event.

Currently the main task is the formation of a legal and regulatory framework for the introduction of environmental insurance and planning for the effective use of reserves of preventive environmental measures generated in insurance companies.

Environmental and economic incentives is an integral part of the economic mechanism that provides interest, profitability for the enterprise and its employees in environmental protection, which includes:

Taxation,

Pricing policy,

Financial and credit mechanism,

State support of enterprises producing environmental protection equipment and instrumentation, as well as firms performing and providing environmental services,

· Creation of an environmental certification system, incl. accreditation of certification bodies,

Formation of a market for environmental works and services,

· Pursuing a policy of trading in pollution rights,

· Licensing the use of resources.

To measures of material encouragementrelate:

· Establishment of tax incentives (the amount of profit from which the tax is levied is reduced by an amount that fully or partially corresponds to environmental costs);

· Exemption from taxation of environmental funds and environmental property;

· Application of incentive prices and markups for environmentally friendly products (vegetables with a reduced content of nitrates, pesticides and other harmful substances can cost more, and therefore it is more profitable to sell and grow them);

· Application of concessional lending to enterprises that effectively carry out measures to protect the environment (reducing interest on loans or interest-free lending).

To measures of material punishments relate:

· Introduction of special additional taxation of environmentally harmful products and products manufactured using environmentally hazardous technologies (i.e. such products, consumption or production of which is dangerous to human health and the environment);

· Fines for violations of environmental legislation.

Incentive measures in the form of additional bonuses or, conversely, deprivation of bonuses, presentation of valuable gifts and other measures of encouragement and punishment based on the results of environmental activities should also be provided for individual employees of the enterprise who are directly involved in it.

In addition to the considered methods of economic stimulation of environmental management, one should highlight such a way as formation of a market for natural resources (creation of resource exchanges, holding auctions and competitions for their development, etc.). This path is especially relevant in the context of the enormous natural wealth of Russia and the lack of funds for its rational use and protection. In this regard, it is of great importance to improve pricing in the nature-exploiting sectors of the economy. In particular, a reasonable increase in prices for natural resources, a more complete consideration of the environmental factor in pricing could stimulate producers to save resources. Another way to improve financing for nature conservation is the creation of extra-budgetary environmental funds, which should be formed as supporting financial structures that complement government spending on environmental goals. A possible economic mechanism for preventing or mitigating the consequences of environmental accidents is liability insurance of enterprises - sources of increased risk for losses due to technological failures or natural disasters that lead to environmental pollution.

The investigated dependences and trends show the ecological inferiority of the existing world economic relations. The fragile environmental stability began to crumble when the globalization of the economy led to an increase in consumption in countries that were former raw materials appendages of the developed Western society.

Thus, in order to prevent an ecological crisis, it is necessary to build a new economy focused on the restoration and maintenance of ecological balance, and a new ideology that reduces the importance of intangible values.

The foundations of the new economy should be:

· Payment for the use of renewable ecological resources, including the assimilation potential of the environment.

High cost of non-renewable resources

Release of products, taking into account its subsequent processing

Increased responsibility for the careless use of natural resources

· Natural decline in the human population.

Questions for self-control

1. Give the concept of environmental management.

2. Describe the levels of environmental management.

3. What are the objectives of environmental management?

4. Name the reasons for the deterioration of the natural environment.

5. What is irrational and rational use of natural resources?

6. Describe the principles of environmental management.

7. What does the system of economic mechanisms for nature protection include?

Resource classification types; the basics of the organization of rational nature management; on the limits of sustainability of resources and the state of the resource base today

Ensuring sustainable development of society is inextricably linked with the rational use of natural resources. Currently nature management is understood as the totality of all forms of human impact on the geographic envelope of the Earth. For a more accurate qualitative and quantitative characterization of nature management, N.F. Reimsrs developed the concept of natural resource potential, that is, that part of the natural resources of the Earth and near space that can actually be involved in economic activity given the technical and socio-economic possibilities under the condition , which is very important, to preserve the human environment.

Resource classification.

The natural resources of the Earth are objects and conditions used in the process of material production to meet the various needs of society. Natural resources can be classified as follows:

on their use:

  • 1) industrial,
  • 2) agricultural,
  • 3) recreational, etc .;

by belonging to a component of nature:

  • 1) space,
  • 2) air,
  • 3) aquatic,
  • 4) soil,
  • 5) biological,
  • 6) geological;

by the nature of the impact:

  • 1) exhaustible,
  • 2) inexhaustible,
  • 3) renewable.

Exhaustibleresources, in turn, are divided into non-renewable and renewable. TO non-renewableincludes such geological resources as oil, coal and others, the reserves of which are not recoverable; to renewable include soil, vegetation, fauna.

To the inexhaustiblealthough rather conditional, belong space (solar radiation, ebb and flow); climatic (heat, moisture, wind energy) and aquaticresources. The conventionality of this definition is associated, firstly, with the limited existence of the solar system and, secondly, with their degradation and, ultimately, exhaustion due to pollution by products of human economic activity and unsuitability for further use.

At the same time, the principle of remoteness of events very often lies at the heart of human nature management. Thus, it is believed that with the development of scientific and technological progress, environmental problems will be solved much easier than now.

Rational nature managementcontributes to the preservation of natural resource potential and human health, the economical use of natural resources and the provision of an effective regime for their reproduction. However, both past and modern production technologies do not provide an opportunity to fully preserve the natural resource potential, only approaching in some cases this optimum. This discrepancy throughout human history contributes to the depletion of certain types of natural resources of the Earth as a whole, causing the development of an ecological crisis.

There are three simple rules for determining the limits of the sustainability of resource consumption.

Rule 1. For renewable resources, consumption rates should not exceed recovery rates.

Rule 2. The rate of consumption of non-renewable resources should not exceed the rate of their replacement by renewable ones. For example, when operating oil fields, part of the proceeds should be invested in the development and production of alternative energy sources, such as solar panels, tidal power plants, etc.

Rule 3. The intensity of the emission of pollutants should not exceed the rate of their processing by the natural environment.

Currently, these rules are not enforced. However, there are significant differences between ecologically developed and developing countries. For developed countries, violation of the third rule is more typical. The amount of industrial waste has increased so much in recent decades that it began to threaten human life. In 2000, the amount of waste reached 100 billion tons per year. The industrialized countries - the USA, Russia and Japan - are the leaders in terms of the amount of solid waste per capita. The leader in per capita household waste is the United States - 500-600 kg per year of garbage.

A significant amount of waste contributes to the pollution of the environment and its components - the atmosphere, hydrosphere, soil.

Every year, 60 million particulate matter is emitted into the Earth's atmosphere, contributing to the formation of the greenhouse effect, acid precipitation, cloudiness of the atmosphere and the formation of smog. The quality of the air environment, in terms of human health, is constantly declining, which is especially typical for large metropolitan areas in developing countries, such as Mexico City with its 20 million population.

By the 90s of the XX century, the total volume of wastewater reached 1,800 km 3, while Europe, North America and Asia account for 90% of the discharge. Most of the discharged water is untreated or insufficiently treated, as a result of which more than 1.3 billion people use polluted waters in their homes, which is the source of many diseases.

Developing countries generally fail to comply with the first rule and therefore suffer from a depletion of renewable resources. Depletion is associated mainly with the rapid population growth due to the demographic explosion and only partly with the increase in production intensity.

Each year, due to the development of erosion processes, developing countries lose 4-5 million hectares of agricultural land. A particularly difficult situation is developing in Africa, where 17% of the area of \u200b\u200bthe entire continent is severely degraded, the area of \u200b\u200bdeserts has significantly increased. The rate of development of new lands and reclamation of disturbed lands lag significantly behind the rate of degradation.

Developing countries have "1/2 of all the world's forest resources. Unsystematic deforestation has led to the fact that if in developed countries, including Russia, the area of \u200b\u200bforests has stabilized, then in these countries there is an annual decrease in their area by 11 million hectares.

Rational use of natural resources is such a use of natural ecosystems or their elements, in which the destruction of resources does not occur and the living environment and, accordingly, human health do not deteriorate. At the same time, the biological diversity of ecosystems is preserved. Deterioration of natural resources, their depletion can and must be prevented. The main ways to solve this problem are:

  • 1) increased waste-free production;
  • 2) development of fundamentally new sources and methods of energy production;
  • 3) solving the demographic problem in developing countries, etc .;
  • 4) development of resource-saving technologies.

QUESTIONS

Explain what is the meaning of the concept nature management.

Please comment on how the Earth's resources can be classified.

Explain what is considered to be an exhaustible resource and what resources are considered inexhaustible.

Consider why environmental management should be sustainable.

What are the rules by which you can determine the limits of the sustainability of resource consumption.

Give examples of anthropogenic impacts on atmospheric resources, water environment, land resources.

Please comment on the ways to prevent the depletion of natural resources.

In the interests of the present and future generations in the USSR, the necessary measures are being taken to protect and scientifically grounded, rational use of the land and its subsoil, water resources, flora and fauna, to maintain clean air and water, ensure the reproduction of natural resources and improve the human environment.

The use of natural resources, or rather rational use of natural resources, should be called a set of measures, the implementation of which ensures the most effective use of the natural resources of a particular territory in the national economy, as well as the protection and transformation of the environment in order to improve the living conditions of people.

The time of spontaneous, reckless use of natural resources and conditions has already passed, and nature management at the present time should be carried out only on a scientific basis, taking into account all the complex processes that occur in the environment, both without and with the participation of humans. It cannot be otherwise, since the anthropogenic impact on nature has now become extremely strong.

It is believed that as a result of the economic activities of people over the past 50 years, our planet has changed to a greater extent than in those 800 thousand years that separate us from the beginning of the mastery of mankind by fire.

The economic activity of people unfolds within the biosphere, the main components of which are: the lithosphere (earth's crust), hydrosphere (various waters - oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, swamps and underground), atmosphere (air) and living organisms (including humans ). Most of all, people change landscapes - natural complexes on the border between the lithosphere and the atmosphere, which are the main place of their life. Landscapes represent the face of the biosphere and are complex combinations of such components in regular interaction as: climate associated with the sun's impact on the Earth; rocks that make up the earth's crust; features of the structure of the Earth's surface; water, in its various forms; plants and animals.

The end result of human management on the surface of our planet in all cases is the depletion of the biosphere in useful components with the simultaneous pollution of all its constituent parts with industrial waste. Surface and partly underground waters are polluted by industrial and domestic wastewater. The atmosphere changes its chemical and physical properties, where gases and solid particles of various compositions enter in larger and larger quantities, emitted by industrial enterprises, boiler houses, large thermal power plants, internal combustion engines, etc. Mineral resources are extracted from the earth's interior, and the places of their development remain quarries with the dumps surrounding them or mine waste heaps. Natural vegetation on the site of plowed fields is destroyed, and their unprotected soil cover is destroyed. The grazing of domestic animals leads to a reduction in natural biological resources and a depletion of the species composition of the vegetation cover. This general result of human activity determines the need to develop such methods of using the biosphere in which its pollution would be minimal, and the use of natural resources would be the most complete and rational. Rational use of natural resources includes:

Organization of the most complete use of natural resources, ranging from various types of mineral raw materials and ending with climate, vegetation and soil cover;

The protection of nature, including in this concept not only the preservation of vegetation and animals from destruction and their reproduction, but also the fight against pollution of the earth's surface, water and air, as well as the protection of remarkable corners of nature, pleasing to the human eye and having a beneficial effect on his psyche;

The transformation of nature, which boils down to improving the existing natural conditions that have developed historically, are stable, but do not meet the requirements that people who live in certain corners of our country make to them. For example, the creation of oases rich in water and vegetation in deserts, which ensure the most efficient use of the large amount of solar heat that is received by the southern regions.

Each of the listed areas of nature management can develop independently. However, at present, given the rapid growth of the population and the continuous increase in its impact on the environment in the course of the modern scientific and technological revolution, the use of natural resources, the protection and transformation of nature should be planned in a complex. Only in this case a person will be able to create a controlled natural environment favorable for life of people and contributing to the most efficient use of natural resources in the interests of the development of the national economy of our country as a whole. The construction of the large Karakum canal, which ensured the all-round development of the national economy and the transformation of nature in the southern outskirts of the Karakum desert in Turkmenistan, can be considered an illustrative example of a well-thought-out organization of the rational use of natural resources, protection and transformation of nature.

In all cases, the organization of rational nature management should be carried out with the expectation of creating landscapes that are stable under new physical and geographical conditions arising as a result of the activities planned for the organization of the development of certain natural resources. The organization of rational nature management should be carried out with the calculation of the maximum approximation of the newly created natural environments to those zonal physical and geographical conditions that exist within the territory under development and are largely a function of the climate. Then the emerging natural-territorial complexes will be the most stable and capable of permanent existence. For example, given the constant supply of water from rivers flowing down from the mountains, for many millennia there have been cultural oases in our Central Asian deserts with their sustainable cultural landscapes. The creation of new anthropogenic landscapes, harmoniously combining the zonal features of nature with the features of technical systems, is the most important task of modern geographical science and practice.

Changes made by man to the natural conditions of certain territories in the course of the development of their raw materials will be sustainable only if the new natural conditions created by him turn out to be close to the existing zonal conditions or to the natural conditions of neighboring zones. For example, in the steppe zone, it is possible to plan the introduction into the landscape of such components as vegetation of a semi-desert or forest-steppe, with which the steppe zone is associated with gradual transitions. This situation is being corrected by azonal conditions, which significantly change the physical and geographical conditions of some areas, natural zones located in the steppe zone. For example, on the hilly sands of the Borovka and Malaya Khobda river basins in the Orenburg region, with their peculiar water and air regime, various tree species, including pine, feel great. Naturally, the transformation of the nature of hilly sands in this part of the steppe zone should consist, first of all, in their afforestation, the expediency of which is proved by the centuries-old existence of the Buzuluk pine forest on the Borovka river and the Shubaragash massif on the Malaya Khobda river.

Azonal changes in natural conditions within natural zones are primarily associated with the difference in the physical and chemical properties of the soils of the forming rocks in individual areas. For this reason, they are more often found in mountain-fold areas, where the parent rocks have different ages, petrographic composition, and properties that vary over short distances. In the Orenburg region, such conditions exist in the eastern part of the region, located in the folded structures of the Urals.

The use of natural resources is the material basis of the economic activity of the population. It is being conducted throughout the vast territory of our Motherland, in various natural zones. For each of them, sooner or later, a set of measures should be developed to ensure the rational use of natural resources, the protection of nature and its transformation.

For the steppe zone of the Urals and adjacent territories, which includes the steppes of the Orenburg region and parts of the Kustanai, Aktobe and Ural regions, the Kazakh SSR, the following main sectoral areas of rational environmental management can be outlined:

Rational use and protection of local water resources (surface and ground waters);

Replenishment of the region's water resources by means of inter-basin diversion of river flow;

Rational use and protection of mineral resources and reclamation of those territories where mining is carried out;

Rational use and protection of land resources;

Rational use, protection and transformation of natural (landscape) conditions for the organization of recreation of the urban and rural population;

Air pollution protection.

In the steppe zone of the Urals and in the adjacent territories, water resources are very limited. The total flow of the Ural River basin is only 10 cubic kilometers of water per year. Therefore, the water demand of industry, agriculture and the population of this vast region can be satisfied only by transferring part of the Volga River runoff and part of the Siberian rivers flow through the projected Tobolsk-Amu Darya canal to the Ural River basin and the upper reaches of the Tobol River. First of all, at least 5 cubic kilometers of water per year should be sent here, the organization of such a transfer will require large-scale hydraulic engineering work: laying canals, building reservoirs, pressure-accumulative hydroelectric power plants, etc., which will lead to significant changes in the nature of the steppe zone of the Urals.

The transfer of a sufficient amount of water to the Ural steppes will make it possible to switch to irrigated agriculture within them and ensure stable agricultural production. The replenishment of the Siberian and Volga water of the Ural River will make it possible to fully use the local runoff for the needs of agriculture and animal husbandry and create a chain of reservoirs in the river valleys of the steppe zone, providing watering of pastures, the development of vegetable growing, the creation of irrigated meadows, the organization of fish farming, the arrangement of recreation areas.

With a general and constant shortage of water and in order to save it, the entire industry developing in the South Urals must be converted to recycled water supply or to waterless technology.

The lack of water and, as a result, the impossibility of diluting industrial and domestic wastewater to maximum permissible concentrations, makes it necessary to propose, as a temporary measure, the use in the Urals of the disposal of difficult-to-clean wastewater in deep horizons of the earth's crust.

The South Ural is a territory rich in various types of minerals, which are being extracted from the earth's interior on an ever larger scale. In the Ural steppes, especially in the folded zone of the Urals, there are many quarries and dumps surrounding these quarries. The areas occupied by them are not yet used in the national economy and are subject to reclamation, restoration of useful lands in their place.

In the steppe zone of the Urals, reclamation work should be aimed at creating permanent or temporary reservoirs in the worked out pits. Water can be used for watering livestock, even temporary, irrigating vegetable gardens and in some cases even for fish farming. These reservoirs must be forested.

Dumps and slopes of quarries should be converted into arable lands, hayfields and pastures. For this, they, first of all, must be flattened, covered with loose weathering products removed from the bodies of minerals during their development, if these products do not contain impurities harmful to plants, and then covered with black soil.

On leveled and humus-covered areas, various crops and grasses can be sown.

Observations have shown that the development of vegetation on dumps and quarry walls largely depends on the petrographic and, consequently, the chemical composition of the rocks that form the dumps and slopes. For example, on brown Quaternary clays of the Cis-Urals and on the weathering crust of ultramafic rocks of the Eastern Orenburg region, vegetation develops well, but on the eluvium of writing chalk, white kaolin clays and rocks rich in iron oxides, it is poor. All this determines the need for a thorough study of the conditions for biological reclamation of each open pit and dump, especially within the Ural fold zone. It will be possible to count on the success of biological reclamation only with the strictest consideration of all the properties of the cultivated species and the ability of plants to develop on them.

The Southern Urals and the adjacent areas have the most valuable agricultural lands: within their limits there are about 15 million hectares of fertile black earth and dark chestnut soils. Therefore, the correct solution of the problem of the most rational use of the soil cover is of the most important national economic importance here.

It was mentioned above that the agricultural future of the Southern Urals lies in irrigated agriculture. At the same time, it is quite obvious that the preservation and rational and long-term use of soil fertility is possible only by organizing the fight against erosion (erosion) and deflation (waving) of the soil cover.

One of the simplest and mandatory measures to slow down erosion - plowing horizontally - is not always performed. Moldless plowing, which has proven itself in the Eastern Orenburg region, should become more widespread. It is necessary to fight the formation and growth of ravines everywhere.

The presence in the steppes of the Southern Urals of a large number of deposits of various minerals determined the formation of several industrial centers and the construction of individual enterprises processing mineral raw materials. Orsk and Novotroitsk, Orenburg, Mednogorsk, Kuvandyk, Aktyubinsk and Uralsk have a number of enterprises emitting harmful gases, smoke and dust that contaminate the atmosphere. The struggle for its purity is not yet vigorously pursued.

The successful economic and social development of our state provides for the organization of good recreation for Soviet people. For the inhabitants of the steppe zone of the Urals, with its hot and dry climate, low-water rivers and treelessness, summer rest - not far from home - is essential. The recreational resources of the Ural steppes have not yet been properly studied and evaluated, and they are not so small.

The floodplains of such rivers as the Ural, Sakmara, Samara and, to a lesser extent, the Ilek, attract attention as places of recreation. There are places of remarkable beauty in the Guberlin Mountains, where there is every reason to create large recreation areas of regional and republican significance. For recreational purposes, the shores of the Iriklinsky reservoir and those reservoirs that are planned to be built in the future can be used. You can organize recreation in the Orenburg region on the outskirts of the Buzuluk pine forest and small pine forests in the Totsky region and along the right bank of the Samara river near the village of Nikiforovka in the Buzuluk region. Pine forests in the Kvarkensky district of the Orenburg region are especially suitable for this purpose. On the southernmost outskirts of this area, the vicinity of the Shubaragash forest in the Sol-Iletsk region can be used to create a recreation area of \u200b\u200blocal importance.

The small number of recreational lands available in the steppes of the Southern Urals and their small size make us pay special attention to their protection and rational use. First of all, all floodplain forests must be closed for passage by cars. In the same forests, it is necessary to stop all kinds of felling, except for sanitary ones. Fulfillment of the timber harvesting plan by the leshozes leads to the destruction of floodplain forests.

The organization of recreational areas for urban and rural populations must be well-founded and planned. During the construction of these zones, nature-transforming measures are inevitable, such as laying roads, creating ponds, replanting trees, etc. When planning the construction of rest houses, sanatoriums, tourist and sports centers, it is necessary to take into account everywhere the presence of mineral waters within the Ural part of the steppe zone, occurring at depths of 300 meters and below, suitable for medicinal purposes. Post Views: 294

In modern universities, in the first years, they introduced a compulsory subject of study - ecology. During the class, the teacher tries to convey to the students the basics of ecology and rational nature management. There are different tutorials (Gurova, Khvanta, for example), but the essence is the same everywhere. Let us briefly describe to you the content of the entire discipline.

General information about ecology

Nature protection, like any other science, is based on theory.

Ecology is the very theoretical (scientific) basis of nature management, nature protection - a system of state and social measures that are aimed at ensuring the harmonious interaction of nature and society, which will contribute to the conservation, reproduction and rational use of natural resources and habitat.

Everything we do affects our environment in one way or another. But since we cannot simply take and do nothing, we should simply develop a set of measures for more rational conduct of activities. Therefore, pundits have introduced a more correct term than ecology - rational use of natural resources.

Rational nature management isa regime for the use of natural resources, which allows humanity to obtain maximum benefits with minimum possible damage to the natural environment.

Within the framework of this discipline, the concept of environmental safety arose - the need to develop a whole range of measures to prevent extreme natural or anthropogenic (that is, caused by a human hand) situations in nature.

In general, such philosophers-scientists as Gauze, Vernadsky, Bolotov, etc., began to deal with the problems of rational environmental management. The latter, by the way, developed a whole system rules-laws cooperation with the environment. The American Commoner followed in the same direction and formulated clearer rules with the same basic messages. So, here they are ...

Barry Commoner's Laws

Law 1: everything is related to everything

In the biosphere, there is a complex network of interactions, which should prevent a rash impact on nature by humans, as this can lead to irreparable and serious consequences.

Taking into account modern realities, it would be reasonable to slightly correct this concept to the following form: everything is connected with everything, however, these connections can range from significant to extremely insignificant (small) .

Law 2: everything goes somewhere

A bit like the modern wording of the energy conservation law, doesn't it?

But this rule includes consideration of the problem by the waste of material production. We extract some substances from the bowels of the earth, then transform them into others, which are then scattered back through the environment. But at the same time we do not take into account at all that all this is also disappearing somewhere.

It would seem that we just returned what we took. But in reality, no - most of the substances we have transformed accumulate in those places that are completely unforeseen by nature.

It is interesting!

From an ecological point of view, dirt is chemical compounds out of place.

This problem is especially acute today, when disposable packaging and products are mass-produced, which will have to be put somewhere, but no one thinks where.

This problem is well described in the book "Fundamentals of Ecology and Environmental Management" by Gurov

Law 3: nature knows best

Natural systems have been developed over millions of years, so it is not for us to violate the established order. By interfering with biological evolution, we can harm and most likely harm, but above all ourselves.

Law 4: nothing is free

Or otherwise - you have to pay for everything. The natural environment is a global ecosystem that is a single mechanism (or organism). And by taking something out of it, we are obliged to return it or compensate for the damage caused.

The moral of this fable is ...

All this is what ... To the fact that we must learn to use the resources provided to us by nature as efficiently as possible. The issue of rational nature management can be solved in the following ways:

  • A deeper study of the conditions for the use of natural resources;
  • Development of a set of measures for optimal use;
  • Effective and sparing territorial arrangement of production;
  • Thorough thinking through regional economic systems;
  • Forecasting and real assessment of the consequences of households. human activities, etc.

These are, perhaps, the most basic points that you will have to learn in the lessons of ecology and environmental management. Well, if the teacher decides not only to present you with this knowledge, but also to arrange a test of the material learned, you do not have to learn this information. Contact our authors, and they will be happy to help you write a report, abstract, control or if you want!