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The EU has set out its vision for Europe's social market economy in the Europe 2020 strategy, which aims at confronting our structural weaknesses through progress in smart specialization. In line with the Guide to Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization, this paper aims to identify key directions of sustainable innovative development of Russian resource regions and determine their readiness for smart specialization. Relying on clustering methodological approaches, this study has revealed: 1) economically developed resource regions, ready for smart specialization by attracting private sector investment; 2) resource regions ready for smart specialization using only public-private partnership, 3) enclave resource regions that initially require significant government support to enhance their investment attractiveness for private sector participation. The use of public-private partnerships and other forms of state support is a priority task at the initial stage, while regions with weak economic structure should receive support from the state until they become attractive to active private capital investing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal regions house a high concentration of often contradictory activities, directly impacting on the quality of their environment and the sustainable development of these areas. The density of these activities in a limited and geographically defined spatial coastal zone, poses significant challenges and pressures on the marine environment, as most of the activities and services are closely interrelated to marine ecosystems. The international community is developing and implementing important measures for the sustainable development of coastal communities, including the creation of marine protected area (MPA) networks. This approach is an ecosystem-based approach targeted at the management of human activities in order to sustain biodiversity and at the same time support viable economic activities essential for the sustainable development of these areas. This paper contributes to the knowledge and best practice examples pertinent to the creation and development of marine protected areas (MPAs) in Europe and the Mediterranean, analyzing ways in which this important and successful tool can be introduced and applied further in the Black Sea. The creation of MPAs is closely associated to studies mainly focusing on scientific observations of the marine environment, participation and direct involvement of stakeholders, as well as evaluating the socioeconomic impacts on coastal communities. Economic benefits of MPAs include job creation in novel areas such as environmental services and products, including non-consumptive activities such as tourism and recreation. The economic value of biological resources is difficult to express in monetary terms, whereas others such as the direct financial benefit to local economies from recreational and other activities centered on MPAs, are easier to calculate. The paper utilizes the basic methods for valuation of environmental goods and services, based on direct costs, capital costs and operating costs, such as labour costs for monitoring and protecting the area. Also indirect costs, mainly through the assessment of potential damages to fishermen who may be harmed by fishing bans, are addressed. The paper finally discusses the interactions between the complex biological, social, economic and institutional factors and proposes a generic model for attaining significant socioeconomic benefits associated with sustainable development of coastal zone areas in the Black Sea [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's economic society, modern and advanced, is the result of significant progresses on the technical, economic and social scale. The object of study of present paper is to realize an analysis related to price paid for this type of described evolution, from point of view of environmental factors which are the base of economic development. More, we propose to analyze if the present way of development is in accord with the principles and requirements of a sustainable economy and, especially, if the administration of environmental factors is efficient and sustainable. The reason for this choice is that we observed, from another analyses realized until now, that the indicators of sustainable development are not at desired level. Thus, based on documentation and research methods which use the statistical data, international reports and progress report on sustainability from European level, we intend to demonstrate that in order to realize a state specific for sustainability is need to use more efficient and rationally all development factors, starting from environment at which we will complete with human factors. In addition we will complete with a most debated problem, that of protection of natural resources because their depletion is seen often as a major source of social unrest and economic conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]