IMPACT OF NATURAL CONSERVATION ON LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY IN LATVIA.

Increases in bioresources and food production in the world have become objective needs. Production expansion increases the impact on the sustainability of the natural environment and ecosystems. The sustainability of the natural environment is ensured through the creation of specially protected areas. The planning of local municipality economic development should consider the management categories of protected areas, which is an important global standard for planning, design and management. This paper presents an overview of what impact the nature conservation area had on local economic development in Latvia. By using data from the State Land Service and the Central Statistical Bureau, the paper summaries and explains statistical information about the sizes of Latvian territories protected to various degrees from the current standpoint of nature conservation processes. The data have been collected for the period from 2010 to 2018. According to the data of the State Land Service, the total protected area in the year 2018 was 771278.19 thou. ha or 12.28 % of the total land area of Latvia. The proportion of protected nature territories in 110 municipalities of Latvia was in the range from 0% in Stopini municipality to 68% in Ligatne municipality. A statistical analysis of the data found that in the year 2018 the Territory Development Index for municipalities with a proportion of protected nature territories in the total area from 0% to 2.6% was (negative) - 0.16; for municipalities with a proportion of protected nature territories ranging from 2.6% to 7%, the index was - 0.24; for municipalities with a proportion of protected nature territories from 7% to 17%, the index was - 0.16; for municipalities with a proportion of protected nature territories ranging from 17% to 68%, the index was - 0.15. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]