VALUATION OF NATURAL CAPITAL OF KAMCHATKA PENINSULA AND SURROUNDING SEAS.

The problem considered in this paper is the need to step up the methodological and informational support for improving the environmental and economic efficiency and sustainability of natural resource management in the Kamchatka territory (Russia) and the adjacent marine areas of the Pacific Ocean.The object of the research is the natural resource potential of the research area.The subject of research includes: clarification of the composition, structure and system relationships of the main natural resource potential components of the region as the elements of natural capital; selection and adaptation of methods for evaluating elements of natural capital, as well as practical valuation of this capital.The purpose of the assessment is the identification of the comparative environmental and economic efficiency of possible environmental management strategies in the area based on the criteria of conservation/growth of the region’s total capital, as well as economic incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of the natural resource potential of this exceptionally rich, but still poorly studied region.As a result of research, an original open classification of economically significant resources of animate and in animatenature of the region and their assessment as natural capital has been developed.The novelty of the obtained methodological results is determined by the expansion of the region’s natural capital elements, the refinement of their structure and intra-system connections.New in the practical assessment of the region’s natural capital is the assessment of the economic services of terrestrial and marine ecosystems for the long term deposition and fossilization of organic carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]