One of the areas of regional sustainable development is the formation of a network of specially protected natural areas. An important role in terms of biodiversity conservation in modern conditions belongs to the last remaining fragments of indigenous forests located along the Northwestern part of the state border of Russia, the so-called Green Belt of Fennoscandia. Creating new protected natural facilities on this territory is related to changes in the mode of natural resource management and requires assessment of the eco-economic effect of their arrangement. The purpose for the paper is to assess the eco-economic effect of the existing and projected specially protected areas within the Karelian part of the Green Belt of Fennoscandia. The research methodology is based on the theory of total economic value; methods of comparative and statistical analysis are used for assessment. The informational framework includes data obtained from open sources including materials of the Federal State Statistics Service, published reports on Tacis projects, and justifications for creating new protected areas. The peculiarity and novelty of the approach used in the paper is that it helps quickly assess the eco-economic effect of specially protected areas based on specific indicators, which is useful for preparing proposals for deploying new protected areas, which, as a rule, are developed not by economists. The article presents the calculations of the economic and recreational value of the main existing and projected protected areas within the Karelian part of the Green Belt of Fennoscandia. Based on statistics, the operating cost of specially protected areas is estimated. Analysis of assessment results concludes that the ratio of eco-economic value of protected areas and their operating cost is 2:1. Protected areas are full-value subjects of economic activity; however, in modern conditions their potential is slightly used. The research results can be applied in justification for creation and development of the Russian part of a network of specially protected areas unified with Norway and Finland
Keywords
assessment, specially protected areas, eco-economic effect, green belt of fennoscandia, tourism and recreation