The Impact of Methodological Approaches for Calculating the Ecosystem Services Cost on the Economic Externalities of Nature Management

Topicality. Determining the amount of damage to Ukraine’s environment caused by the armed aggression of the russian federation remains a cross-cutting issue for the environmental management economy of the last decade. Despite attempts to institutionalize the problem as much as possible, unfortunately, the economic principles of damage assessment remain rather unclear, along with the need to create a more effective system for monitoring and recording damage to natural objects and their consequences. One of the basic areas of theoretical substantiation of environmental damage is the use of ecosystem services concepts. The issue of damage assessment is particularly acute in the wartime and post-war periods, when there is a need to calculate the value of ecosystem services for specific protected areas in order to compensate for economic losses, which, in turn, can be considered in the light of the concept of economic externalities of natural resource use. Aim and tasks. The purpose of the research is to analyze the impact of methodological approaches to calculating the value of ecosystem services on the assessment of economic externalities of nature use in the objects of the nature reserve fund. This study aims to identify approaches to the scientific substantiation of the amount of compensation for environmental damage caused by russian aggression. The study solved the following scientific tasks: - to study modern methodological approaches to calculating the cost of ecosystem services for economic externalities of environmental use; - to develop proposals for methodological approaches to calculating the value of ecosystem services for economic externalities of natural resources use in the objects of the nature reserve fund and to calculate the value of ecosystem services on the example of the Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park (NNP). Materials and Methods. Internationally recognized methods for assessing damage to environmental complexes, energy assessment methods, biodiversity assessment methods, and the travel cost method. Research results. The goal of military operations is to destroy the enemy forces on the battlefield. This approach is one of the military «canons» defined in the works of the Prussian Military School, in particular by its prominent representative Carl Philipp Clausewitz. In his turn, the prominent British military theorist Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart defines the high role of the «indirect action strategy», but also insists on «the ability to strike at the economic and political centers of the enemy». At the same time, given the purpose of this article is to build a methodological «bridge» between military theory and the theory of externalities, the paper proposes an economic definition of both the targets and objects of military strikes, which should be considered as a theoretical basis for assessing damage to natural resources as a result of the russian military aggression. Conclusion. The article proves the possibility of using the ecosystem services valuation methodology to determine the economic and environmental externalities caused by military operations. The study shows that military actions cause externalities of different orders, in particular, the paper considers three: regional economy, national economy, and global economic system. The authors also establish a direct link between the scale of military operations and the level of economic and environmental externalities. An integrated approach to the formation of a methodology for assessing ecosystem services for nature reserve sites is proposed based on the use of a set of energy accounting approaches, regulatory approaches, biodiversity assessment, the use of a project-based restoration approach, and the «journey» method. Also, by directly calculating the total cost of ecosystem services of the Tuzly Estuaries NNP, estimated at UAH 15.242 billion (USD 0.6 billion), the possibility of assessing damage to the objects of the nature reserve fund by taking into account the share of damage to living biological and other resources as a result of hostilities and military damage was proved. As part of further research in this area, methodological approaches will be developed that will allow for a more accurate calculation of the damage caused to individual natural complexes, biomes and communities, as well as to the ecosystem as a whole.