NETWORK LANDSCAPE REPRESENTATION: ECOSYSTEM SERVICES CONTEXT

Abstract

Mostly ecosystem problems concern contradictions between extensive land use and cover in the context of sustainable agricultural landscape. Environment governance along with land use planning and development requires a thorough consideration of capacities and flows of ecosystem services and concomitant goods as well. Pertinent assessment is usually performed through mapping techniques. However, experts emphasized the need to find and apply novel means of presenting the structure and dynamics of service-providing entities. This paper introduces a brief characterization of landscape of the Oka district (Republic of Buryatia, Russia) in novel network scope with aim to provide further possible tradeoff between traditional land use and ecosystem sustainability. Over the past ten years, the problems of ecosystem services in the world have been reflected not only in scientific developments, but also in conceptual official documents of leading international organizations: the UN, the World Bank, the OECD, the European Community. The terms "ecosystem services" and payments for them have become important in the economic and political parts of these documents. In many ways, such activity is associated with the awareness of the rapid degradation of nature, which causes enormous damage to the well-being of people and the economy. Currently, the definition of the term "ecosystem services" remains controversial, there are a number of approaches to their definition. Common in these approaches is an attempt to link eco-services with human benefits and well-being. Now the importance of ecosystems is underestimated, which leads to their degradation. Without solving this problem, the transition to a new economy for humanity is impossible. It is necessary to mitigate the risks of overexploitation and depletion of ecosystem services, which is possible if the environmental factor is adequately taken into account when making economic decisions.