The Role of the Ecological Framework in Management of Thermodynamic Relationships Between Both Society and Nature Systems

The key difference between anthropogenic and natural systems is the openness of the substance cycle in the territories transformed by humans. Anthropogenic systems cannot completely process the waste they produce and constantly require substance subsidies from natural systems. Open systems move along the path of complication, thereby ensuring their sustainability. However, the complication of anthropogenic structures is achieved through ever-increasing consumption of natural resources and leads to an increase in the entropy of natural ecosystems. Thus, the preservation of natural ecosystems is not an obstacle to the development of civilization but its necessary condition. The most important tools in the process of nature management are ecological frameworks, networks, and systems of specially protected natural areas that create support for the successful integration of economic activity into the “green” energy corridor of the biosphere. The article discusses approaches to defining an ecological framework among various authors, the feasibility of developing and advancing frameworks to maintain environmental stability of territories in the long term, and the impact of the effectiveness of the functioning of ecological frameworks on the socio-economic development of regions. The key environmental and legal problems and risks preventing ecological frameworks from performing their main functions are outlined: territorial fragmentation of key areas, terminological pluralism and the absence of legislatively enshrined provisions on ecological frameworks of regions and the country as a whole, a high degree of economic development of territories of individual regions, complex land relations, and the absence of a system for monitoring the effectiveness of the provision of environmental services by frameworks. The necessary measures are proposed to enhance the existential status of the framework concept in modern environmental discourse.