Approaches to assessment of natural capital: foreign experience

The concept of natural capital goes beyond nature as a source of raw materials for production and reflects the role of the environment and ecosystems in maintaining human well-being. National accounts do not consider the costs of depletion or degradation of natural resources and the entire economic contribution of nature, which is essential for ensuring sustainable development, so it became necessary to develop special accounting systems for natural capital. The author uncovers evolution of the formation and features of «public» and «private» approaches to the accounting of natural capital in the system of corresponding accounts. The key scheme of both approaches is the way from individual spatial economic, social and environmental data to complex information through the structure of accounts that record the quantity and quality of ecosystem assets and ecosystem services provided by them in physical and monetary terms during the reported periods. The article presents cases for assessing the natural capital at timber industry enterprises and the experience of the UK in measuring the value of various ecosystem services as a leading country. The analysis revealed the problems and trends in the development of the environmental and economic accounting system. A scheme of accounting the forest capital in the regional conditions of information supply is offered.