Social assessment of specially protected natural areas

Approaches to the consideration of functions of specially protected natural areas (SPNA) in the development of society seek to determine the size of the territory withdrawn from agricultural use for the purposes of nature conservation; these approaches also aim to evaluate money revenue gained from these territories. However, the influence of SPNA on public life is not reduced to the “monetization” of the territory. People who live near conservation areas and experience the advantages (disadvantages) of such neighbourhood should be the focus of the study of the social role of protected areas. The social role of SPNA in the life of local communities in the Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Karelia Republic was identified with the help of public opinion survey. In total 575 people participated in the survey. The research was carried out in the settlements located within the boundaries of Kenozersky and Vodlozersky national parks, and near Shilovsky Nature Reserve. When measuring the impact of conservation areas on the society of the neighbouring settlements, the authors define the axiological, emotional-and-psychological, activity-and-regulatory, economic, forecasting and integrated components...