METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO ASSESSING ENVIRONMENTAL INTENSITY AND RESOURCE CONSUMPTION IN RECREATIONAL NATURE MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Tourism is currently recognized as a priority sector of the Russian economy. When planning tourism, it is necessary to take into account the requirements laid down in the basic provisions of the concept of sustainable development. Tourism and recreational activities are characterized by high levels of the natural resource use and produce significant amounts of waste. Therefore, the indicators of environmental intensity and resource consumption can be applied as indicators of sustainable development in recreational nature management. The study aims to develop methodological approaches to assessing environmental intensity and resource consumption in recreational nature management. An analysis of Russian and foreign literature has shown that there are a sufficient number of publications devoted to the assessment of environmental intensity in various sectors of the economy, at the level of regions and individual countries. However, approaches to assessing environmental intensity and resource consumption in recreational nature management are poorly developed in Russia. The diversity of types of tourism and recreational activities determines many types of the impact on natural complexes. Recreational nature management is divided into recreational resource consumption, recreational resource use, and recreational environment use. The paper identifies the types of recreational nature management based on the genetic classification of natural resources. In the study, the directions of resource use and the types of impact the tourism and recreational activities have on natural complexes have been determined. The application of certain indicators and units of measurement characterizing the volumes of environmental intensity and resource consumption is substantiated. Methodological approaches to assessing environmental intensity and resource consumption in recreational nature management have been developed based on the principles of sustainable development. It is concluded that, due to the diversity of the recreational nature management types, a large number of indicators must be used when assessing environmental intensity and resource consumption. Consequently, practical calculations will be labor-intensive as obtaining individual indicators will require specialized research. The developed methodological approaches can become the basis for conducting practical calculations and formulating recommendations for resource conservation in the tourism industry.