Natural resource potential of northern regions: methodological characteristics of comprehensive assessment

The economic assessment of renewable natural resources remains a relevant and as yet unresolved problem. Today, the economic assessment of natural resources is viewed as one of the priority tasks in the state strategy for environmental management. To a large extent, such economic assessment has become relevant following the development of market relations in Russia that require the valuation of natural resource potential. In Russia, the state cadastral appraisal of natural resources, which is already continuing for a second decade, serves as the basis to calculate the land tax for individual categories of land and does not allow making a comprehensive assessment of natural resource potential. This article expands the concept of economic assessment, describes the practice of its implementation in northern regions. It examines the traditional methodological approaches to economic assessment that are used today, such as the cost approach and its modi cations, rental income approach, market approach, alternative approach, as well as the methodological approaches based on the results of sociological studies, which have become more widespread recently. The recommendations put forward by the authors with regard to the economic assessment provide for consistency in its implementation based on a results-driven approach that ensures the comparability of calculations and improves the reliability of obtained results. The methodological approaches proposed for assessing the land, forest, hunting, fishery and biological resources of wild plants allow considering the specific characteristics of northern territories and implementing a comprehensive economic assessment of the region’s natural resource potential. The authors consider the expediency of calculating the unit value index of natural resource potential in order to rank the areas within the subject of the Russian Federation in proportion to the investment in the projects aimed at developing the natural resources. The methodological recommendations have been tested in the context of Berezovsky municipal district of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area—Yugra.The article has been prepared with the support of the Grant No. 14–18–00456 Substantiating the Geo-Eco-Socio-Economic Approach to the Development of Strategic Natural Resource Potential of Northern Understudied Territories as Part of the Investment Project The Arctic—Central Asia provided by the Russian Science Foundation