Legal provision of sustainable development as a condition for rational use of land
Authors: Kostyashkin I. O. , Lutsyuk O. V. 
Published: April 2022

The article examines the theoretical and legal approaches to the rational use of land in terms of sustainable development. the use of land resources should be carried out within the concept of sustainable development, which is recognized as the dominant ideology of civilization in the XXI century, and is designed to ensure the needs of citizens while preserving natural resources and acceptable environmental conditions. Land reform, as part of the economic reform aimed at land redistribution, unfortunately did not cover the full range of legal relations related to both land protection and rational use.

Under such conditions, it is proposed to review the existing legal approaches to the rational use of land and its protection in order to develop general principles for the rational use of land, taking into account the goals of sustainable development. The mechanism of legal regulation of rational use of lands through a prism of maintenance of sustainable development is offered. In particular, the legal criteria for the rational use of land resources should be to ensure their inexhaustibility and environmental friendliness of operation while ensuring sustainable development, subject to a number of factors due to a combination of public and private interests. The author substantiates that the main form of land use should be the right of ownership, which determines the personal interest in obtaining a stable income and preserving and improving land as an attractive investment resource; implementation of management functions related to land protection on the basis of public-private partnership, which will provide the possibility of self-control by the owner over the condition and properties of land, the presence of incentive and punitive mechanisms, provided an effective state control service in land protection. Accordingly, rational land use in the context of sustainable development will involve the constant receipt of the greatest possible amount of vital benefits, provided that land resources are kept unchanged or improved.

The need to use land in accordance with their functional purpose as a place, condition, and source of human life determines the content of legal regulation in the context of sustainable development. The multifunctional purpose of the land creates conditions for human life, and therefore requires clear legal mechanisms that will ensure the safety and sufficient living standards of people when using land in various legal titles, the primary among which is land ownership. All other legal forms are derivative and are usually limited in time, so it is the owner who is primarily responsible for ensuring the quality of land use, which covering the full range of their functional purpose will ensure consistency, and in some cases improve the properties of this a unique natural resource.

At present, there is an objective need to implement appropriate legal structures on the content of domestic regulations on land ownership in order to achieve sustainable development, which provides for mutual satisfaction of public and private interests in the use, preservation and protection of land. After all, land as an object of property rights according to the constitutional norm always remains a national property, and therefore its use should take place by satisfying both private and public interests, which is to preserve and restore soil quality, increase their fertility, produce quality agricultural products, in accordance with established standards; ensuring the preservation of natural objects, landscape environment, the territorial base of which is a particular land plot of the relevant purpose; ensuring free access to natural recreational, health aesthetic facilities used for the right of general nature use.