ASSESSMENT AND RATIONAL USE OF THE NATURAL RESOURCE POTENTIAL OF AQUACULTURE OF THE NORTH-WESTERN BLACK SEA
Authors: RUBEL O. , BUSHUYEV S. , AGHAYEV А. 
Published: July 2023

Topicality. The further development of aquaculture in the Black Sea region is closely related to the possibility of assessing its natural resource potential. Economic and ecological approaches to solving the issues of using natural resource potential (NRP), as well as general paradigmatic directions of research on the protection and rational use of the natural environment, including territories that include water bodies, make up the range of issues that will directly or tangentially influence for aquaculture production. However, modern challenges to the accuracy of economic evaluations as a basis for nature management require a certain rethinking of the extensive experience of forming the methodological basis for the assessment of natural resources. Thus, the complexity of certain types of integrated use of natural resources imposes, in our opinion, certain limitations on the possibility of reliable assessment of the NRP. In particular, a certain "methodological imbalance" is characteristic of methodological approaches to the assessment of ecosystem services.Aim and tasks. The purpose of the work is to discuss methodological approaches and assess the natural resource potential of aquaculture in the Ukrainian Black Sea region based on cost-effective economic approaches, assess the abiotic and biotic components of bioresource potential, and develop recommendations for further development of the bioresource potential of aquaculture in the region.Materials and Methods. The research, the materials of which are presented in the article, was carried out according to the following stages: analysis and improvement of the methodology for assessing bioresource potential based on cost-effective economic approaches; assessment of the abiotic and biotic component of bioresource potential, in particular quantitative and qualitative indicators of water resources of aquaculture, available in the Black Sea region; financial assessment of the bioresource potential of aquaculture; development of proposals for further development of the bioresource potential of aquaculture. The authors used such scientific methods as statistical, empirical, goal setting, management of natural and economic complexes, systemic approach.Research results. The result of the study was the improvement of approaches to determining the structure of the assessment of bioresource potential (BRP) consists of three components: assessment of abiotic and biotic components; financial assessment; and functional and managerial, which forms the basis for organizational and managerial decisions of sustainable aquaculture. The functional interaction of the components of BRP is in complex multi-vector environmental, resource, energy and economic-ecological relations, which ensure the dynamics of the development of aquaculture systems. Traditional areas of intensive aquaculture in small freshwater reservoirs (ponds, small lakes and reservoirs) have recently begun to reduce production volumes. To a certain extent, this is connected with negative climatic and ecological transformations - the volumes of fresh flow of small rivers and streams are decreasing. There was a reduction in irrigation networks and irrigated land. However, in the territory of the three southern regions of Ukraine, as before, the possibility of intensive pond aquaculture development remains. High water temperatures make it possible to obtain large volumes of products faster by growing carp and herbivorous fish. There is an opportunity to develop fish farming, crayfish breeding and other.Conclusion. The result of the economic assessment of the natural resource (bio-resource) aquaculture potential of the Ukrainian Danube and Ukrainian Black Sea reservoirs is the determination of priorities for the development of production forces related to fish farming and the development of fish farming in the region. The analysis presented in the work shows that the Dniester estuary is characterized by the greatest bio-resource potential of aquaculture (BRP - 520 million UAH). The Kugurlui-Yalpug lake system is a priority reservoir for the development of aquaculture, fish farming, and sport fishing (BRP - UAH 132 million). A possible form of use of aquatic biological resources in such cases may be the consolidation of the right to use the reservoir as an "industrial site" on the basis of a tender for a specific user for a period of up to 25 years, which will significantly improve the investment attractiveness of fisheries. In the medium-term perspective, provided the water quality improves, the Khadzhibey estuary remains the main reservoir for aquaculture in the Odesa region. Currently, a unique, isolated, numerous, self-reproducing population of pilengas, which is characterized by high ecological plasticity, has formed in the closed Khadzhibey estuary (BRP - UAH 463 million). Separate prospects should also be associated with the restoration of aquaculture in the Shabotatsky estuary (BRP - UAH 20 million), provided that its connection with the Dniester estuary and the Black Sea is restored. Further research in the direction to which the article is devoted is related to the approbation of certain economic and ecological approaches to the assessment of natural resource potential, the determination of the "limits of accuracy" of such assessments in combination with the use of approaches to the assessment of the size of ecosystem services, institutional harmonization of the use of the resource potential of aquaculture of reservoirs in the North - Western coast of the Black Sea.