Sakal O. Organizational and Economic Mechanism of Effective Use of Forest Lands (Case-Study for Carpathian Region of Ukraine).

The object of study - the processes regulating the use of forest land and land available for afforestation in the Carpathian region of Ukraine. The purpose of research - development of recommendations for improvement of the organizational and economic mechanism for use of land which are spatial base of forest ecosystems. Methods of investigation - a system approach, the dialectical method of learning and comparative legal analysis, historical perspective, institutional analysis, mathematical modeling, economic and statistical methods. The scientific novelty of the research results. At the first time the mechanism of taxation of forest land based on the sustainable factor income from forest land is developed. Improved: land use planning methodology on the base of cost-benefit analysis for decision-makers who develop incentives for land owners; methodology for the economic evaluation of forest ecosystem service for agricultural production, and the economic valuation of soil protective function of forest ecosystem. Developed further: land accounting categories; approaches for studying the causes of deforestation; theory and methodology of economic relations in sphere of land use and landscape transformation. Theoretical and practical results: theory and methodology of economic relations in sphere of land use are developed; practical recommendations for the development and implementation of environmental, land, and forest policy for the national and regional government are proposed. Level of application: the study results are used by Lviv Regional Administration of Forestry and Hunting for decision-making concerning afforestation of available land in the Lviv region. Some research outcomes are used in the teaching of academic courses "Forest Policy", "Environmental and Natural Resource Economics" at the Ukraine National Forestry University. Application field - forestry and related services.