An Ecosystem Approach to Balanced Territorial Development

Abstract

Relevance: The problems of sustainable development of rural areas are extremely relevant nowadays, especially in the context of deepening localization and the increasing role of territorial and natural resources. Research objective: The purpose of the article is to develop theoretical and methodological aspects of sustainable development of territories, encompassing rural areas with small urban settlements, based on the ecosystem approach to form a unified multi-level strategy for the development thereof. Method and data: The paper substantiates an application of the ecosystem approach to the development of rural areas in increasing the efficiency of rural businesses, budgetary spending through prioritization of state support recipients, stimulating sustainable development of enterprises and the industry, and increasing the consistency of regional economic policy. The conceptual foundations of this approach are presented, and an algorithm to select participants in a rural ecosystem is proposed. Results: The proposed approach allows operationalizing self-organization processes in an ecosystem, ensuring a balance of interaction processes of its participants. The research results have contributed to solving the problem of territorial socio-economic ecosystem formation by proposing an algorithm to select target indicators for achieving sustainable development goals, taking into account the specifics and development trends of territories. Conclusions: The conclusions arising from the conducted research provide scientists, government bodies with the necessary information for a better understanding of practical mechanisms to provide balanced territorial development, ensure the move from fragmentary unsystematic measures of state support to effective differentiated and targeted regional policy of rural areas.