VALUATION OF PUBLIC GOODS AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES PROVIDED BY AGRICULTURE

The public good ecosystem services, particularly ecosystem services provided by agriculture, are defined as goods and services often delivered as side-effects of farmers' production contribute to human well-being. The aim of the study is twofold: 1) to ascertain the concepts and options for ecosystem services, particularly, agro-ecosystem services, valuation; and 2) to assess the supporting activities, based on implementation effectiveness analysis of Rural Development Program's (RDP) 2007-2013 agri-environmental measures in Latvia. The principal materials used for the studies are as follows: different sources of literature, e.g. scholars' articles, research papers and the reports of institutions, inter cilia, European Union; the data from Eurostat database, Central Statistical Bureau database and unpublished data from database of Latvian Rural Support Service. For investigation of impact of agricultural landscape sustainability aspects the following data were used: payment agri-environment measures'; and commitment area of agricultural land or area, as well as the structure of crop areas. The data that have been used reflect implementation of agri-environment measures under RDP 2007-2013. The suitable qualitative and quantitative research methods for certain tasks have been used in the process of study. The findings show that the expected positive effect of implementation of agri-environmental measures of RDP 2007-2013 in Latvia on the sustainability and resilience of agricultural landscapes, as a provider of main ecosystem services, as well as conservation of agricultural biodiversity has not been received. Besides, in order to investigate the further effectiveness of state support for ecosystem services, the assessment of planned agri-environmental measures of new RDP 2014-2020 is performed.