IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AS THE FACTORS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF A GRICULTURAL BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT OF RURAL AREAS

Adherence to the principles of sustainable development depends on the level of environmental awareness, which includes either ecological knowledge or ecological behavior. Development of sustainable land management and agriculture places demands to the level of environmental knowledge of the farmers. The purpose of the research is to evaluate level of environmental awareness among representatives of agribusiness and management of rural areas. The methods of quantitative and qualitative sociology provided additional empirical data and an analysis of the basic approaches to agriculture in one district of the Kaliningrad region in comparison with the region of Eastern Elbe in Germany.