Economic Evaluation of Ecological Restoration of Degraded Lands through Protective Afforestation in the South of the Russian Plain

Abstract

The latest international climate documents emphasize the great importance of protective forest stands in ensuring the sustainable development of agriculture, and the main requirement is the use of the forest-forming factor by landowners in the interests of improving the environment. In Russia, until recently, the ecological significance of forest plantations was underestimated, which created the ground for discussions about their effectiveness. In this regard, a new approach is proposed that emphasizes the positive impact of forests, including sustainable development, environmental security of the agricultural sector and reducing the degradation of agricultural land. The purpose of the work was an economic assessment and regularities of the dynamics of humus-regulating and nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK)-regulating efficiency of protective forest plantations on lands with deflation-hazardous soils. By means of a system analysis, the change in the soil cover of land use due to the influence of forest plantations on the balance of soil fertility elements in forested cells is comprehensively analyzed. The different spatial placement of trees from each other under different degrees of deflation in semiarid conditions is modeled. These models are used to determine the nature of the dynamics of soil nutrients in forested areas: in protection zones and outside protection. It is established that the anti-deflationary effect of agroforestry depends on the indicator of the protective forest cover of the land, the level of deflationary danger, and the operational life of the plantings. In semiarid conditions, it increases in proportion to the increase in the protection of land and amounts to EUR 376–EUR 4222 ha−1. With an increase in the intensity of deflation to the level of dust storms, the prevented damage from the loss of soil nutrients increases almost four times. In systems of plantings from early-maturing fast-growing rocks, the anti-deflationary effect is 6–7% higher on an average annual basis than in systems of plantings from long-lasting, slow-growing rocks. The greatest efficiency of forest reclamation in ensuring a positive balance of humus and NPK substances in the soil (EUR 1002–EUR 4222 ha−1) is achieved when placing plantings after 15 H. The study will confirm the need to subsidize the integration of trees into farm systems.