Theoretical issues of sustainable rural settlements development formation

Nowadays sustainable rural development is a priority tendency of their socioeconomicdevelopment. Research of sustainable rural settlements development concept is carried out using different approaches. Ecologicaland socio-economic aspects are considered. Researchers-ecologists accentuate the ecological point of view. They connect sustainabledevelopment with human beings survival because of escalated environmental problems. This approach is also common forforeign researchers. To achieve a sustainable rural development they offer to run eco-economy: production of organic food and renewablesources of energy, as well as eco-tourism development. The second point of view is typical for states that have serious socioeconomicproblems in rural settlements, including the Russian Federation. On the one hand, socio-economic rural settlements developmentis regarded as the main element of sustainable development, on the other hand, as an important factor that determines sustainablerural settlements development. There are different points of view on sustainable development in this approach. Some researchers (representativesof the Centre of Sustainable Development of Rural Areas in Moscow, Agricultural Academy named after K.A. Temirazev)use an integrated approach to the concept of sustainable development: they consider both ecological and socio-economical aspects of it.They pay great attention to diversification of activity in rural areas: both in rural and timber development, trade, industry, production ofconstructions, tourism and services development. Sustainable rural settlements development should be based on self-sufficiency of ruralsettlements and active participation of local initiatives. The other approach to the problem of sustainable rural development characterizesthe representatives of the Institute of Agrarian Problems, Russian Academy of Science. They connect sustainable rural developmentwith socio-economic development of agro-food production. In other words, sustainable rural settlements development is determined bythe efficiency of agro-food producers activity. Important work in the field of sustainable rural settlements development belongs toI.N.Buzdalov. In his opinion, among the most important conditions of sustainable development (economic, social and ecological) themain is the economic condition, as the production development transformation of social sphere and environment protection depend of it.On the base of the proposed socio-economic approaches, the author has highlighted the components of sustainable rural settlementsdevelopment and specified its conception.

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