FOREST ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN CLASSICAL POLITICAL ECONOMY

This article is devoted to the issues of theoretical substantiation and transformation of the concept of forest ecosystem services over the course of socio-economic and historical conditions. This work examines classical works in the field of political economy for the presence or absence of issues related to forest services, environmental economics or related aspects of economic theory, provides an overview of the main provisions on the functions of forests as a natural resource within the framework of classical political economy, and establishes the relationship of provisions on forests as part of The factor of production is «Land» with modern provisions of economic theory, considering the forest as a provider of ecosystem services. As a result of this work, it was found that the idea of a forest as an ecosystem providing a certain set of ecosystem services was formed at the dawn of economics, but at the same time, for a number of reasons, they were not widely used due to the ambiguity of consideration of environmental issues within economics. The study also concluded that it is necessary to transform approaches to understanding forest ecosystem services in the context of the modern economic system, including based on the work of researchers from the period of classical political economy.