ИСТИНА

The attempt to estimate the economic effect and monetary value of land degradation is not new (Pimentel et al. 1995). However, recent efforts resulted in the development of an estimation methods system of the economic benefits of protecting soils from degradation (von Braun et al. 2012, 2013). The novelty of this approach is in the inclusion of hidden value of land in the economic assessment of land and soil, and that it allows answering simple questions on the benefits of action and inaction at all the levels and spatial scales. This especially essential in the situation of growing prices for land and food (Nkonya et al., 2011), which brings uncertainty in monetary evaluation of ecosystem services (Johnson et al. 2012). Economics shows that in every choice there is a trade-off between benefits and costs (Stoorvogel et al., 2004). Similarly, there is a trade-off associated with land use change when different uses provide diverse services (DeFries et al., 2004). A trade-off situation does occur when land use change involves improvement of one aspect or quality, while the change creates a negative impact on another aspect or quality at the same time.