Without cadastral information, it is difficult to make any decisions about land. But in order for the system of state land cadastre to work effectively, it is necessary that the information in it is up-to-date, complete and reliable. The article analyses in detail the existing legislative and regulatory acts and draws conclusions from the methodological principles of keeping the state land cadastre in the part concerning the consideration of factors of influence on the quality of land accounting. The status of agricultural land use was monitored and land conservation measures recommended. The authors have analysed in detail the public information on the soil cover of Ukraine, which is displayed on the Public Cadastral Map of Ukraine. The necessity of enrichment of the cadastre with new information and indicators is investigated, which allows to solve a wider range of problems regarding the use of land as a spatial basis and the purpose of development of the multifunctional cadastre.

The result of the long existence of legal restrictions on the agricultural land market in Ukraine was the formation of a specific leasehold system of land use. Agricultural enterprises and farms do not have land owned. Instead, the peasants who became owners of land during the distribution of collective farms, mostly do not process these parcels of land on their own, but also deprived of the right to alienate them (to sell, give, change). The study shows the development of leased land use of agricultural enterprises in Ukraine, which currently covers 16.8 million hectares of private land and about 1 million hectares of state-owned land. Since 2003, the civil law of Ukraine permitted to apply not only the lease of agricultural land, but also the emphyteusis right (the alienated right to use someone’s land for agricultural purposes), the process of transformation of lease into emphyteusis was started, especially in large agricultural holdings. The main advantages of emphyteusis as a substantive law and its attractiveness for agribusiness are considered. The suggestions on improving the legal regulation of land use under conditions of emphyteusis are given.

The zones of ecological trouble cover about 15% of the territory of Russia, where the main production capacities and the most productive agricultural lands are concentrated. The Samara region is characterized by a distinct natural zonality from a typical forest-steppe in the North with a forest cover close to 30%, to an open dry steppe in the South with a natural forest cover of only 0.1...0.2%. The article presents an analysis of land use in the Samara region on the example of the Borsky municipal district. Research methods include environmental analysis and statistical data analysis.The article presents an analysis of the land use of the Borskiy municipal district. During zoning, the territory of the district is divided into the northern, central and southern parts. Assessment of environmental and economic parameters showed heterogeneity of the territory and the need for detailed consideration of climatic, soil, economic conditions in the design of landscape optimization systems, even in the municipal area. In general, the district's land fund experiences an average anthropogenic load, the ecological stability of the territory as a whole is characterized as unstable stable. In comparison with other areas of the Central MES, the municipal Borskiy district belongs to the category with an average ecological intensity with a stabilization index of 0.59 units due to the beneficial influence of the Buzuluksky area.

Starting in 2016, the process of financial decentralization began in Ukraine, in which local governments of lower levels (rural, urban, city councils and united territorial communities) were entitled to independently establish on their territory the rates of many local taxes and fees credited to community budgets. In particular, tax legislation of Ukraine allows local governments to vary land tax rates in the range from 0.1 to 3% of the normative monetary valuation of land, as well as to differentiate tax rates depending on the type of intended use of land plots. The study created a database and analysed the spatial heterogeneity of land tax rates in more than 9.6 thousand communities. It is shown how the level of tax burden on land owners and land users, established by local self-government bodies, correlates with the economic development of the regions, as well as the normative monetary valuation of land, which is used in Ukraine as a tax base. The problems of taxation of real estate, which arise at the separate collection of land tax and tax for real property other than land, are considered, as well as suggestions on the necessity of introduction of tax zoning of territories in Ukraine, which will allow to further differentiate the rates of taxes on the property and provide more flexible and adaptive taxation of real estate.

The solution of preserving and restoring the soil fertility problem of agricultural lands in the process of economic activity is one of the main tasks in achieving global food security. Implementation of a complex of soil protection measures, as a rule, ensures the preservation and even growth of soil fertility. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to determine the economic efficiency of introducing soil protection measures in the use of agricultural land. For this purpose, the following tasks were set and solved: the analysis of the current state and trends of the land resources use in agriculture; to investigate the tendencies of carrying out measures on preservation of soil fertility and prevention of its degradation; to substantiate scientific and methodical estimation principles of economic efficiency of introduction of soil protection measures in the conditions of Ukraine. The following basic methods were used to solve the research objectives: monographic analysis – when developing scientific publications on environmentally friendly use of agricultural land; comparative and statistical analysis – in studying the dynamics of the structure of the land fund of Ukraine by main types of land and economic activity; system-structural analysis and grouping – in the study of the nature and content of ecological and economic consequences of soil degradation, as well as approaches to assessing the economic effectiveness of soil protection measures; economic analysis and calculation of relative indicators – to evaluate the economic efficiency of soil protection measures in the process of agricultural land use; abstract-logical method − for theoretical generalizations and conclusions formation, etc. Established that soil degradation is now one of the most important industrial and environmental issues, which is the main reason for the inability to achieve high rates of environmental and economic efficiency of land use in the future. It was also substantiated scientific and methodical approach to determining the economic efficiency of soil conservation measures in the current market conditions, which is based on the additional income that is received as a result of increase crop yields on protected lands. It is established that effective protection of soils from degradation is possible with the systematic implementation of soil protection measures complex, developed taking into account the specific natural and economic conditions of each region or agricultural enterprise. The priority directions of realization measures on land protection are given.

The average land productivity score is about 41.8 in the Republic of Lithuania. However, in separate regions it ranges from 30.5 to 55.1. The research object is agricultural utilities in rural municipalities of the Republic of Lithuania. The analysis of land use plan fragments in the selected areas shows that land is abandoned mostly in land areas where non-productive land or hilly relief prevails. Having improved conditions of land use, about 44 % of abandoned agricultural utilities can be transferred into intensive farming.

Land degradation is one of the most pressing problems ensuring sustainable use of land. In order to provide a clear understanding of land degradation and its risks, as well as to implement unified measures for prevention of land degradation in Latvia, the Land Management Law came into force in 2015. It individually defines the concepts of land and soil degradation, thus separating them from each other, as well as clarifying the term “degraded territory”. However, despite these solutions in the regulatory framework of the land degradation, till now criteria for identifying land degradation have not been developed and approved, therefore their determination is very subjective and not comparable between municipalities and at the state level. The aim of the article is to develop and approbate degradation criteria for assessing land degradation in particular territory. In the article, based on the author's previous studies on the classification of land degradation, characterised one type of land degradation – the abandoned agricultural and forestry activity territory, as well as proposed subdivision of criteria classification into three levels – low, medium and high. As result of the study, it was concluded that the classification of degraded territories into three degradation levels is justified for the purpose of more objective identification and evaluation of land degradation.

The article defines that the land inventory allows to form land plots of state and communal property, to fill the State Land Cadastre with information about objects and subjects of land relations and to eliminate existing errors. The aim of the article is to improve the procedure of conducting the land inventory in Ukraine, taking into account modern technologies within the current regulatory framework. The methodology of land inventory using modern technologies has been developed, which includes the following components: surveying of the inventory object, topographic and geodetic works, vectorization of its territory using remote sensing data, project works, creation of a consolidated inventory plan, development of technical documentation, its state expertise, adjustment and approval, entering data into the State Land Cadastre. It is established that an effective method of implementation of topographic and geodetic works during updating of the cartographic materials is a combined method, which includes the use of aerial images with simultaneous geodetic surveying of complex areas. The use of geoinformation technologies and remote sensing data is allowed to optimize the duration and frequency of land inventory. In particular, the classification of land should be performed in the attribute tables. Ways to solve problems of protection and rational use of the lands of the inventory object have been developed. They include registration of land plots without cadastral numbers; control of compliance of land and environmental legislation, taking into account the results of land inventory for updating statistical cadastral information and making changes of the State Land Cadastre data.

Having analysed research results, it is ensured that sustainable land use of US agricultural lands for the support to farmers to improve the efficiency of their major activities and adherence to the principles of soil protection and rational land use in farms. An analysis of the American experience allows us to make conclusions that the success of the process of improving land relations depends on the level of their scientific validity, the degree of balance of government regulation and the degree of coordination of participants’ interests in transformations and land market transactions. Land lease in the United States of America as one of the economic methods of land use regulation has been analysed in the article. It has been established that long-term lease relations are beneficial for both parties concerning soil improvement and pollution control in case of clear legislation. Having analysed foreign experience, the main measures of land use rationalization in the USA, which people can use in Ukraine, have been proposed. It is also possible to implement the US experience in actively controlling the ecological condition, intended use and other quality characteristics of agricultural land to improve regulation of land use in Ukraine. After analysing the measures for land protection in the United States, taking into account the considered and researched American experience of agricultural land use, ways to improve the existing system of use and protection of agricultural land in Ukraine are proposed.

The aim of the article is to analyse the land use of selected areas and its impact on the ecological condition of the area. 3 (Ignalina, Molėtai and Zarasai) from 15 districts (which are characterized by considerable forest cover and exceptional recreational characteristics) of Lithuania were selected as the object of research. The largest part of the area of these districts (44–57%) consists of agricultural areas; a slightly smaller area (32–42%) is occupied by forests and other natural areas. Artificial covers occupy from 8 to 11 percent of the total area of districts. Analysing the change of these land cover areas over a period of 12 years, a practically stable (4-6%) decrease of agricultural areas and growth of forests and other natural areas (3–5%) as well as artificial covers (1%) in all three municipalities are observed. Taking into account the prevailing land cover structure in the districts in 2018, the estimated degree of polarization of all districts/ecological stability indicator of the area exceeded 0.67, i.e., areas have been found to be ecologically stable. However, after assessing the ecological stability of the surveyed areas using a multi-criteria analysis method and introducing more criteria influencing the ecological condition of the area, not only the land cover structure, it was found that the ecological condition of Molėtai district is still the worst according to the ranking indicators, while that of Zarasai and Ignalina districts is very similar. Such a negative multi-criteria assessment of the ecological condition of Molėtai district was influenced by all criteria: lower area of protected and natural territories, forests in the district, higher population density, road length, area of artificial covers and emissions (carbon monoxides, nitrogen oxides, etc.) quantity. Meanwhile, when assessing the ecological condition of Ignalina district, 4 criteria were favourable, namely: relatively low population density, road length, and lower emissions of gases and liquids, carbon monoxide, and for Zarasai district 7 criteria: higher areas of protected territories, forests and other natural, agricultural areas as well as artificial cover areas and lower population density, emissions of nitrogen oxides, gaseous and liquid substances. The results of the study unambiguously revealed that the ecological stability of the territory is influenced not only by the land use structure, but also by other environmental elements related to the area, therefore for full sustainable development, it is necessary to responsibly assess all possible factors influencing the ecological condition of the area.