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.

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.

The issues of environmental protection, prevention of degradation and reclamation of damaged land are currently very significant and relevant. As damaged land has been observed the land where low productivity and low economic potential have arisen and natural productivity of ecosystems is changed due to human-caused activities. The nature and extent of the violation depends on the type, depth and duration of anthropogenic impact, on adopted system of work organization and the conditions of the environment. Black soil dominates in the soil cover in Samara region; therefore there has been developed agricultural production. However there are located large oilfields and gas fields, which are under active exploitation and reduction of vegetation, dumping technological sites, laying trenches for pipelines, etc. have been noticed, which leads to formation of technogenic soils, damaged land cover, loss of soil fertility and land use type change. There special restoration measure − reclamation should be putted into practice on the territory of all categories of land, but especially on agricultural land. The aim of the article is to study the situation with damaged agricultural land in Samara region of Russia and to develop scientifically based proposals for regeneration of its fertility after reclamation measures. The problems of pollution of agricultural land in the region have been investigated, main sources and types of pollution have been analysed, as well as legal, methodological and environmental protection documents on land reclamation have been studied. The peculiarities of reclamation of land on federal, municipal and property level have been considered. The article presents measures for reclamation of the land on the example of natural monopolies in the territory of the Samara region.

The main factors that influence the rational land use, conservation and protection of land resources are global ecological and food security, world's population growth, climate change, land acquisition by large world agricultural corporations etc. In this process a priority of attention is protection of the important agricultural lands (in Ukraine, these lands are called especially valuable lands - EVL). Besides, lands with highly productive soils, areas with undisturbed ecosystems, territories with objects of cultural heritage, natural therapeutic resources are a part of EVL. This paper focuses on new approaches to the legal protection of EVL in Ukraine. The special value of these lands in Ukraine is legalized and is means of their legal protection (Art. 150 of the Land Code of Ukraine). The main idea of this paper – studying of problems of legal protection of EVL and development of new approaches to their protection. These approaches will be based on introduction of economic regulators at withdrawal of EVL or change their intended use for needs that don't correspond to nature protection value. The reseach is based on case study method and statistical method. Approaches for cartographic modeling for assessment and mapping of EVL are offered. Results of this reseach are an obtaining of practical experience in the field of protection of EVL in Ukraine, development of suggestions for improving of an organizational and legal mechanism the use of EVL through their registration, monitoring, evaluation, development of their State Register. These measures can increase competitiveness of EVL, prevent Land-Grabbing and provide sustainable development of the rural territory.

This article reviews the initiatives for setting up rational use and protection of agricultural lands in order to ensure accelerated growth of the agricultural sector of the Russian Federation, enhancing its sustainability, efficiency, competitiveness, and environmental safety. It is hereby proposed to complete the differentiation of public lands into federal property, property of the subjects of the Russian Federation, property of municipal settlements; as well as to conduct topographic survey of lands in the Russian Federation (to establish and locally document the boundaries of territories of the subjects of the Russian Federation; municipal settlements; communities; special-purpose lands; areas with special land use conditions; and to systematically (once every 5 years) perform agricultural land inventory in order to identify unused, irrationally used or non-purposely used lands, as well as land use in violation of the relevant permitted use of land plots; to relaunch land survey works relating with the performance of pedologic, geobotanical and other studies and research.