The article defines the natural resource sphere of the national economy as the largest territorial and sectoral complex, which includes land, water, forest, mineral, natural and recreational and other types of resources. The lack of implementation of the allocation of a sufficient amount of funds aimed at the rationalization of nature use and the modernization of environmental infrastructure facilities, as well as the uneven distribution of capital investments for the protection and rational use of natural resources in the region for the period 2016-2022, was established. It is substantiated that in the conditions of decentralization of power, the general basis of institutional support for property relations over natural resources should be corporatization, development of rent relations, improvement of fiscal mechanisms in resource use, market-economic evaluation and capitalization of all-natural resources without exception at the local, regional and national levels. The theoretical foundations of the problems of institutional support in property relations in the conditions of decentralization of power have been deepened by determining the need to create an institutional system of property. This system provides for the development of lease relationships, approaches to investment projects, improvement of natural resource taxation mechanisms by improving the system of local taxes on the use of resources, and assessment of the value of natural resources at the micro, meso, and macro levels. The definition of ecological and economic problems of property relations is formulated, which, unlike the existing ones, are focused on the problems of attracting capital investments and current costs of the state for the protection of the natural environment in conditions of decentralization, as well as the fundamental basis for the formation of an institutional system of property in nature management, taking into account foreign experience. The results of the research can be used in the development of regional and national programs and forecasts on issues of nature management and environmental protection.