In the context of ensuring sustainable development, the activity of a business unit has come to be seen as a three-component system designed to provide reliable information about the contribution of business to the social and environmental segments of the economy. This trend led to the transition to the socio-economic paradigm of financial reporting, which predetermines its revolutionary transformations, one of which is finding ways to recognize natural capital (NC). Within the framework of this article, a hypothesis is put forward and proved, as a result of which a conclusion is formulated about the imperativeness in the transition of the socio-economic reporting paradigm of recognizing natural capital as a source of natural resources and environmental services as an element of financial reporting. The substantiation of the hypothesis is carried out according to the following scheme: NC identification is conceptualized; analyzes methodological aspects of recognition of NC as an element of financial statements; reveals the reasons for the lack of prerequisites in the system of accounting and financial reporting of the Republic of Moldova for the recognition of natural capital as an element of financial reporting, and obtaining reliable information about its contribution to the total value of the business unit.