Russian Government Decree ¹ 860, December 12, 2001. NEW FEDERAL PROGRAM: ECOLOGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES OF RUSSIA (2002—2010)
[Comments]
Decree No. 860 approves the above federal program attached to it as a Supplement. The program includes a subprogram (section III): Support for Protected Natural Areas. The plans for financing state nature reserves and national parks from the federal budget contained in the program are of little practical value since this financing amounts to the current cost of maintaining these PNAs (there is no mention of additional support).
What is of interest, however, is that this federal program is the first to assert that nature reserves and national parks may receive additional funding every year from other budgets at other levels. Its subprogram (Support for Protected Natural Areas) sees the budgets of Russia’s regions as well as local or municipal budgets as possible sources of additional funding for the following activities:
improving the technical base and developing the infrastructure of nature
reserves and national parks;
protecting state nature reserves and national parks;
forestry in nature reserves and national parks;
maintaining existing information centers and setting up ecology camps for
children;
biota monitoring and conservation of rare and endangered species.
Paragraph 3 of Decree No. 860 recommends that the executive authorities of
the Russian regions help finance this Program.
Federal Act ¹ 7-ÔÇ, January 10, 2002 ON ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION [Comments]
The Federal Act under review, which replaces the Act of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic On Environmental Protection, is now the main law on nature conservation.
This new Act describes the basic concepts, which is an advantage over the old law. In particular, the new act legitimizes the following concepts: “nature complex”, “natural landscape”, “ecological audit”, “environmental impact assessment” (EIA), and “ecological safety”. And although many of the definitions are to some extent debatable, that they have been introduced into legislation is in itself of great significance.
This Act introduces the principle of presumption of ecological danger of planned economic or other activities.
This Act stipulates that natural ecosystems, natural landscapes and nature complexes not yet subjected to anthropogenic pressure are the first priorities for conservation. It stipulates as well that the following sites and objects are also conservation priorities: sites on the World Heritage List, both cultural and natural; state nature reserves, including biosphere reserves; state nature nurseries; natural monuments, national parks and arboretums; botanical gardens; health spas; other nature complexes; original habitats; places where small indigenous peoples live and work the land; objects of special conservation, scientific, cultural, historical, aesthetic, recreational, curative or other value and significance; the continental shelf; Russia’s exclusive economic zone; rare or endangered soils, forests or other vegetation, animals and other organisms, and their habitats (page 4).
This Act extends the rights of public organizations in the sphere of conservation. These organizations now have the right to take legal action where damage has been caused to the environment (Art. 12). Article 32 legitimizes the introduction of an EIA mechanism, which the old law did not.
This Act also provides for the division of ecological control into federal and regional. It stipulates that the Russian Government is to determine the implementation order of state ecological control, the list of state officials responsible for state ecological control and the list of objects subject to federal ecological control.
This Act introduces a new concept for The Red Book of theRussian Federation and stipulates also the necessity of regulating rare species protected by international treaties (Art. 60). According to Part 3 Art. 58 (by analogy with the old law), the following sites and objects form a nature reserve fund: state nature reserves, including biosphere reserves, state nature zakazniks (nurseries), natural monuments, national parks, arboretums, botanical gardens and other protected natural areas as well as natural objects of special conservation, scientific, cultural, historical, aesthetic, recreational, health improving or other value and significance.
According to Part 4 of the same Article, confiscation of lands in the nature reserve fund is prohibited except in cases envisaged in federal acts. According to Part 5, the lands within the territories with natural objects of special conservation, scientific, historical, cultural, aesthetic, recreational, health improving or other value and significance under protection cannot become private property.
This Act does not have an article analogous to Article 84 of the old law On Environmental Protection assigning administrative responsibility for ecological crimes. However, Article 84 is the only article in the old law that becomes invalid as of the date of the new law’s publication (that is, as of January 12, 2002), but as of the date when the Russian Administrative Criminal Code comes into force (that is, as of July 1, 2002).
At the same time, the new law is weaker than the old one on a number of points. Articles 7 and 10 fail to determine who are the authorities on environmental protection in municipal and local administrations – there is only a reference to some federal acts, which considerably limit their rights, including the right to curb, suspend or stop ecologically dangerous activities.
This Act also does not legitimize the authorities of environmental protection and conservation plenipotentiary governmental bodies. This is assumed to be the responsibility of the Russian Government.
Article 9 provides for the possibility to delegate some authorities from federal bodies to regional executive bodies. In particular, it refers to the state ecological examination of federal objects, established by Article 11 of the Federal Act On Ecological Examination. In practice this may seriously reduce the quality of the state ecological examination and promote environmentally unfriendly projects if the Russian regions take an interest an in them. Typical examples are the construction of Yumaguzinskoye Water Reservoir in the Republic of Bashkortostan and Maikop and Lagonaki road in the Republic of Adygeya.
This Act does not provide a mechanism for collecting fees for environmental pollution; it merely refers to other federal legislation. By contrast, the old law made it very clear how the fees for environmental pollution and other conservation fees were to be collected, where they were to accrue and what they were to be spent on. Without such a mechanism, conservation fees will simply disappear into budgets with no benefit to the environment.
Article 48 allows Russia to import irradiated heat-emitting nuclear reactors from other countries, whereas in the old law (Article 50) such imports were strictly forbidden.
In this Act the rights of the state environmental protection inspectors are limited compared to the rights given to the state ecological control officials in Article 70 of the old law. According to Article 66 of this Act, state environmental protection inspectors have the following rights when on duty:
to inspect organizations, objects of economic and other activities irrespective
of property status, including objects subject to the state protection, defense
objects, objects of civil defense; to acquaint themselves with the necessary
documents and any other materials required for the state ecological examination;
to check to see that norms are being obeyed, also state standards and other
environmental protection normative documents, operating conditions for purification,
detoxication and neutralization equipment, control devices as well as the
way environmental plans and activities are being carried out;
to check to see that environmental protection requirements are being obeyed,
also norms and regulations during the placing, construction, commissioning
and closing down of industrial and other sites;
to check to see that the requirements in the state ecological examination
are being met and to propose conducting an examination;
to make demands of and to issue orders to juridical and physical persons
to eliminate violations of environmental legislation and environmental requirements;
to suspend economic or other activities of juridical and physical persons
if they violate environmental legislation;
to institute administrative proceedings against persons who make the violation
of environmental legislation possible;
to exercise other powers provided by this legislation.
