NEWS DEVELOPMENTS IN THE LEGISLATION ON PROTECTED
AREAS: ANALYSIS AND COMMENTS
(Published with abridgements)
On January 1, 2005 the RF Federal Law no. 122-FZ of August 22, 2004 will come into effect entitled "On introducing changes in the legislative acts of the Russian Federation and nullification of certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation as a result of adoption of federal laws "On introducing changes and amendments in the Federal law", "On general principles of legislative (representative) and executive bodies establishment in the entities of the Russian Federation" and "On general principles of local government bodies establishment in the Russian Federation".
For experts in territorial environmental protection the following innovations
have particular significance:
……
In respect of state natural reserves, national parks, state natural zakazniks and monuments of nature organization and functioning
It is established that:
state natural reserves, national parks, state natural zakazniks and monuments
of nature of federal significance shall be established by the decrees of the
Russian government in accordance with the perception of environmental issues
by federal executive bodies (in the past it was necessary to obtain approval
of the authorities of federal entities);
regulations on state natural zakazniks of federal significance shall not
require approval of executive bodies in the entities of the Federation;
decisions on the statutes of state natural reserves' protected zones shall
be taken and approved by the RF Government (earlier this was the responsibility
of the executive bodies of federal entities);
the statute of national parks shall to be approved by the RF Government
(earlier this was the competence of the authority with jurisdiction over such
national parks);
social and economic activities of managing units and projects on settlements
development within the territories of national parks and their protected zones
shall be coordinated directly with the federal executive environmental bodies
rather than with national parks themselves (which was the case before).
In doing so the following conditions shall be taken into account:
With the abolition of the requirement to have consent expressly given by
executive bodies of the federal entities for establishing new (as well as
expanding the existing) reserves, national parks, federal zakazniks and nature
monuments of federal significance, it might appear that of now all decisions
would be taken without regional authorities involvement which would simplify
the decision making process. However, this is not the true. The point is that
para. d, part 1, of article 72 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation
which provides that protected areas shall be under joint jurisdiction of the
Federation and its entities, remains in force. According to part 56 in the
Regulations of the RF Government (approved by RF Government decree no. 260
of June 01, 2004) governmental draft laws on the issues of joint jurisdiction
of the Russian Federation and its entities shall be subject to approval by
executive bodies of the Federation entities before they are submitted to the
Government. The proposals by executive bodies of the Federation entities in
respect of such draft laws shall be subject to mandatory examination by the
RF Government.
Transfer of authority in respect of protected areas establishment to the
RF Government will undoubtedly complicate the establishment process considerably
in itself because of elementary official circumlocution (and at the moment
more than 40% of reserves do not have protected zones at all). These considerations
make the issue of territorial expansion of some already existing protected
areas particularly complicated and requires introduction of changes and amendments
to relevant regulations on them. In addition, it should be mentioned that
owing to a paradox logic (or an obvious incompetence) of the authors of law
no. 122-FZ (Federal legislation):
from the text of the Federal Law on Protected Areas it is unclear who is specifically in charge of approving regulations on protected areas of the reserves;
the procedure of national parks' protected areas establishment has remained unchanged; it is in the competence of executive bodies of Federal entities.
3. While the procedure national parks regulation approval has changed, the provisions of state natural reserves and state natural zakazniks of federal significance regulations approval have remained intact (they are still subject to approval by relevant ministries and departments). Here we have well-documented evidence that this change is in no way justified or reasonable. At the same time this new development will undoubtedly complicate and delay preparation and approval of national parks regulations. Currently, according to item 5.2.38 of the Regulation on the Ministry of Natural Recourses (MNR) of the RF (approved by RF Government Decree no. 370 of July 22, 2004), national parks regulations are to be approved by this Ministry. It is obvious that the law has no retroactive force and those national parks that have their regulations approved by the MNR will not need new approval after January 1, 2005. However (as of October 15, 2004) there are 29 such national parks from the total of 35 with 6 national parks (Alanya, Alkhanay, Pribaykalsky,
Pripyshminskie bory, Tunkinsky, and Shorsky) lacking the approved regulations required. The prepared draft laws (in electronic form as well) were submitted to the Department of State Environmental Policy of the MNR on August 26, 2004, and the Ministry had enough time to approve these regulations until the end of 2004. Otherwise, the above listed national parks could have faced serious problems since the beginning of 2005.
V. B. Stepanitsky,
independent expert,
honored ecologist of the Russian Federation
