«CURRENT EVENTS»

DANGEROUS AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW
ON PROTECTED NATURAL AREAS

The State Duma Ecology Committee Ecology is working on Federal Act No. 71598-3, a bill to amend the Law on Protected Natural Areas. The bill was introduced by State Duma deputies V. A. Grachev, R.S. Bakiev, A. N. Greshnevikov, and V. V. Olenyev in December 2002. The new draft of the Law on PNAs has been disseminated to Russia’s 89 regions and to the Russian Government. The Ecology Committee is still receiving comments and suggestions about these proposed amendments.

The draft document was drawn up with the help of leading experts on protected natural areas (PNAs), specialists from different regions of Russia and from NGOs. The draft law is based on the concept of Russian PNA system development and the development of federative relations in this field, on succession in legislation development with regard to current normative legislation and implementation of Russia’s Ecological Doctrine. The Federal Act “On Protected Natural Areas” is one of Russia’s most legally correct, efficient and verified through legal acts. Any amendments would not change the general concept of this law; meanwhile its revision is necessary given the new realities of legal practice. The law must be adjusted to conform with new legal acts adopted after 2000. The basic statements of the draft law include:

— Differentiation of authorities of government departments as regards PNA status identification, management and control in the sphere of PNA establishment and functioning;

— Closer definition of PNA protected zones’ legal status and procedure of reserving lands for further PNA creation;

— Providing legal instruments of national parks and state nature reserves financial security on account of non-budgetary funds and reducing burden on federal and regional budgets;

— The procedure of including Russian PNAs in the international system of biosphere reserves and UNESCO’s Natural and Cultural Heritage List;

— Establishment of a procedure for changing PNA’s borders;

— Regulation of activities providing for regulated tourism and recreation in national parks;

— Adjustment to the norms of the Water Code and the Land Code.

Thus, the draft law is supposedly aimed at improving PNA legislation and its adjustment to the new realities of legal practices and the current legislation. The bill will specify current norms and solve collision issues that had accumulated in the field of PNA management since 1995.

In accordance with the prescribed procedure, the draft law was sent to the Government. The Government sent the document to relevant ministries and departments. In March 2003, the Russian Government submitted the draft of the new revision of the Federal Act “On Protected Natural Areas” for consideration to the Ministry of Natural Resources. This bill takes into account the results of the Presidential Committee responsible for drafting statements on authority differentiation of federal authorities, government authorities in the subjects of the Russian Federation and municipal authorities. The Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of State Property supported the draft law designed under the guidance of D. Kozak. The basic statements of this draft law are as follows:

1. The given revision of the law abolishes the fundamental principle of PNA development in a federative state — PNAs multilevel character (Russian protected natural areas are divided into federal, regional and municipal/local). Thus, the bill violates constitutional fundamentals of federal structure in Russia as regards the areas of mutual confidence and justification of plurality of natural resource property forms, particularly as regards the property of Russia’s 89 regions. The draft law infringes the rights of Russia’s regions as regards the execution of their authority over the objects of mutual competence (Article 72 of the Russian Constitution) in the sphere of natural resource use, nature conservation, environmental safety and protected natural areas.

2. The draft law fixes the list of PNA categories thus depriving regional and municipal authorities of the right to establish PNAs of other categories. As a consequence it devalues the key idea of PNA formation and the right of Russia’s regions to develop their own PNA legislation. Providing no substantiation, the bill stops the positive practice of the last decade of developing a regional system of PNAs of different categories, including the Republic of Sakha, the Republic of Altai, Chita Region and many other regions of Russia. In fact, the bill destroys positive experience in developing PNAs at the municipal level (Ulyanovsk Region, Kamchatka Region, etc.).

3. The draft law means revision of the whole PNA federal and regional legislation developed over the past decade (including numerous regulations and sub-law acts) as well as other legislations (the federal act on PNAs provides the ground for the new Land Code, the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences, the Federal Act “On environmental Protection”, etc.). There is almost no continuity in the draft law: it ignores current legislation. The adoption of this bill will require much work, such as abrogation, review and modification of all existing federal acts and actual abrogation of most regional acts (most of the Russian regions have their own laws and other normative acts on PNAs based on the Constitution and the Federal Act on PNAs).

4. The bill suggests that all PNAs should be under federal government authority. New, mainly federal PNAs would be established only by a decree of federal authorities. Regions and municipalities would have the right to designate only nature monuments, botanical gardens and arboretums. This means that most existing regional PNAs (approximately 15,000) would be liquidated. This means nature parks and state nature protected areas (zakazniks) – the categories of regional PNAs most important for Russia to fulfill its international responsibilities in the field of biodiversity conservation and environmental safety. Some regional PNAs are already listed in UNESCO’s World Natural Heritage List. Adoption of the bill would require revision of the protection regime in these areas that are now under protection of international law.

5. The bill liquidates a whole category of PNAs – nature parks (the most important PNA category of regional significance). Thus, the enormous amount of work done over the past seven years to develop a nature park network in the republics of Adygeya, Altai, Bashkortostan, Kalmykia, Sakha, Udmurtiya, Primorye, Volgograd, Kamchatka, Omsk, Sakhalin, Sverdlovsk regions, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area and in the city of Moscow will have been wasted.

6. The bill stipulates that financing for state nature reserves and national parks will come from the federal budget only. This threatens the stable existence of this unique system recognized all over the world and deprives it of legitimate sources of additional financing (annually 30—40% of the total budget) from regional and municipal budgets, domestic sponsors, charitable grants, as well as the PNAs’ own earnings.

7. The new draft of the law does not solve a single legal problem the Russian PNA system faces today; it ignores the proposals of a working group under the State Duma Ecology Committee as those of regional authorities as regards PNA system development based on a combination of federal, regional and municipal PNAs.

According to ecological NGOs, the draft law designed by the President’s Administration destroys existing PNA systems and PNA legislation; if this bill is adopted it could seriously damage territorial protection of nature throughout Russia.

To read the new draft of the Law on PNAs and comments, go to the BCC website: http://reserves.biodiversity.ru/law-new.html.

WWF Russian Office