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Legal Treatment of Specially Protected Areas
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2.3.4. Legal Treatment of Specially Protected Areas
On of the areas of activity under the Convention on Biological Diversity is “establishing a system of protected areas, rehabilitating and restoring degraded ecosystems”.
Some of the Dnipro tributaries flow in the territory of the Republic of Belarus, namely: the Berezina, Prypiat’, Desna, Psiol, Vorskla and Ingulets. Part of the Berezina River belongs to Berezinsky biosphere reserve. Prypiat’ national park has been created in the country. In 1991, the outcropping of an interglacial peat-bog “Nizhninsky Rov” on the Dnipro left bank in Mogiliov Oblast was declared natural landmark. Several reserve areas are located in the Dnipro Basin on the territory of Ukraine. These are: Dnipro-Orelsky natural reserve (3,766 hectares) and Kanivsky reserve (2.027 hectares). Desna-Starohutsky national park has been established on the River Desna, the Dnipro tributary. Regional landscape parks have been created in the low flows of the Dnipro – “Kinburnska Kosa” (17,890 hectares) – and of the Prypiat’ – Prypiat’-Stokhod (22,628 hectares). The legal status of the above areas is regulated by the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Specially Protected Areas” of 1994, amended on 23 May 2000, by the Law of the Russian Federation “On Specially Protected Areas” dated 15 February 1995 and by the Law of Ukraine “On Natural Reserve Stock of Ukraine”.
Biosphere reserves are considered part of the reserve system. Their objectives, structure and establishment procedures are slightly different from those of other reserve areas, since one of the major aims of setting up biosphere reserves is an on-going environmental monitoring, unusual for other types of reserves. In the case of biosphere reserves, attention is focused on constant observation of anthropogenic changes in the environment, their study and forecasting. In this regard, biosphere reserves, being sites of the least affected environment, serve as a background, as a benchmark against which deviations from the established standards of environment quality in adjacent areas are assessed. The above is important for the Republic of Belarus because the only natural reserve area in this country is Berezinsky biosphere reserve. As the biosphere reserves have far broader and more diverse functions that the other reserve areas, the usual practice is to divide them into several sections (zones) each performing its specific functions. Thus, the legal treatment of biosphere reserves also should be different from that of other types of reserve areas, and as such it should be regulated by the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Specially Protected Areas”. The Law should make a provision stipulating that biosphere reserves are environmental institutions of international importance. Their legal treatment should be specific in that it should provide for a functional zoning of their territory, which is inadmissible for the other types of reserve areas. The Law of the Russian Federation “On Specially Protected Areas” of 15 February 1995 defines the status of state natural biosphere reserves as “reserve areas included into the international system of biosphere reserves conducting the global environmental monitoring” (Article 10). The Law of Ukraine “On Natural Reserve Stock of Ukraine” contains a special section entitled “Biosphere Reserves”, which determines the status and objectives of biosphere reserves, their territory structure and management procedures.
Another common type of specially protected areas is a preserve. The legislation defines preserves as “territories under protection established in order to conserve, rehabilitate and restore natural complexes and sites, natural resources of one or several types in combination with a limited and coordinated use of other natural resources”. The Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated 5 August 1999 established the national biological preserve “Dnipro-Sozhsky”. According to Item 1 of the Regulations on the National Biological Preserve “Dnipro-Sozhsky”, it was formed to conserve valuable forest formations and meadow communities with complexes of rare and endangered plant and animal species entered into the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus. The following activities are prohibited in its territory: irrigation, drainage and other operations leading to the change of natural landscapes and existing hydrological regime; disturbance of natural soil continuum, with the exception of parcels of agricultural land, and of cases connected with forest management activities; burnout of dry vegetation and fire slash removal; discharge of untreated or under-treated waste water, industrial and consumer waste into water bodies and watercourses; setting up stationary tourist camps, fires and parking lots in non-assigned places; motor vehicle traffic out of roads, except for the vehicles engaged in agricultural and forest management works; felling of major use trees and grazing cattle in places designated in the Regulations. The construction of buildings and houses, electric power lines, roads, pipelines and other engineering communications, development and exploitation of common mineral resources in the territory of preserves for internal needs can be carried out in strict compliance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus and upon approval of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus and Ministry of Architecture and Construction of the Republic of Belarus. The preserve establishment in a certain territory does not suppose the confiscation of land plots from their land users. The land users whose land plots are included into the territory of “Dnipro-Sozhsky” preserve are to observe the rules and regulations regarding the preserve and use environmentally friendly technologies.
The Law of the Russian Federation “On Specially Protected Areas” establishes several categories and types of specially protected areas depending on their specific regimes and the status of environmental institutions contained within their territory (Article 2). The largest and most essential categories, forming the structure of specially protected areas, are represented by the state natural reserves, including biosphere ones, and national parks. Other categories are: natural parks, state natural preserves, natural landmarks, dendrological parks and botanic gardens, recreational areas and resorts. Protected zones with a regulated regime of economic activity can be created in the lands or water surface areas adjacent to specially protected areas. Within specially protected areas, special protection regimes are established to ensure that the functions of the relevant categories and types of specially protected areas are duly fulfilled and their objectives are met. Any activities breaching the established regime are prohibited in specially protected areas; sometimes any human interference into natural processes is excluded (Articles 9, 15, 21, 24, 27, 29, 32). Administrative responsibility for the breach of the established regime of specially protected areas envisages fines amounting from one to forty non-taxable minimum personal incomes; criminal responsibility is also foreseen. In any case, the damage is to be indemnified (Article 36).
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