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STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS
The legislation in the three Dnipro Basin countries regulates some aspects of biodiversity conservation. At the same time, the mechanisms of implementing norms of national environmental legislations are not effective enough. There are a number of challenges caused by organizational, legal and economic factors, as well as by the existing imbalance in the legislative regulation of the right of ownership in natural resources and natural components, the right to use natural resources, on the one hand, and the formation of new economic relations, on the other.
The Dnipro Basin plays an exceedingly important role in biological diversity conservation in general. Therefore it is highly recommended that the riparian countries develop and conclude an international agreement on biodiversity conservation in the Dnipro Basin.
The agreement should lay down the following basic principles:
- ensuring environmentally and economically feasible and sustainable use and protection of water resources;
- preventing, limiting and reducing water contamination for priority provision of the population with high-quality drinking water;
- maintaining and rehabilitating, when necessary, water and related ecosystems;
- barring, in the countries’ respective territories, unilateral actions detrimental to the other Contracting Parties’ interests;
- envisaging environmental responsibility for the breach of the agreement;
- promoting the introduction, in the countries’ respective territories, of environmental insurance systems in compliance with the national legislations with a view to enhancing environmental safety of production and creating favorable conditions for life and economic activities of the population.
The agreement will mark a further progression towards the implementation of the UN/ECE Convention on the Protection of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes.
All three riparian countries should further improve and harmonize their national legislative frameworks on biodiversity conservation in the Dnipro River Basin.
Fulfilling its international obligations, the participating countries developed their National Strategies and Action Plans of Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity (in Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus these instruments were adopted in 1997). The State Strategy of Sustainable Development of the Russian Federation made a number of provisions concerning biodiversity conservation, but that seemed insufficient. So in 2002, the Russian Federation designed the National Strategy of Conserving Biological Diversity as part of its State Strategy of Sustainable Development.
The evaluation of legislative framework in support of biological diversity in the Dnipro Basin in terms of its compliance with the Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian national legislations is a difficult task, since in these countries there are no integrated systems for regulating this multifaceted natural system. The national legislations on natural resources have traditionally regulated the use and protection of separate natural features and sites. The environmental legislation systems of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine tend to take an approach based on “natural resources”.
Of special importance for the conservation of biological diversity are the provisions of laws and other regulatory acts on the protection and use of fauna. The Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Protection and Use of Fauna” needs revising and updating. Further improvement of legislation on fauna will involve the adoption of the Law of the Russian Federation “On Fishing and Protection of Aquatic Biological Resources” and of a series of federal laws on conservation and use of sturgeon and salmon species, as well as of other valuable aquatic biological resources.
In order to harmonize the Dnipro Basin countries’ legislation on fauna, it is desirable that, while amending their laws, the riparian countries use a model law “On Fauna” approved on 8 June 1997 by the International Assembly of the CIS member-states.
The Law “On Flora” was adopted in Ukraine in 1999, whereas in the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation these relations are still to be regulated at the legislative level. Therefore one of the priority objectives is to fill in this gap in environmental legislations of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation and to prepare and adopt national laws “On Flora”.
Since the three basin countries signed the Agreement on a Book of Rare and Endangered Animal and Plant Species – Red Book of the CIS Member-States dated 23 June 1995, the national legislations of the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine should formulate and incorporate the notion of the “CIS Red Book”.
It should be recognized that the legal regime of biosphere reserves is different from that of other types of reserve areas and stipulated as such in the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Specially Protected Areas”.
Along with specially protected areas established with the purpose of biological diversity protection from adverse anthropogenic impact, there are a number of other territories with a special regime. Given that since 1986 the Dnipro Basin in the lower flow of the river has been exposed to radioactive contamination, such territories include the zone of compulsory evacuation and the isolation zone set up after the Chernobyl accident. The isolation zone is part of Polessye radiation-environmental reserve. However, granting the status of “environmental” to the institution and the territory in question seems unjustified since the aims and objectives of this reserve are unique, in and of themselves, and differ from those of the other reserve areas. Thus, the legislation should distinguish “natural” reserve areas from “other types” of reserves.
The Dnipro River flows through the cities and towns of Smolensk, Mogiliov, Loyev, Rechitsa, Kiyv, Cherkassy, Dniprodzerzhinks and others where the anthropogenic pressures on the river are very intense. The role of water protection zones is enhancing. Therefore, the riparian countries should develop specific regulations on water protection zones, riversides and waterfronts within city and town boundaries.
In the Russian Federation, the Law “On State Regulation of Gene-Engineering Activities” has been adopted. The development of biotechnologies, including gene-engineering, or creating new forms of organisms by changing their genetic system with the aim of obtaining useful and highly efficient organisms, is associated with a growing risk of producing uncontrollable organisms with unpredictable characteristics and, consequently, poses a threat to biodiversity. It is recommended that in the course of considering a similar draft law, the Belorussian legislators take into account the objective unification tendencies currently under way in the legislations of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation. It is also recommended that a similar law be prepared in Ukraine.
The Dnipro River Basin embraces the territories of several countries. All of them have their own, sometimes conflicting, interests in what concerns the use of natural resources. To address this challenge the countries should set up a management system that would combine basin-wide planning with the existing administrative-territorial management. The legislation of the Republic of Belarus is different from those of the Russian Federation and Ukraine in that it does not provide for the principle of basin management of water bodies. The resolution of this problem will foster a more effective cooperation towards conserving biodiversity in the Dnipro River Basin.
The system of water resource management agencies should incorporate two two-tier subsystems.
First,
National level of management,
Basin level of management.
Second,
Decision-making level,
Decision implementation level (executive).
The following institutional framework is to be established:
Decision-making bodies:
Water Councils in the member-countries (national level),
Dnipro Basin Council (inter-state basin level).
Executive bodies (or bodies in charge of implementing decisions):
Water Service (Water Committee or Water Department) within the system of state executive power bodies in the sector of environmental protection and use of natural resources of individual countries (national level),
Basin management (river basin level).
An instrument of international law regulating legal aspects of ensuring access to environmentally relevant information is the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. This Convention was ratified by Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus. Its ratification by the Russian Federation would promote a more active public involvement in the process of making environmentally relevant decisions for the Dnipro Basin.
It is advisable that the legislation of the Republic of Belarus envisage new forms of public involvement in the environmental examination procedures, following the example of the Russian law “On Environmental Examination” that regulates in detail the public participation in environmental examinations on the basis of transparency, openness, respect of public opinion, etc.
It seems appropriate for the legislation of the Republic of Belarus to regulate the procedures of public examination in their correlation with the state environmental inspections. In particular, regional and local agencies of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection should be entitled to approve the conclusions of public examinations, provided the latter were conducted in compliance with all requirements and their findings are beyond doubt. Whenever the conclusions of public environmental examinations are submitted to the agencies of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, the Ministry itself or its territorial agencies should initiate a state environmental inspection.
