The Verkhovna Rada has approved in the second reading draft Law No. 11024 “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine’ to Ensure the Preservation of Territories and Objects of the Nature Reserve Fund.” Now it must be signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
This was reported by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.
This draft law concerns changes to Articles 3, 14, 64 of the relevant law. The most anticipated amendments by environmentalists and eco-activists are contained in Article 14, “Determination of the Regime of Territories and Objects of the Nature Reserve Fund.” The lawmakers have banned the use of motor vehicles within the territories and objects of the nature reserve fund (NRF), except for public roads, streets and roads of cities and other settlements, and roads in private areas.
An exception was made for vehicles:
- land users and landowners on whose land plots these territories and objects are located;
- officials of special divisions of the central body of executive power, which implements state policy on the implementation of state supervision (control) in the field of environmental protection, rational use, reproduction and protection of natural resources, executive bodies of settlement, village, city councils, which carry out state control in in the field of environmental protection, as well as law enforcement agencies, emergency and rescue services, health care agencies and institutions, associations of military units, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations, which were created in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine, operators of mine countermeasures during the performance of official duties;
- public environmental protection inspectors who carry out public control in the field of environmental protection;
- employees of enterprises, institutions and organizations providing maintenance of infrastructure facilities located within these territories and facilities;
- local residents within the economic zones of national natural parks, regional landscape parks and buffer zones and zones of anthropogenic landscapes of biosphere reserves, which are used by them for their own needs;
- visitors of institutions of the nature reserve fund, moving along automobile tourist routes within the economic zones of national nature parks, regional landscape parks and zones of anthropogenic landscapes of biosphere reserves, where seasonal and time restrictions for movement, as well as restrictions on the number of and the type of vehicles and their speed;
- visitors to institutions of the nature reserve fund moving along roads to travel to recreational areas, places of mass recreation of the population within stationary recreation zones, economic zones of national natural parks, regional landscape parks and zones of anthropogenic landscapes of biosphere reserves, determined by projects of their territory organization or decisions of special administrations of these institutions.
The new law is expected to put an end to uncontrolled jeeping in protected areas. Until now, a direct ban on the passage of cars was in effect only in the zones of strict inheritance, and passage in economic zones and zones of stationary recreation was allowed. Therefore, protected areas were systematically turned into race tracks.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine proposes to strengthen administrative responsibility for violators. The fine for violating the rules of protection and use of the territories and objects of the nature reserve fund, which previously amounted to 9 to 24 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens (NMDI) and from 15 to 30 NMDI for officials, now the government proposes to increase it to 500-1000 NMDI , and for officials – up to 1000-1500 NMDH. All these norms are outlined in the government draft law No. 11309, which amends Article 91 of the Code of Ukraine on administrative offenses.
Ecologist and head of the analytical department of the Ukrainian nature protection group, Petro Testov, noted that since the draft law applies only to the territory of the nature reserve fund, the majority of forests and forests will not be protected from jeeping.
"But in Yaremche, Vorokhta, and Mykulychyna, all these dozens of offices that drive tourists around in jeeps and ATVs should disappear," he said.
Testov is sure that the administration of the Carpathian National Park will actively sabotage the implementation of this law and promised to "help them implement the legislation."
In Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine", the legislators added a new type of reserves and natural monuments – mycological, that is, created to protect valuable types of mushrooms.
Article 64 "Types of liability for violation of the legislation on nature reserve fund" was supplemented with liability for violation requirements of the regimes of territories and objects of the nature reserve fund, and also banned not only economic, but also " other activity".
The full text of draft law No. 11024, an explanatory note to it, a comparative table and other accompanying documents can be found on the website of the Verkhovna Rada at cards document
As EcoPolitic previously reported, on February 19, 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers approved draft law 11024 “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine’”, which provides for a ban on jeeping in protected areas and strict liability for it.
Later, on March 25, the Environmental Committee recommended that the Parliament adopt this government bill. And on June 20, the Verkhovna Rada voted in the first reading for the draft law No. 11024 on the protection of the nature reserve fund. On December 26, the Ecology Committee supported and recommended that the Parliament approve in the second reading the government's draft law “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine’ to Ensure the Conservation of Territories and Objects of the Nature Reserve Fund.”
