The draft law No. 11024 on the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine adopted by the Verkhovna Rada contains a new provision that allows regional and Kyiv city councils to cancel and change the protection zones of territories and objects of the Nature Reserve Fund without public participation.
This was reported by the Judicial and Legal Newspaper.
This is an amendment to Article 53 proposed by the Chairman of the Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management, Oleh Bondarenko. It provides for two changes:
- "The decision on the organization or declaration of territories and objects of the nature reserve fund of local importance, as well as the establishment, cancellation and change of security zones territories and objects of the nature reserve fund of local and national significance is accepted Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, regional, Kyiv and Sevastopol city councils ";
- "Cancellation and change of protection zones of territories and objects of the nature reserve fund are carried out by agreement with the central body of executive power, which ensures the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of environmental protection, on the basis of the relevant expert opinion ".
In its conclusion, the main legal department of the Verkhovna Rada noted several comments on the proposed norms:
- According to lawyers of the parliament, currently articles 39 and 40 of the Law not provided cancellation and change of protection zones of territories and objects of the nature reserve fund, but only their establishment. However, the project does not propose corresponding changes to these articles.
- The title of Article 53 of the Law, which refers only to the creation of protection zones of territories and objects of the nature reserve fund, also requires appropriate clarification, but does not contain provisions on their cancellation and change, as provided for in the project.
- The project does not resolve the issue of who should issue the appropriate expert opinion, the body that will approve the procedure, the terms of its issuance, etc., are not defined.
In the comments, lawyers also say that "the introduction of the possibility of canceling and changing the protection zones of territories and objects of the nature reserve fund creates serious risks of reducing the volume of territories and objects of the nature reserve fund".
"Ukraine's international obligations in accordance with the Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their member states, on the other hand, provide for the opposite – an increase in the area of nature conservation areas," the legal department emphasized .
The experts also noted that, in their opinion, the approach to the protection zones of territories and objects of the nature reserve fund proposed by the draft law contradicts the title of the document. The full text of the comments can be found in the draft law card.
As a reminder, on January 8, the Verkhovna Rada approved in the second reading the draft law No. 11024 “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”. Now it must be signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
