Legislative Practice and Nature Protection in Russia’s Kola Peninsula

• Main Authors: Sergey Shestakov, Valery Barcan
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Among them; the Severonickel; Arctic; Kirovsk; Koashva; Kola Peninsula; Kovdor; Niva; Olenegorsk; kola peninsula; Lapland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.526.424; http://www.georgewright.org/172shestakov.pdf

suite of laws enacted during the 1990s has allowed Russia to begin to realize more effective nature protection. The following federal laws, which are the result of direct action by Russian lawmakers, state the value of a healthy environment and fix punishments for transgressions: • The law “On protection of the environment ” (1991); • The base forest legislation of the Russian Federation (1993); • The law “On specially protected nature areas ” (1995); • The water code of the Russian Federation (1996); and • The forest code of the Russian Federation (1997). This federal legal system has been in force since 1998. But in practice, to re-alize the intent of the new laws will demand a large and continuing effort in directions that have not been taken before. The Lapland Biosphere Reserve provides a good example. The bio-sphere reserve is in the Kola Penin-sula, which is adjacent to Finland in far northeastern Russia (Figure 1; Barcan 1995). Almost all of the pen-insula is north of the Arctic Circle. The Lapland Biosphere Reserve is surrounded by large industrial enter-prises, including the Severonickel copper–nickel smelter complex; iron ore mining complexes at Olenegorsk and Kovdor; other mines at Apatite, Kirovsk, and Koashva; the nuclear power station at Polar-Zory, 30 km south of Lapland Reserve; hydroe-lectric stations on the Niva River, 30-40 km south of the reserve; and mu-nicipal thermoelectric power stations