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The article is devoted to the study of the legal framework of the Russian state, designed to ensure the sustainable development of the Arctic territories. According to the authors of this article, the desire to ensure the sustainable development of the Arctic zone was the basis for the adoption of a number of important strategic documents containing the requirements of environmental safety in the implementation of economic activities in the Russian Arctic. At the same time, the authors note the weaknesses in management in the environmental (nature protection) sphere, as well as the imperfection of the Russian environmental legislation, which does not take into account the natural and climatic features of the Arctic zone and the vulnerability of the Arctic ecological systems to anthropogenic impact. According to the authors, the management system in the Arctic zone should be ecologically oriented and take into account the specific features of these territories. Only such an approach can ensure the sustainable development of the Arctic region, and accordingly the Russian Federation as a whole. According to the authors of this article, in order to improve Russian environmental legislation and bring it in line with the program strategic documents on the development of the Arctic, it is necessary to: make changes to the Federal Law “On Environmental Protection” in terms of establishing special environmental requirements for business entities implemented in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation; change the procedure for reviewing and approving project and business documentation in the course of licensing business activities in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. All projects of economic activities in the Arctic zone should be subject to state environmental impact assessment, for which it is necessary to introduce this provision into the Federal Law "On Environmental Impact Assessment". Special licensing conditions for activities in the Arctic zone should be stipulated in the RF Law “On Subsoil”. Amend the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, providing for special responsibility of economic entities and officials for causing environmental harm in the Arctic zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Kosovo is one of the newest states in the world. Separated from a former communist federation - Yugoslavia and occupied for over a decade by Serbia, it turned out to be free after a systematic destruction and with great consequences in all respects, including the environment. And of course, being a new state, made Republic of Kosovo to inherit many problems, which were very difficult to solve, while the environmental issues did not even come into the agenda ever to be discussed. In other words, having many major problems, the environmental issue as to the international community that has governed Kosovo for more than a decade, as well as for Kosovo's institutions itself, has never become an issue of importance to be discussed nor to be protected. Even after some positive developments in Kosovo's environmental legislation, by adopting the law on environmental protection, by creating a state agency for environmental protection, by creating environmental directorates in municipalities, etc., which developments and steps failed to become successful, because they lacked their implementation in practice. Therefore, even in spite of a good decision by the Government of Kosovo to include the ecological tax on vehicle registration - which has been paid for all these years by Kosovo citizens had no results, because the destination of that tax is the general budget of the Republic of Kosovo and does not go directly to the destination of environment protection, for which is paid by the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo. Then many ad-hoc decisions of the Government of Kosovo have made it come to the conflicts of laws that they have adopted, such as permitting car clearance in Kosovo even older than 10 years from its produce, a decision that depending on the governments and depending from the need to fill the Kosovo budget has been suspended or put in place for implementation in practice, because the Kosovo budget is mainly filled in through customs taxes, and this decision helped to fill the budget, but not caring at all on environment. This has led to (non) respect for environmental rights in Kosovo being also one of the most flagrant violations of human rights, given that in other aspects of respecting the human rights, Kosovo has made many steps forward. This paper will outline the situation in environmental protection in Kosovo and the developments that have followed Kosovo regarding the environment protection, by not forgetting to mention the recent negative developments regarding the pollution, especially in Pristina, which came to the first place in the world as the most polluted city. This article will bring the focus on the all kind (mal) practices, especially in the implementation of legislation in Kosovo, which have to do with environmental protection, and will include different recommendations for all the stakeholders in the Republic of Kosovo, in order to change the environmental protection and increase the standards of non-violation of human rights, which covers also the environmental rights, based on best practices of European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most essential tools to protect nature, environment and biodiversity is to ensure the proper policy and environmental legislation in the creation of protected areas. Nowadays, green economy and environmentally friendly technologies play a major role for sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed picture of the Romanian policy and environmental legislation regarding biodiversity and protected areas and to outline the importance of the institutional framework, global approach of the environmental issues, international and European law and the legislation and policy of national state in order to promote the establishment of protected areas. In this work, we included a documentary synthesis and an analysis of legal and institutional frameworks for biodiversity and protected areas. Romania is the only state in the European Union having five biogeographical regions (alpine, Black sea, continental, steppic, pannonian). Taking in consideration that Romania has a rich biodiversity and more than 22% Romanian territory is under Natura 2000's ecological network, institutional framework, policy and environmental legislation are the most important instruments to protect species, habitats and ecosystems and to maintain biodiversity. In the last decade the terrestrial and marine protected areas has increasing mainly under the influence of European environmental directives. The Romanian Natura 2000 network is composed of 435 sites under the Habitats Directive (Sites of Community Importance, SCIs, and Special Areas of Conservation, SACs) and 171 sites under the Birds Directive (Special Protection Areas, SPAs). Romania currently counts 19 sites designated as Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Sites), with a surface area of 1,156,448 hectares and three Biosphere Reserves including the Danube Delta, Europe's largest natural wetland. As a European Union member, Romanian environment legislation and policy is strongly influence by European law. European legislation in the field of nature protection has been compatible at national level mainly with the adoption Government Emergency Ordinance no. 57/2007 on protected natural regimes, natural habitats, wild flora and wild fauna, approved with amendments by Law no. 49 of April 7, 2011. In order to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of nature in Romania through legal instruments is necessary to create: an institutional framework in line with the new environmental protection requirements; sustainable use of natural resources; access to financial support; monitoring, evaluation and control of activities with environmental impact; public-private partnership, institutional and cross-border cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of research - analysis of legal regulation of theoretical and practical problems of environmental activities in the Russian Federation and to ensure environmental safety.The study authors was based on formal logic methods, comparative method, legal and dogmatic, the system and method futurological. The fundamental method of research is the analysis.A good environment is a necessary condition of human existence. Of all the important factors that directly affect their lives and health, environmental factor is probably the most important because of its impact survival of the human species. In this regard, a particularly urgent problem of environmental security, and, accordingly, the legal and environmental protection, as her condition in recent decades raises serious concerns. Given the fact that the right to a healthy environment is a fundamental right of every person, its implementation should be provided at the highest legal level - constitutional, ie, press con constitutional and legal safeguards to ensure these vital interests of society and the state. In addition, you need a specific mechanism to ensure citizens' environmental rights. At the same time, in a favorable environment to ensure legal protection in Russia there are problems, both theoretical and practical.The first group includes problems of correlation of basic concepts, for example, such as:. "Environmental protection" and "environmental security" Ambiguity estimates in this matter leads to a lack of proper legal instruments in addressing issues of environmental rights of citizens. Furthermore, in such a situation it becomes quite clear regulatory purposes.The second group of problems are the problems associated with the imperfection of environmental legislation. The paper presents the author's view on existing problems of ecological safety, and suggest possible ways to solve theoretical problems and improve legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russian governmental concern about serious problems in a field of health protection connected with environmental protection and safety of Russian Federation is shown based on the analysis of national strategic documents. In this regard, the establishing of scientific basis for environmental protection and environmental safety of population aimed at the correcting of the existing environmental standards and the indicators of permissible anthropogenic impact on environment is given by the federal document "Fundamentals of Russian Environmental Policy for the period till 2030" as one of the strategic goals. The authors review hygienic, bio indicative, medical and demographic approaches to the formation of criteria for an environmental assessment. A small efficiency of the hygienic direction of environmental rationing during the assessment of technological changes in the components of nature and the influence of the anthropogenic factors on population health is given as the problem of environmental rationing. The problem of human environmental quality control based on the bioindication, health and demographic indicators is noted. A health risk and an elemental status of population are used as criteria for the environmental assessment of urban areas. According to the author's ideas, their implementation allows to exclude the effects on health of the socioeconomic factors, concentrating on the chemical features of environment. The evaluation of population health's risk connected with the major air pollutants and the features of the elemental status of the population of the two cities (St. Petersburg and Rostov-on-Don) are shown. The comparative analysis of data on the structure of morbidity and the elemental status of the child are given in the two districts of St. Petersburg, which have different degrees of anthropogenic impact. Observed features of the considered indicators of urban environment are discussed from a position of impact on it by the natural and the anthropogenic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the features of the formation and the current state of protected areas in Ukraine. It has been identified that the approaches to the creation of protected areas and objects are quite different in Ukraine and the European Union. The comparative analysis that has been conducted and discrepancies in categorization of Ukrainian protected areas and objects to the categorization of IUCN and the EU have been established. The measures to adapt national categorization of protected areas with the recommendations of IUCN have been suggested. The basic problems associated with the management and monitoring of Ukrainian protected areas have been highlighted. The paper reveals inconsistencies in the legal framework of Ukraine and the European Union. The basic issues that arise at adaptation of Ukrainian environmental legislation to the EU environmental legislation have been analyzed, namely the implementation of the Bern Convention and Directive 92 \ 43 EEC. The basic steps of the Emerald Network in Ukraine have been examined. The representation networks of protected areas in Ukraine which are official candidates for Emerald Network have been analyzed. Main entry barriers and prospects of Ukrainian protected areas in the European ecological network have been overviewed (Natura-2000). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present state of resource unsufficiency and the pursuit of environmental purity is "repeated waste" a resource for recycling and re-use. In the presented article is the primary raw material mined by mining method, heat treatment, municipal waste, aggregates extracted by surface mining. So now already a classic Feigenbaum concept for improvement of production and minimization / recovery of waste from the creation process shall become an urgent environmental requirements for operations for all production companies. Each material flow has its own specifics. The term "material flow" represents an organised movement of material in the manufacturing process or product circulation. It is characterised by the direction, intensity, frequency, length and performance, structure, character of transported material and transporting and handling equipment used. Only on the basis of real material flows -- using the Sankey diagram it is possible to assess and recommend, which type of recovery of non-productive branches can be used in the company, how to "streamline", which processes to discard or to include. The necessity of intervention, either through the creation of a technological line for "waste" processing or by finding a suitable purchaser is forced by increasingly stringent EU environmental legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental legislation directly influences the environmental management of SMEs. Thus, enterprises management, the environmental management which it applies, must take into account legislation and regulations on environmental pollution control and pollution prevention. Environmental management applied by Romanian SMEs, identifies pollution sources and pollutant emissions, to reduce and finally eliminate them. Noncompliance with environmental legislation such as the removal of emissions, waste may lead to environmental degradation sometimes with irreversible effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]