The problem of defining the limits of protected areas in Ukraine regarding to the sustainable land management

Abstract

Nowadays all over the world new protected areas are being created. In Ukraine this process is developed within European programs. During the years of independence many new protected areas were created. Large amount of them were included in so called Ukrainian ecological network that ought to be built in 2015. This network is connected with the European ecological network. The governmental reports show high level of the execution of the programs of developing of the protected areas. But in reality we can see that many of new protected areas do not have the determined limits. This results in dangerous human occupation of such lands. Businessmen understand that occupation will be impossible soon. And they think that such protected areas are proclaimed but yet not really exist. And most of Ukrainian courts agree with this. Recent research and publications analyses. Research of management of protected areas through legal means in Ukraine was made by many Ukrainian scientists (V.I. Andreytsev, A.P. Hetman, M.V. Shulga, P.F. Kulynich, A.M. Myroshnychenko and others). At the same time the scientists have not paid enough attention to the problem of defining the limits of protected areas which is now really a great legal problem in Ukraine. Paper objective is the legal problem of defining the limits of protected areas in Ukraine regarding to the sustainable land management. Paper main body. Generally, protected areas are understood to be those in which human occupation or at least the exploitation of resources is limited. The definition that has been widely accepted across regional and global frameworks has been provided by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its categorization guidelines for protected areas. The definition is as follows: "A clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values." In Ukraine all protected areas consist of a «fund». Its name can be translated into English like «natural reserved fund». It includes areas of national and regional value. Protected areas are divided into categories. The most widespread are: nature reserve (most protected), national park, zakaznik (a type of protected area in Ukraine and some other former Soviet republics that meets World Conservation Union's (IUCN) category III, or more frequently category VI criteria). In Ukraine there are two types of land planning: 1) land management; 2) planning of development of territories which includes city planning. The limits of each land lot are determined by special documentation within the system of land management. The main type of documentation is the project of land management. This document is also made for protected area as a separate geographical space. According to the law the limits of each protected area are determined by the project. But very often we face the situation when there is no such project. The reasons are different. One of them is that many people are not interested in creation of a new protected area. The amendments to the law “About natural reserved fund of Ukraine” made in 2010 give the solution of this problem. Before the land management project is contained the limits are determined by project of creation of protected area. This document is contained before the proclamation of protected area. But lawyers often face the situation that appeared before 2010. Most of them think that the only evidence of existence of protected area is the land management project. They are so fascinated with this thing that many of them still even do not know about the project of creation of protected area. The author disagrees with them. On the basis of analysis of laws of Ukraine and many other court rulings he offers several new ways of definition of the limits of protected areas. Conclusions of the research. The main way to define the limits of protected areas is to make the project of land management. The additional way is to make the project of creation of protected area. If these documents do not exist other ways would be used: scientific justification, list of landowners, city planning documentation