A group of deputies and senators representing United Russia introduced a bill to the State Duma on the government’s right to change the boundaries of protected areas, Kommersant reports.
The explanatory note states that amendments to the law on protected areas are necessary to remove the prohibitions that apply to citizens living in the territory of national parks.
“About 2 million people live within the boundaries of federal special protected natural territories (SPNAs),” the explanatory note said. “Among them, a special category is made up of national parks, which currently number 63. There are about 923 populated parks in 27 national parks points of various levels with almost 371 thousand people living there.”
Residents of such villages do not have the right to obtain land ownership.
The report also says that the amendment threatens the partial destruction of the protected areas, on which large-scale activities can be allowed.
Environmentalists, in turn, have expressed concerns about the new bill, as activities in the now protected by law natural areas could harm the ecosystem as a whole.
Earlier it was reported that members of the Federation Council prepared amendments to the law “On Specially Protected Natural Territories (SPNA)”, which proposed changing the procedure for setting the boundaries of reserves and national parks, namely, to exclude territories of settlements from the borders of SPNAs increasing instead the area of he adjacent land.
Today, capital construction is prohibited within the boundaries of the protected areas; any other actions require complex and lengthy approvals.