Environmental and Natural Resources Management

General Provisions

Environmental management and natural resource use is a comprehensive process uniting the activities of government agencies, local self-government bodies, public organizations, and legal entities. It aims at implementing environmental legislation, protecting natural resources, and ensuring ecological safety. Despite various approaches in scientific literature, all experts agree that effective management requires systemic interaction between authorities and application of a set of functions, methods, and regulatory tools.

The functions of environmental management include planning of natural resource use, environmental regulation, licensing, monitoring compliance with environmental legislation, conducting environmental expertise, and monitoring the state of the environment. These actions allow not only to prevent the negative impact of economic activities on nature but also to ensure the rational use of resources, their restoration, and preservation for future generations.

Environmental management methods are diverse and divided into administrative, economic, and ideological measures. Administrative measures include control and supervision, issuance of permits and sanctions. Economic methods imply tax incentives, benefits, fines, and compensation for environmental damage. Ideological measures aim at forming an ecological culture, public education, and support for initiatives promoting sustainable development.

Environmental management authorities are classified into general competence authorities and specially authorized bodies. The former include the President of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation, and regional authorities responsible for strategic leadership and coordination of environmental protection activities. Specialized bodies such as the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rospridnadzor), and Federal Forestry Agency (Rosprirodolex) perform specific functions in monitoring, regulation, and management of natural resources.

Effective environmental management and natural resource utilization require coordinated interaction between all government authorities and stakeholders in natural resource use, application of a multi-level approach to regulation, and integration of modern monitoring and control methods. Such a comprehensive approach ensures ecosystem preservation, rational resource use, and protection of citizens' ecological rights, creating conditions for the sustainable development of the country.

Concept, Functions, Methods, Types of Environmental Management

To date, a unified approach to understanding management in the field of environmental protection and natural resource use has not been established in scientific literature. For example, M.M. Brinchuk understands management in the area of nature conservation and environmental protection as a set of actions carried out by authorized entities aimed at fulfilling the requirements of environmental legislation¹. According to O.I. Krassov, management in the sphere of environmental protection represents sub-legislative executive-dispositional activities of state executive authorities and local self-government bodies, the main

the aim of which is the organization of ensuring the preservation of the natural environment, its restoration, and the provision of ecological safety². Whereas M.V. Ponomarev understands management in the field of environmental protection, natural resource use, and ensuring ecological safety as the activities of authorized subjects (state authorities, local self-government bodies, public and other non-commercial organizations, legal entities) in implementing their powers, rights, and obligations in the area of environmental protection, natural resource use, and ensuring ecological safety[3]. The issue of the system of organs responsible for managing environmental protection and natural resource use is also currently a matter of debate. In literature, broad and narrow approaches to the system of such organs are distinguished. Proponents of the broad approach include all three branches of government (legislative, executive, and judicial) within the system of relevant management bodies. Advocates of the narrow approach include only executive branch organs in the system of governmental bodies responsible for environmental protection and natural resource use.

For example, according to M.M. Brinchuk, when determining the role of state management in natural resource use and environmental protection within the mechanism of environmental law, it is important to emphasize that it is carried out within the framework of the executive branch of the state government³. A similar position is held by O.I. Krassov, who notes that tasks related to organizing management in the field of environmental protection are assigned to executive authorities, not to legislative or judicial bodies, which do not perform any managerial functions⁴. Whereas according to M.V. Ponomarev, legislative authorities (Representative bodies), while carrying out legislative regulation, nevertheless participate in the implementation of state administration, including in the field of environmental protection and natural resource use⁵.

It is also important to define the content of the management function. For example, M.M. Brinchuk understands the management function as the constant direction of activities aimed at ensuring environmental protection and rational use of natural resources⁶. According to O.L. Dubovik, the management function is a direction of activity of an entity or group of entities of environmental management, established in legislative and other normative legal acts, aimed at organizing environmental protection and use of natural resources⁷. Whereas O.I. Krassov considers the functions of management as types of activities related to special

directions having a special character and necessary for organizing effective environmental protection⁸. To the functions of management M.M. Brinchuk relates: sub-legislative norm-making; creation of an organizational system in the sphere of interaction between society and nature; coordination of activities related to environmental management and protection of the environment; environmental planning; environmental standardization; ecotechnical regulation; environmental standardization; assessment of the impact of planned activities on the environment; environmental expertise; environmental licensing; environmental certification; environmental audit; environmental monitoring (observation of the state of the environment); accounting for the condition and use of individual protection of natural objects and the environment as a whole, as well as harmful impacts; ecological education and training; conducting scientific research on environmental issues; environmental monitoring; resolving disputes in an administrative manner regarding the right to use natural resources and environmental protection⁹.

Alongside management functions, methods of management are also distinguished in literature. According to M.V. Ponomarev, the successful implementation of managerial powers is achieved through the application of special ways of influencing the behavior and activities of those being managed, i.e., management methods. In the sphere of environmental protection and natural resource use, the following methods are traditionally distinguished: a) administrative; b) economic; c) ideological¹⁰.

It is also important to present the approaches proposed in literature for classifying the considered management bodies. For example, as noted by M.M. Brinchuk, state administration of natural resource use and environmental protection is carried out by various government bodies endowed with different competencies and functioning at different levels. They can be divided into three types: bodies of general competence, specifically authorized bodies, and other bodies assigned specific functions related to the management of natural resources use or tasks in environmental protection. According to O.L. Dubovik, bodies carrying out activities by law or another The State Environmental Management is divided into general and special management based on their status, which in turn form two groups depending on subordination – those under the jurisdiction of the Government of the Russian Federation and ministries, and by the scale of activities – federal and territorial (of the subjects of the Russian Federation)¹¹. Meanwhile, O.I. Krassov distinguishes two types of management in the field of environmental protection: general and special¹².