Legal regulation of management in the field of use and protection of land

General Provisions

The legal regulation of land use and protection plays a key role in ensuring the rational use of land resources and environmental protection. The state establishes rules and norms regulating the use of various categories of land, the rights of owners, lessees, and land users, as well as measures to prevent the negative impact of economic activities.

One of the main tools of management is land surveying, which includes studying the condition of lands, planning their rational use, establishing boundaries of plots, and preparing relevant documentation. Land surveying projects and maps allow for systematic organization of land use and prevent its degradation or pollution.

State land monitoring ensures continuous observation of the condition of all land plots, identification of changes, and forecasting of potential negative processes. The data obtained are used for making management decisions, preventing land degradation, and informing citizens about the state of the environment.

Cadastral registration of land plots is an important mechanism for accounting and control of land. It records boundaries, intended use, and unique characteristics of land, ensuring transparency in their usage and protecting the rights of owners and land users.

Control and supervision over land use are carried out at federal, regional, municipal, and public levels. State land supervision prevents violations of legislation, municipal control ensures compliance with rules within populated areas, while operational and public control allow owners and citizens to participate in the protection and rational use of land resources.

As noted by Yu.G. Zharikov, state management in the field of rational use and protection of land means that the state, through its competent authorities, establishes certain rules and norms for organizing the use of all land resources of the country as well as individual parts (categories of land, types of land use, various land users, owners, lessees)¹.

Among the main functions of management in the field of use and protection of land, the following can be singled out: 1) land planning; 2) state monitoring of land; 3) state cadastral registration of land plots; 4) land control and supervision.

Land Planning

Land management includes activities aimed at studying the condition of land, planning and organizing the rational use and protection of land, describing the location and (or) establishing on site the boundaries of land management objects, organizing the rational use of land plots by citizens and legal entities for agricultural production, as well as organizing territories used by indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation². Documents prepared as a result of land management are used in carrying out land monitoring (Article 68 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation).

The types of land management documentation include: the general land management scheme for the territory of the Russian Federation, land management schemes for the territories of the subjects of the Russian Federation, land management schemes for municipal formations, land use and protection schemes; maps (plans) of land management objects; projects of internal land management; projects for improving agricultural lands, developing new lands, reclamation of disturbed lands, protection of lands from erosion, mudflows, flooding, peatification, secondary salinization, drying, compaction, contamination with waste from production and consumption, radioactive and chemical substances, infestation and other negative impacts; materials from soil, geobotanical and other surveys and studies, assessment of land quality, land inventory; thematic maps and atlases on the state and use of lands.

Federal laws and other normative legal acts of the Russian Federation, as well as laws and other normative legal acts of the subjects of the Russian Federation, may establish other types of land survey documentation.

The composition, content, and formatting rules for each type of land survey documentation are regulated by corresponding technical conditions and requirements for land surveying (Article 19 of the Federal Law "On Land Surveying").

State Monitoring of Lands

State monitoring of lands is part of state environmental monitoring (state monitoring of the environment) and represents a system of observations on the condition of lands. The objects of state land monitoring are all lands in the Russian Federation.

The objectives of state monitoring of land are: 1) timely detection of changes in the condition of land, assessment of these changes, forecasting and development of recommendations on prevention and elimination of the consequences of negative processes; 2) information support for state land supervision, other functions of state and municipal management of land resources, as well as land planning; 3) providing citizens with information on the state of the environment in terms of the condition of land.

Depending on the objectives of observation and the territory under observation, state monitoring of land may be federal, regional, or local. State monitoring of land is carried out in accordance with federal³, regional, and local programs. The procedure for carrying out state monitoring of land is established by the federal executive authority authorized by the Government of the Russian Federation (Article 67 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation).

State cadastral registration of land plots

The state cadastral registration of land plots is carried out in accordance with the procedure established by the Federal Law "On the State Cadastre of Real Estate" (Article 70 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation). The State Cadastre of Real Estate is a systematically compiled set of information on real estate accounted for in accordance with this Federal Law, as well as information on the passage of the State Border of the Russian Federation, borders between subjects of the Russian Federation, municipal boundaries, boundaries of populated areas, territorial zones and zones with special conditions for land use, other information provided for by this Federal Law. The State Cadastre of Real Estate is a federal state information resource.

State cadastral registration of real estate (hereinafter - cadastral registration) is understood as the actions of an authorized body to enter information about real estate into the state real estate cadastre, which confirm the existence of such real estate with characteristics that allow identifying such real estate as an individually defined item (hereinafter - unique characteristics of a real estate object), or confirm the termination of the existence of such real estate, as well as other information about real estate provided for by this Federal Law (Article 1 of the Federal Law "On the State Real Estate Cadastre").

Land Control and Supervision

State Land Supervision

State land supervision refers to the activities of authorized federal executive authorities aimed at preventing, detecting, and halting violations by state authorities, local self-government bodies, as well as legal entities, their managers and other officials, individual entrepreneurs, their authorized representatives (hereinafter - legal entities, individual entrepreneurs) and citizens of requirements established by land legislation, through the organization and conduct of inspections of these persons, taking measures provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation to halt and/or eliminate the consequences of detected violations, and the activities of these authorized state authorities in systematically monitoring compliance with land legislation requirements, analyzing and forecasting the status of compliance with land legislation requirements when carried out by state authorities, local self-government bodies, by legal entities, individual entrepreneurs and citizens in their activities.

The state land supervision is carried out by authorized federal executive bodies in accordance with their competence, as provided by the Land Code of the Russian Federation, the legislation of the Russian Federation in the field of environmental protection, and the Federal Law "On Protection of Legal Entities when Conducting State Control (Supervision) and Municipal Control," in the order established by the Government of the Russian Federation (Article 71 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation). The procedure for conducting state land supervision is established by the Regulation on State Land Supervision⁴.

Municipal Land Control

Municipal land supervision is carried out by local self-government bodies in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation and in the manner established by normative legal acts of local self-government bodies. Laws of the subjects of the Russian Federation - the cities of federal significance Moscow and Saint Petersburg - may transfer the powers of local self-government bodies to carry out municipal land supervision and establish the procedure for its implementation to the authorities of these subjects of the Russian Federation (Article 72 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation).

Public land supervision

Carried out by the bodies of territorial public self-government, other public organizations (unions), and citizens in ensuring compliance with the established procedure for preparation and adoption by executive bodies of state authority and local self-government bodies responsible for allocating land plots from lands owned by the state or municipality, decisions affecting the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and legal entities provided for by the Land Code of the Russian Federation, as well as in ensuring compliance with requirements for land use and protection (Article 72 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation).

Production land control

Production land monitoring is carried out by the owner of the land plot, the land user, the land possessor, or the lessee of the land plot during the conduct of economic activities on the land plot. The person using the land plot must provide information regarding the organization of production land monitoring to the authorized body of state land supervision or the authorized body of municipal land control in accordance with the procedures established by the Government of the Russian Federation (Article 73 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation).