Human

eco

logy

and h

ygie

ne

of e

nviron

men

t. Le

gal a

spec

ts

of e

nviron

men

tal p

rote

ctio

n

and a

way

out o

f the

ecol

ogica

l cris

is: st

rate

gy an

d

tact

ics o

f surv

ival.

Kyiv – 30.10.2012

as. S

ergii G

arka

vy

PLAN OF THE LECTURE

1. Human Ecology. Objectives.

2. Hygiene of Environment. Objectives.

3. System of state environmental regulations.

4. System of standards in environmental quality.

5. Current legislation on environmental protection.

THE

TERM E

COLOGY

WAS

COINED B

Y ERNST

HAECKEL

IN 1

866 AND D

EFIN

ED B

Y

DIRECT

REFERENCE

TO T

HE

ECONOMY

OF NAT

URE.

HUMAN ECOLOGY

• Human ecology is the subdiscipline of ecology that focuses on humans

• Human ecology studies the relationship between humans and their natural, social and built environments

• Human ecology made its first formal appearance in a sociological study in 1921.

• Human ecology has a fragmented academic history with developments spread throughout the scientific disciplines, including: geography, anthropology, sociology, zoology, and psychology.

• Human ecologists are also called sociologists

HUMAN ECOLOGY STUDIES

• Genetic, physiological, and social adaptation to the environment and to environmental change;

• The role of social, cultural, and psychological factors in the maintenance or disruption of ecosystems;

• Effects of population density on health, social organization, or environmental quality;

• New adaptive problems in urban environments;

• Interrelations of technological and environmental changes;

HUMAN ECOLOGY STUDIES

• The development of unifying principles in the study of biological and cutlural adaptation;

• The genesis of maladaptations in human biological and cultural evolution;

• The relation of food quality and quantity to physical and intellectual performance and to demographic change;

• The application of computers, remote sensing devices, and other new tools and techniques

ANTHROPOCENE

• Changes to the Earth by human activities have been so great that a new geological epoch named the Anthropocene* has been proposed.

• The human niche or ecological polis of human society, as it was known historically, has created entirely new arrangements of ecosystems as we convert matter into technology.

• Human ecology has created anthropogenic biomes (called anthromes).

• The habitats within these anthromes reach out through our road networks to create what has been called technoecosystems containing technosols

* Anthropocene |ˈanTHrəpəˌsēn| - the current geological age, viewed as having begun about 200 years ago with the significant impact of human activity on the ecosphere.

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

• Ultimately, every manufactured product in human environments comes from natural systems.

• Research shows that people who are more engaged with regular access to natural areas have lower rates of diabetes, heart disease and psychological disorders.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, an international UN initiative involving more than 1,360 experts worldwide, identifies four main

ecosystem service types having 30 sub-categories stemming from natural capital.

THE ECOLOGICAL COMMONS INCLUDES:

1) provisioning (e.g., food, raw materials, medicine, water supplies);

2) regulating (e.g., climate, water, soil retention, flood retention);

3) cultural (e.g., science and education, artistic, spiritual);

4) supporting (e.g., soil formation, nutrient cycling, water cycling) services.

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

• In 1992, William Rees developed the ecological footprint concept.

• The ecological footprint has become a popular way of accounting for the level of impact that human society is imparting on the Earth's ecosystems.

• All indications are that the human enterprise is unsustainable as the footprint of society is placing too much stress on the ecology of the planet.

WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE REPORT

The WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) 2008 living planet report and other researchers report that human civilization has exceeded the bio-regenerative capacity of the planet.

This means that the footprint of human consumption is extracting more natural resources than can be replenished by ecosystems around the world.

THE PANDA HAS BECOME THE SYMBOL OF WWF

The panda logo of WWF originated from a panda named Chi Chi that was transferred from the Beijing Zoo to the London Zoo in the same year of the establishment of WWF. As the only giant panda residing in the Western area at that time, along with its physical features and status as an endangered species, panda is seen to serve the need of a strong recognizable symbol of the organization.

• WWF's current strategy for achieving its

mission specifically focuses on restoring

populations of 36 species (species or species

groups that are important for their ecosystem

or to people, including elephants, tunas,

whales, dolphins and porpoises), and ecological

footprint in 6 areas (carbon emissions,

cropland, grazing land, fishing, forestry and

water).

BIODIVERSITY CRISIS

• The current wave of threats, including massive extinction rates and concurrent loss of natural capital to the detriment of human society, is happening rapidly.

• This is called a biodiversity crisis, because 50% of the worlds species are predicted to go extinct within the next 50 years.

ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE

• The study of health and how it is affected by the environment

• The measures undertaken to keep the human environment safe and healthy to live in, including waste disposal, clean water supplies, food safety controls and good housing

In Ukraine, the issue of management of the natural environment is within the competence of government, legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. In Constitution of Ukraine the legislative functions of conservation are assigned to Parliament that has ownership of land, minerals, forests, water, flora and fauna and other natural resources, defines environmental policy, monitors the implementation of environmental legislation.

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW:

- Emphasis on the protection of life and health, creating favorable conditions for life, work and recreation;

- Science-based combination of environmental and economic interests to ensure sustainable development of the society, subject to guarantees of human rights to a healthy and favorable environment for life;

- Rational use of natural resources;

- State regulation on environmental-protection and use of natural resources;

- Paying nature;

- Compliance with environmental legislation and the inevitability of responsibility for its violation;

- Publicity and close relationship with civil society organizations and the population in solving environmental problems;

- International cooperation in the field of environmental protection.

CONSTITUTION OF UKRAINE (1996):A number of key documents set out provisions relating to environmental law.

  - Articles 45, 46 provide the right to healthcare, a healthy environment and for reimbursement of damages caused by the violation of this law. The state exercises control over the management of natural resources to protect and improve the living conditions and the protection and restoration of the environment;

 - Article 34 guarantees the right to receive, store and distribution of complete, accurate and timely information about the activities of state bodies, public associations, on political, economic, cultural and international life, the environment;

CONSTITUTION OF UKRAINE (1996):

 - In Article 55 emphasized that the protection of the environment - the duty of every citizen.

    In the regulation of environmental relations law "On Environmental Protection" (as amended on 17.07.2002, the № 126-3) has three goals:

1. - The preservation of the environment;

2. - Prevent and eliminate the negative impact of economic activity on nature and human health;

3. - Rehabilitation and improvement of environmental quality.

• In this Act the principles and legal basis of environmental performance are enshrined, the range of objects the protection of natural resources, the rights and duties of citizens and public associations for the protection of the environment, the system of ecological education, public policy, regulation and management in this area , the economic mechanism of environmental protection, public system observing its status and cadastral natural resources. It defines legal and technical issues and scientific support environmental protection, environmental impact assessment, environmental requirements for business.

• The Law "On Environmental Protection" provides the environment from the harmful effects and ozone depletion, the creation of protected areas and areas of environmental risk zones of ecological crisis and environmental distress, control and supervision in the field of environmental liability for violation of environmental legislation and compensation for environmental damage, international cooperation in the field of environmental protection.

• The provisions of this Act are detailed and improved by environmental, natural resource and other regulations. There are a number of regulations for the protection of nature in the cities and other human settlements, industry, energy, agriculture and other areas of human activity and in general to ensure environmental safety.

• Ensuring environmental safety norms declared in the law "On Environmental Protection" and the law "On specially protected natural areas."

Funding programs on saving the nature and the environment is to allocate credits, grants, budget allocations, and other investments in the development and use of natural resources and objects protected nature conservation, nature of work and activities.         

Economic incentives for environmental management and environmental protection of natural resources including soft loans, tax and other incentives for rational, comprehensive utilization, improvement, rehabilitation and restoration of natural resources, implementation low-contaminatedand waste technologies, the use of secondary resources.           

Environmental Insurance as a new element of the economic mechanism of nature and the environment by means of forming premiums special cash fund for compensation for damage caused to natural resources, facilities or the environment and individuals respectively as a result of their contamination, deterioration or other destruction, loss of health or death.

         

Since independence, Ukraine adopted a number of laws and codes of the main issues of preservation, restoration and conservation of enviroment:1990 - Land Code,1991 - Law on Land Reform, the Law on Environmental Protection,1992 - The Law on Air Protection,1992 - Code of mineral and processing of raw materials,1993 - Forest, Water Code, the Law on Wildlife,1995 - Law on Ecological Expertise and Radioactive Waste1998 - Act on Waste and on plant protection,1999 - Law on Flora.

Damage, inflicted to natural resources and objects or the environment, can be economic and ecological. Economic damage is reflected in the deterioration of useful properties, loss of natural resources or objects and adversely affect the economic interests of owners and users of natural resources or objects. Ecological damage, in turn, is the deterioration of natural resources and objects or the environment. It is associated with an attack on the interests of the person on clean natural resources, facilities and products in a favorable for his life environment.

• The main goal of environmental policy is to provide an ecologically safe environment for people to live, rational use and protection of natural resources, development of legal and economic foundations of environmental protection for the benefit of present and future generations.

• To achieve this goal it is necessary to conduct restructuring of the production sector, to implement technical policies based on resource conservation, use of non-waste technology, to create a regulatory framework.

• Legal protection of the environment - a set of common legal rules governing the same requirements of environmental protection, as well as special provisions for the protection of land, water, forests, minerals and other natural resources, ensuring environmental safety. These provisions contained in the Constitution of Ukraine, environmental, natural resource and economic legislation and other regulatory legal acts.

In the context of modern Ukraine environmental legislation should approach the environmental regulations of EU.

The task of environmental legislation is to regulate relations in the protection, use and reproduction of natural resources, environmental safety, conservation of natural resources, genetic stock of wildlife, landscape and other natural complexes and objects related to the historical and cultural heritage.

In addition to legislative and legal levers importance in the mechanism of the implementation of environmental policy is legal and Regulatory framework.

Awareness of the need for cooperation occurred in the second half of the XIX century. At first it was sporadic and concerned individual natural objects.One of the first acts of the international legal environment was an agreement in 1879For the Protection of Fur Seals In 1913 scientists from 18 countries,

including Russia, held in Bern (Switzerland), conducted the first international conference on the protection of nature. It was informative. Concern was expressed over the state of nature in the world and makes proposals on the need for cooperation in the field of development and promotion of environmental ideas. Particular document was not accepted.

Paris, 1923, p. International Congress for the Protection of Nature. General discussion ...

1928, Brussels (Belgium) the International Office for the Protection of Nature was opened. Its functions were limited - the collection of information on environmental legislation, of a list of all the national parks and reserves. The Office is not left its mark.

Creation of UN in 1948 with the active support of UNESCObased on the Brussels bureau the first non-governmental organization - the International Union for the Protection of Nature (now the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources)was established.

Early 1960`s the environmental issues has joined the UN. Resonant event was the adoption XVII session of the UN General Assembly December 18, 1962 resolution, "Economic development and environmental protection." The emphasis of the world community has been made on the issue of relations between society and nature, which in this period came to a head.

State - UN members have indicated a direct relationship of nature and economy, confirmed that the activities of conservation, ie preservation, restoration, enrichment and rational use of natural resources plays a vital role in the economic development of countries and called for the development of international environmental cooperation .

June 1972 p. , Stockholm - UN Conference on the Environment. A declaration of principles, a plan of action and some other documents was adopted. Conference proposals endorsed the UN General Assembly .. beginning of the current stage of international environmental cooperation.

This conference marked the transition from the concept of nature to the concept of environmental protection. Protection of the environment has been defined as a complex, global problem for all countries and the world community as a whole. It initiated the formation of a special coordinating and organizing body - the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

1981 under the auspices of UNEP in Montevideo (Uruguay), a special meeting of governmental experts from the development of environmental law was conducted. As result the program of action for the future was signed. It, in particular, was envisaged improvement of international legal regulation of relations on transboundary water pollution and air pollution, ozone depletion, land compensation for the damage caused to the environmental offenses

From 3 to 15 December 2007 in Indonesia, on the island Bali, the 13th UN Conference on Climate Change and the third meeting of the Kyoto Protocol was held. Following the talks, a basis for a determination of the future international regime after 2012 to tackle global climate change was approved.

THANK YO

U FOR YO

UR

ATTE

NTION!