Master student Shimanskiy Yuriy.
Al-Farabi Kazakh University, Kazakhstan.
General characteristics
of ecological information in the field of
environmental protection and use of natural resources.
Global environmental problems are the result of human
activity, which has an enormous scale radically changing the nature, society,
people's lifestyle, as well as the inability of a person to responsibly manage
this mighty force. There is an ecological
balance disturbance at the local and global levels in the form of environmental degradation, climatic and other changes.
One of the most challenging issues is the protection of favorable
conditions of the environment around the world.
Mankind has entered upon the
XXI century in an unprecedented technogenic environmental pressure. Ecological problems are being defined by the
environment deterioration, such as atmospheric air pollution, land pollution, surface and subterranean waters pollution,
environmental abuse, extinction of many types of animals and plants etc. around
the world. Scientists and politics consider environmental deterioration
as one the most important problem that has influence on human life. An intensive and global effect of human activity on
the environment that leads to adverse implications is the distinctiveness of the present time. Living in
a favorable environment is not only necessary for one individual but for the
whole existence of humanity. Cohesion and
integration policy of different governments as well as public participation can
help to protect the environment and safety of the human life. Cooperation
amongst countries in the sphere of ecology is being accomplished through international
organizations. One of the most important international
organizations is the United Nations
Organizations (UN).
UN indentifies content of international ecological
activity on the environmental protection, while United Nations Environment
Program directs it. UN conduct researches,
estimate states of environment and recommend ways of resource conservation to
government. The most important thing is
that UN unites governments in order to create international laws to solve
specific ecological problems.
The Millennium Declaration,
which had been accepted on the September 8, 2000 by the General Assembly of the
UN, denotes the main eight aims, among which is the ecological sustainability
procurement[1]. The most important issue of the sustainable development is the
provision of human rights, especially the rights of the new generation -
ecological rights [2]. This thesis is being
supplemented by pointing that all social ecological relations contain the
ecological informative feature [3].
One of the most significant human rights are the right for the favorable
environment, the right for ecological
information, the right for making environmental decisions, the right for
compensation and the right for the access to justice on the environmental
matters. The term “ecological information” is a necessity under the conditions
of increasing interest in citizens’ information rights and ecological problems
as within the framework of one country, so
in the whole world. Citizens have right for the information on the
environment state, since only when they have an access to the information, they
can fairly estimate the presence or the absence of a risk of environmental
hazards.
International community keeps track of the present ecological problems
and endeavors to create a free access to ecological information for the
society. As it was mentioned in “The Convention on Access to Information,
Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental
Matters’ (Aarhus
Convention) which has been sighted by many countries. Aarhus Convention is the
new type of agreement in the sphere of environmental protection that admits
liabilities of the living society towards future generations. Convention
establishes that sustainable development can only be made if the all the
concerned parties are involved. However environment protection
can best accomplished only if community and government will interact together
in the condition of democracy [4].
Unfavorable ecological situation in Kazakhstan is significantly
connected to the operation of informative resources each of state and
non-state. An essential aspect of the existence and development of a modern
state is the participation of the society in foundation of informative
resources and in realization of ecological policy. Primarily it applies to the
regulatory and legal procurement of ac access to the ecological information. Ecological
offences that are contrary to the constitutional right for a favorable
environment are often being determined.
The
procurement of the constitutional right of the Republic of Kazakhstan citizens
for the favorable environment with the right for receiving an adequate
ecological information is an essential matter. The right to information is one
of the fundamental rights of the individual. It follows from natural rights to
freedom and life. This right is affirmed in the constitution in Art. 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10
December 1948 [5]
In recent years, attention has focused on
the problem of public access to the environmental information. Accessibility to
the environmental information is directed both to the procuring of an
individual’s interests connected to the possibilities of actualizing their
rights and to their participation in state affairs. It's possible only if
government guarantees the access to environmental information, creating
environmentally argued and ecologically oriented directions and courting rights
for the ecological information for people, social organizations and
conventional personnel. The problem of the right for environmental information
is extremely important especially in terms of its practical application.
The
possibility of public participation in environmental decision-making is
crucial, especially in terms of today's ecological crisis. Involvement of
people into environmental protection is possible only on the basis of full and
comprehensive information on an environmental condition.
The main purpose of information in the
field of environmental protection is to provide the process of decision making;
helping to strengthen the integrity of the policy by industries in the
environmental field; to inform the society and non-governmental organizations
about the state of environment; to support the national and international objectives
of sustainable development.[3] Constitutional democracy is possible only with
the existence of an effective informational exchange system between people and
government. There are laws for regulation of the access to environmental
information, the definition of its legal regime and protection of citizens'
right to environmental information, etc. in the Environmental Code of
Kazakhstan. However, it doesn’t solve the many problems of the environmental
information. The absence of the ‘environmental information’ definition; the
plurality of its definition; limited access to environmental information;
procedure and conditions for its granting, distribution, exchange etc. are the
main discussion questions. In general current ecological or other law is not
able to provide an effective legal regulation of social relations bound up with
environmental information because of its contradictions and gaps. Ecological
and legal literatures have recently become focused on researching legal issues
in the field of environmental information for a reason.
This shows that the role of information in the informational
society is increasing in the all fields of social development, including
ecological. The informative factor leads to an active development of
ecologically informative society relationship that arises because of
information regarding environment and the use of natural resources. However the
legal regulation of ecological society relation isn’t effective today and its
leading to practical issues which need to be researched and solved
theoretically. The interest to the citizen information law over recent years,
as well as the topicality of ecological problems and use of natural resources
have led to the arousal of the term “ecological information” which increases
interest for its research. The demand for
receiving ecological information is being justified by the fact of its
necessity for citizens for the defense of their ecological rights and for
ability to participate in nature oriented government activities and business
organizations actions in case of the impairment of obligations. In the process
of procuring a rational use of nature resources and environmental protection by
the involved parties, the ownership of complete and reliable ecological
information has a crucial meaning for a consistent and effective solution. Initially,
the reliable and complete information is necessary in the preparation and
adoption of managerial and other decisions that are connected to the negative
impact on a qualitative state of the environmental. Also the implementation of
citizens’ ecological rights is complicated because of several reasons: there
are disadvantages in the regulation of the access of people to ecological
information, citizens’ opinion is barely taken into account in the process of
making decisions in the field of environmental protection. The people's opinion
about environment and use of natural resources is frequently ignored in the
midst of economic interest over ecological and social. Undeveloped legal
relations in the field of ecological information turnover do not develop in the
midst of pressure on natural resources and environmental impact in the Republic
of Kazakhstan.
1.
Publication of UN, Department of DPI.
2.
Brinchuk M.M. Satisfactory and healthy environment in the
concept of sustained development// Human rights as element of sustained
development/ Ans.
3.
Vyphipova G.V. Ecological informative relationship, legal nature, structure,
classification // Law and politics ¹3. 2008, p.677. red. E.A. Lukasheva M.:
Norma, 2000, p. 204.
4. Economic justification of accession of Russia to Aarhus Convention// Green world, 2003, ¹ 21-22, p.7
5. The Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development (June 14, 1992) / International law, collection of documents, T.2
M.: BEK, 1996