Legal Protection of Soils

The state of soil Being the largest country in the world as to its territory, Russia has not managed to escape the problem of land loss in the face of challenges connected with modern social development. One such problem relates to the loss of the fertile layer of the land surface known as soil. The causes of these negative processes seem to be widely known and similar in many countries. However, in the case of Russia, some of them are directly related to the modern economic reforms now taking place. One of the most serious soil degradation problems results from urbanisation, the uncontrolled sprawl of settlements and competition for already developed land areas, many of which have the best productive and economically viable soils situated in geographically favourable regions, and which are biodiversity rich and best suited for agricultural production, forests or plantlife rather than for construction purposes. In Russia, over 60 per cent of the total population is concentrated in the central European and south-western part, which only makes up one fifth of the whole territory of the country with the best productive soils. Some 90 per cent are urban residents. The same area is responsible for over 50 per cent of industrial production (official data from Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 10.06.2000). In addition to the physical loss of soils due to urbanisation and industrial development, the general degradation of soils is connected with pollution from industrial enterprises, waste disposal, open space deficit and other negative consequences of urban lifestyles. One can hardly talk about biodiversity or landscape diversity in these areas. Agricultural regions face another type of serious environmentally-related soil problem, including erosion, salinisation, desertification and pollution by pesticides and agrochemicals, and to a large extent are conditioned by the application of inappropriate methods and technologies of agricultural production. These processes have been aggravated in recent times in Russia due to the loss of governmental control over land use, a dramatic cut in governmental subsidies for land improvement measures, and unbalanced market and pricing policies when expenses for maintaining environmentally sound land use practices cannot be covered by profits obtained from trading in agricultural products. However, there is another side to the coin. Due to a fall in agricultural production, large areas of agricultural land have been abandoned or remain unused, where the slow processes of natural reforestation have begun. In soil protection terms, this seems to be beneficial; however, it puts additional responsibility on farmers, state and other land users to ensure the productive, efficient use of agricultural land to meet the demands of the population combined with sufficient environmental protection of land involved in agricultural production. The state of soil covered by forests can be estimated as quite good. Most forested areas are situated in remote regions of the North, Siberia and the far East of Russia, not very susceptible to pollution, erosion or other forms of degradation. However, this is not the case with areas of intensive commercial logging. Violation of the logging companies’ obligation to reforest the sites after work has been done causes soil exhaustion and erosion. Economic reforms in the Russian Federation are also associated with another problem connected with soil degradation. A fall in production, aged industrial equipment and low labour discipline has been the cause for a growing number of industrial accidents, which have had serious environmental consequences. The most frequent are accidents at industrial installations and accidents with leakages in pipelines. As a rule, soil pollution caused by oil leakages renders soil unfit for further use and requires expensive and long-term measures for its rehabilitation.