Protection of public's ecological concerns: current status and prospects for improvement

St. Petersburg Institute (branch) of the All-Russian State University of Justice, 19, lit. A, 10 line V.O., 199178, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

^* Corresponding author: lokhi@yandex.ru

Abstract

The contemporary ecological situation in Russia is negatively influenced by economic and sanitary-hygienic factors, which can be defined as insufficiently prosperous. In addition, emergencies arising as a result of accidental circumstances or insufficient compliance with environmental safety requirements, violation of work rules, use of obsolete or environmentally hazardous equipment make a certain ”contribution” to its deterioration. Provided that the national economy is characterized by a varied diversity and optimistic growth rates, one cannot but notice that most sources of formation of the state welfare are ecologically harmful, contribute to the maintenance in an ecologically unfavorable condition of industrial facilities and adjacent territories, the formation of a significant mass of production and consumption waste. With the proclamation in Article 42 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation of the right of everyone to a prosperous environment, the state has the obligation to create appropriate legal instruments to implement this right and to maintain ecological safety at a high level. Nevertheless, due to the high degree of natural resource exploitation that persists to the present day, the rate at which these instruments are created is clearly inferior to the rate at which the negative impact on the natural environment is increasing. In the article a quantitative analysis of the risks and threats to the ecological interests of society arising in connection with anthropogenic impact on the environment and a qualitative analysis of the norms of the current legislation aimed at maintaining their protected state are carried out. Their results confirm the need for further improvement of legal instruments adequately protecting the environmental well-being of the population.