The draft Environmental Code will soon be submitted for public discussion.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection is actively working on the creation of an Environmental Code, a new systematized document that will consolidate norms in the field of environmental protection, rational use of natural resources, and environmental safety. 

This Code is intended to become the primary legislative act regulating environmental legal relations, replacing numerous fragmented laws adopted over the past decades.

The draft Environmental Code will soon be submitted for public discussion.

To develop the draft Environmental Code, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus has formed a working group, which includes representatives from almost all government bodies, the scientific and expert community, including experts from the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The draft Code incorporates legal norms and mechanisms laid down in the laws "On Environmental Protection," "On Air Protection," "On Ozone Layer Protection," "On Waste Management," "On State Environmental Expertise, Strategic Environmental Assessment, and Environmental Impact Assessment," "On Specially Protected Natural Territories," "On Peatland Protection and Use," and "On Hydrometeorological Activities."

Regarding the protection of natural environment components and natural complexes, the document includes specific provisions from the Land Code, the Subsoil Code, the Forest Code, the Water Code, and the laws "On the Plant World" and "On the Animal World." The structure of the draft document consists of 10 sections, 43 chapters, and 349 articles.

The Code does not envisage significant changes to the current legislation. This is due to two factors: the established and stable system of legislative acts regulating these issues, and the comprehensive revision of laws.

The draft has already undergone the first stage of coordination with government bodies, several stages of refinement, and is currently being prepared for re-coordination. After this, the document will be submitted for public discussion.

Upon final approval of the draft, the Environmental Code will enter into force within 12 months from the date of its publication.