This article covers the question of creating geoparks in Ukraine, for they are still absent in this country. The creation of geoparks is one of the ways of solving a global problem on which the international community is focused-protection of the geological heritage (Geoheritage). It turns out that one of the reasons for such situation in Ukraine is imperfect legislation and absence of a "legal map" for creating a geological park. After analyzing all current normative acts in the country`s legislation, we found that the terms "geological park" and "geological heritage" are absent. We analyzed other countries` legislation regarding this issue and also the acts of international organizations, including the UNESCO. The results of the analysis show that the term "geopark" can legally exist only as a status provided by UNESCO to a protected nature-reserve territory including geological objects of international value. After reviewing the main criteria of UNESCO, we found that to obtain the status of an international geopark the object of geoheritage should belong to nature-reserve fund and possess management institutions at all possible levels, have protected status, and, most important, operate within the framework of the country`s legislation (at local or national levels). We examined all relevant legislation of Ukraine and distinguished the main normative-legal acts which regulate the issues concerning creation, protection and functioning of the territory of a future international geopark. Study of the legislation provided the results which led to development of a "legal map" corresponding to the three main issues: the preconditions for creation, the creation itself and the responsible organs, protections and the organs responsible for the protection of the future geopark territory. The results show that creating a future geopark corresponds to the priority directions of development of science and the technical sphere for the period until 2020, and is also one of the strategic aims of state ecological policy of Ukraine for the period until 2020. It was found that creating or providing any status to a territory is regulated by the Land Code of Ukraine, which states that territories of a geopark correspond to the categories of the land of the nature-reserve fund and other nature protection purposes, covers the full definitions of such territories and for more detailed consideration includes references to other legislation, The Law of Ukraine on the Nature-reserve Fund of Ukraine, which is one of the main normative-legal acts of regulating the issue of creating territories of future geoparks. It was shown that among all classifications of objects of the nature-reserve fund which the legislation provides, the category national nature park best suits the creation of a geopark-its main aims and organs responsible for its functioning are defined. We found which normative-legal acts regulate practical creation of such territory and which organs are responsible for it. This article describes which legal actions should be per...
The paper focuses on the history of the movement for preservation of geological heritage of Ukraine, closely related to the history of geoconservation in Europe; determines the relationship of the extent of geodiversity and geological structure of a certain country, political system, historical traditions and attitude towards wildlife and inanimate nature. Despite the fact that geodiversity and biodiversity have always been in parallel, traditionally all nations in all the continents have focused more on the preservation of so-called wildlife. The article describes that preservation of the so-called inanimate nature; provides a rather sufficient analysis of literature sources which report on the problem of preserving bio- and geodiversity not only in Ukraine, but also in other countries of Europe. In particular, the combination of biotic and abiotic constituents of nature proved to be an essential aspect in determining the place of the world`s first nature reserve and location of an important centre of Buddhism in Mihintale, Sri Lanka. The start of the movement for preservation of so-called inanimate nature in Europe could, with a certain extent of possibility, be considered the first historical written mention of the subject, which was declared in the 10th Chapter of Third Statute of Lithuania in 1588. That is protection of rivers against artificial change of their banks, change in currents and preservation of large erratic boulders. As an important stage of the beginning of the movement for preservation of the so-called inanimate, can be considered the year 1668, when in Germany the Baumannshöhle cave was preserved. It was first mentioned in the literature in 1565, and in 1646 the cave became an object of tourism. During the analysis of the historical stage related to the movement ProGEO, we emphasizes international events in which the representatives of the Ukrainian ProGEO group took part. Active work of the Ukrainian ProGEO group created conditions for transition to a new level of geoconservation, i.e. determination of the possibility of creating a new category of objects of the Nature-Reserve fund of Ukraine – geological parks (geoparks) as important locations for the development of geotourism and territories of complex conservation of the natural environment.
The article considers international legislation as an instrument in the process of establishment of Geoparks in Ukraine. Because the notion “geopark” is relatively new to Europe, and even newer to Ukraine, it is necessary to study the legal aspects of this issue. It was determined that the establishment of geoparks in Ukraine is hindered by numerous problems, particularly: absence of target-legislation, unproductive dialogue with authorities, from local to national and difficult economic conditions. We found that solving the problems should start from the assessment of state and international normative-regulatory acts and characterization of the impact of the latter in the legal field of Ukraine. We found that domestic scientific works do not have many references to the international legislation. Therefore, the necessity arises of developing an international “legal map” in the issue of protection of geoheritage. For this purpose, we analyzed 14,335 international documents relevant for the territory of Ukraine with their respect to their relationship to the protection of nature, natural and cultural heritage, out of which 79 were analyzed in detail. We determined the peculiarities, according to which the international legal acts can be identified and can characterize them by 3 groups: Treaties between states on collaboration; Treaties between states on particular natural objects; important international documents. We determined that 48 of them have different levels of importance in the issue of establishment of Geoparks. We determined that many international documents recommend, encourage, obligate the authorities to support protection of nature, the natural heritage, including geoheritage. With active use of such documents, it is possible to significantly advance in solving the abovementioned problems of establishing Geoparks. Most characterized normative-regulatory acts which are directly or indirectly related to natural objects and territories that could be included in future Geoparks, making them an important tool in preservation of geoheritage. The presented results correspond to all the recent changes in the legislation as at the beginning of 2019. The results can be used by scientists in the process of establishment of real Geoparks in Ukraine, as well for preservation of geological heritage in general.
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