Draft law on public participation in environmental protection (RS0046)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Article 67 of the current Law on Environmental Protection (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 36/09, 88/10, 91/10 - corr., 14/16 and 95/18 - other law) stipulates that a "legal entity that meets the professional, personnel and organizational requirements for the performance of activities of preservation, improvement, promotion of natural and other values and the sustainable use of the protected area" can run the protected area, in the capacity of a manager. The same article further stipulates that exceptionally "the manager may be an entrepreneur and/or a natural person if it is a protected area of a small surface and a majorly private ownership in real estate", and that "the body responsible for issuing the proclamation act may establish a public enterprise, public institution or company for the purposes of managing one or more protected areas.” In addition to other obligations prescribed by the law, the manager of the protected area is obliged to adopt a management plan for the protected area, on whose proposal they are obliged to obtain the consent of the competent state body, as well as to inform the public about this proposal through public inspection lasting for 30 days, in accordance with Article 54 of the Law. Considering that public companies consist the majority of managers of protected areas in Serbia (PC Srbijašume manages 50.07% of the total area of protected areas, and PC Vojvodinašume is the manager of 17 protected areas), and the increasing pressure from the tourism, agriculture, energy and transport sectors in practice, it is necessary to increase the transparency of the work of public companies that are managers of protected areas, i.e. to improve the existing ways and opportunities for the participation of the local population in the management of these areas.

What is the commitment? The commitment implies the adoption of a new Law on Environmental Protection, which will introduce new mechanisms for public participation in the management of protected areas and improve opportunities for participation of local people in this process. More precisely, the new law will introduce two new mechanisms: - mandatory public debates for all protected areas in the process of developing management plans, which will further strengthen the existing mechanism of public inspection, - the obligation to form a Beneficiary Council for all protected areas, which would include representatives of local CSOs, by analogy with the solution provided for national parks in the relevant sector regulation. 33

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? The envisioned amendments to the Law on Environmental Protection will enable a significantly higher degree of influence of citizens, primarily the local population, in the management of protected areas. At the same time, this encourages a more active role of the public in the management of protected areas in which they live, and allows them to directly participate in giving recommendations and suggestions, but also in the implementation of protection measures. Overall, the management of protected areas will become more transparent with the implementation of this commitment, while the added value is the improvement of trust between the local population and the managers of protected areas, which is of special importance in these processes.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? The commitmentis primarily relevant in relation to public participation as a value of the OGP, bearing in mind that it improves the mechanisms for citizen participation in a specific area, such as the management of public protected areas. Also, the relevance from the aspect of OGP exists in relation to transparency, because the implementation of the commitmentwill improve access to information that is important for the management of protected areas. Finally, the commitmentwill also influence managers, primarily public companies entrusted with the management of protected areas, to be more responsible in fulfilling their legal obligations.

Additional information Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable Start date: End date: 1. Establishment of a Working Group for drafting a new Law on Environmental Protection I quarter of 2021 III quarter of 2021 2. Preparation of the Draft Law on Environmental Protection III quarter of 2021 I quarter of 2022 3. Referral to the Government for the adoption of the Draft Law on Environmental Protection, which contains provisions introducing new mechanisms for public participation in the management of protected areas provided by this commitment II quarter of 2022 III quarter of 2022

Action Plan Review

Commitment 4: Participatory Environmental Protection Law

Results Report

Commitment 4. Participatory Environmental Protection Law

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest

● Completion: Complete

● Did it open government? No early results to report yet

The Ministry of Environmental Protection prepared a draft law which contained provisions for public participation in managing protected areas. The National Assembly adopted the Law in 2021. [35] Article 54 of the Law includes provisions for public participation, while Article 68a allows the managing authority of each protected area to establish a beneficiary council for protected areas (one council for each protected area). The councils include representatives of CSOs, similar to the mechanism present at the national level. Representatives of the Ministry of Environmental Protection were unavailable for interview to discuss the improvements that the Law potentially brought. The IRM finds there are no results to report from this commitment at this time because there is no publicly available information on whether any councils have been created so far. The lack of transparency and compliance with procedures for adopting this law was criticized by CSOs that followed the amendment process. [36]