On pros and cons of the draft law “On amateur fishing”
Silver Taiga Foundation employees took part in the parliament proceedings on the draft law of the RF “On amateur fishing” organized by the Committee on Natural Resources, Nature Management and Ecology, State Council of the Republic of Komi.
As is known, in 2010 some amendments were made in federal law №66. According to them free amateur fishing on the leased areas was forbidden, which evoke a wide response in the society and displeasure among the amateur fishermen. During the next two years several alternative draft laws on amateur fishing were developed. Finally, another version was submitted for consideration to the State Duma of the RF.
Exactly this draft law was discussed at the parliament proceedings.
In general, according to the Silver Taiga Foundation employees, draft federal law №200303-б “On amateur fishing” is quite logical, it takes into account some gaps and discrepancies existing in the current legislation. However, there is a good deal of critical remarks on the draft law as it is far from covering everything and contains apparent shortcomings.
It’s a good thing that the draft law more clearly defines such notions as “amateur fishing” and “sport fishing” as its form; recreational fishery is interpreted as an activity carried out on fishing grounds and aimed at provision of services in the field of amateur fishing; daily capture norm for amateur fishing objects is introduced, etc. One of the advantages of the draft law is the fact that a list of fishing grounds is approved based on the results of the public discussions.
Regarding the general weaknesses of the draft law, first of all, it should be noted that it is full of references to other laws, which makes it quite difficult for perception and understanding. One more drawback deserving special attention is lack of clear split of the functions between different control levels – federal authorities and bodies of a constituent entity of the RF – in some parts of the draft law.
According to the draft law, the fishing rules for fishery basins will be defined by the federal center as before, which means that they will be uniform for everybody without regard to the local peculiarities and traditions. The participants of the hearings suggested an option according to which basin rules approved by Moscow would be of a standard framework type and based on them constituent entities of the RF would develop their own detailed rules with account of their specifics. Representatives of the Udora district participating in the hearings remotely offered an option of a joint development of the fishing rules by two regions if a river or water basin is located on the territory of both entities (for example, the river Mezen).
In general, the participants of the hearings coincided in opinion that more significant decentralization of management is required than the draft law implies. If the regional level is somehow represented in the document the local level is almost unavailable there, i.e. the draft law does not take into account interests of the municipalities.
Therefore, Silver Taiga Foundation suggested an amendment according to which public hearings on approval of a list of fishing grounds submitted to lease shall be carried out in municipalities on the level of regions and settlements (the draft law implies hearings only on the level of constituent entities of the RF). The Foundation also offered to supplement the article on fishing grounds by a separate item according to which “in the places of traditional fishing of the local population areas for traditional nature use shall be foreseen for the local residents” and “creation of fishing grounds for amateur fishing on these water objects shall be excluded” – Silver Taiga Foundation Director Yury Pautov noted.