Strategy in the field of environmental protection of the Republic of Belarus for the period until 2035.

Strategy in the field of environmental protection of the Republic of Belarus for the period until 2035 is a nationwide policy document based on the need to improve environmental management, improve its effectiveness to ensure national environmental interests in the process of sustainable socio-economic development of Belarus for the period up to 2035. The Strategy is designed to complement existing documents on environmental planning and forecasting by identifying strategic guidelines for state environmental policy and serving as the basis for its organization in the future. The Strategy defines the fundamental goals in the field of protection of environment for the period under review, indicators and criteria and, reflecting them, priority areas for achievement of the set goals, mechanisms for their implementation and expected results. Setting the goals set out in the Strategy is in line with the Goals of sustainable development (SDGs) proposed by the UN and is consistent with predictable directions of environmental policy, presented in the National Strategy for Sustainable Socio-Economic development of the Republic of Belarus for the period up to 2035, other documents of medium-term and long-term environmental specific planning.
The structure of this Strategy includes two parts: general and special. The general part is related to the environment in in general; special - to individual natural components, as well as waste management. The composition of the considered natural components includes: atmospheric air, land resources and soils, water resources and waterbodies, resources of flora and fauna. The issue of waste management regards non-domestic (industrial) waste.
Projected changes in the main factors of environmental formation shall have an ambiguous impact on its condition. Some of them will lead to a weakening, others, on the contrary, to an increase in environmental challenges and risks. Weakening of pressures on the environment should occur due to expected changes in the distribution area ща natural ecosystems, structural transformations of the national economy, external inflows of pollutants from neighboring countries. Strengthening - due to the planned increase in the capacity of the production complex, intensification of nature management, climate warming. In the future, Belarus is projected to maintain the current trend towards an increase in the total area of natural ecosystems, especially forest ones. Accordingly, their stabilizing environmental impact will increase.
The main strategic goal in the field of environmental protection for the forecast period up to 2035 is to ensure its favorable condition combined with rational use of natural resource potential, conservation of landscape and biodiversity in the context of economic growth and climate change to meet the needs of the present and future generations. Strategic objectives shall be as follows: (a) improvement of the state of environment, reduction of environmental risks for the population and natural ecosystems under various scenarios of economic development by reducing pressure on the environment; (b) sustainable provision of the needs of the population and the economy with natural resources, expanded reproduction and use of their renewable category through the introduction of adapted to the local conditions and climate change technologies of nature management; (c) ensuring the contribution of Belarus to the solution of global and regional environmental problems related to climate change, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resource potential, reduction of biological and landscape diversity through implementation of international environmental agreements; and (d) reduction of accumulated environmental damage through the elimination of facilities containing it, reclamation and rehabilitation of contaminated territories and degraded ecosystems.
The main expected results of the implementation of the Strategy: (a) creation of an environmental management system that provides transition to environmentally oriented development of the national economy; (b) improving the state of the environment by reducing technogenic loads on it, a decrease in the incidence of the population diseases caused by environmental pollution; (c) sustainable natural resource supply of needs of the population and economy, increasing the use of local natural resources in economic development, conservation and expanded reproduction of their renewable categories through introduction of environmentally optimal, adapted to local conditions and climate change environmental technologies; (d) ensuring the contribution of Belarus to the solution of global and regional environmental problems through the implementation of international environmental agreements; (e) confirmation of the country's image as a responsible entity for international relations in the field of environmental protection; and (f) increasing the level of environmental security and restoration of natural resource potential by reducing the accumulated environmental damage by eliminating the objects containing it, reclamation and rehabilitation of contaminated areas and degraded ecosystems.