Government Decision No. 1219 validating the Regulation on the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation is a federal executive body that carries out the functions of developing state policy and legal regulation in the field of study, use, reproduction and protection of natural resources, including subsoil, waterbodies, forests, wildlife and their natural habitat, land relations related to the transfer of land of the water fund, forest fund and land of protected areas and objects (insofar as they relate to land of protected natural areas) into land of another category, in the field of forest relations, in the field of hunting, in the field of hydrometeorology and related areas, state environmental monitoring, including state monitoring of the radiation situation on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as development and implementation of state policy and legal regulation in the field of environmental protection, including issues related to management of production and consumption waste, atmospheric air protection, state environmental supervision, protected natural areas and state environmental assessment. The Ministry exercises the following powers: (a) state registration of mineral deposits, licensing of subsoil management, including exploration and mining; (b) environmental damage assessment, calculation of environmental damage, application of environmental fees, issuance of authorization for emissions, air monitoring, waste management, management of protected areas; (c) hunting and hunting resources management, veterinary and anti-epizootic arrangements related to wild fauna species; (d) forest management, including forest monitoring, forest inventory, calculation of cutting areas, use of forest seeds, timber extraction, afforestation, reforestation and protection of forests; and (e) protection of waterbodies and waterworks.