Law No. 2818-VI “On the basic principles (strategy) of the state environmental policy of Ukraine for the period up to 2020.

Basic principles (strategy) of the state environmental policy of Ukraine for the period up to 2020 is multi-sectoral document. The basic causes of the environmental problems of Ukraine are: (a) the inherited structure of the economy with the predominant share of resource and energy-intensive industries, the negative impact of which was aggravated by the transition to market conditions; (b) depreciation of fixed assets of industrial and transport infrastructure; (c) the existing system of public administration in the field of environmental protection, regulation of the use of natural resources, lack of a clear separation of environmental and economic functions; (d) insufficient formation of civil society institutions; (e) insufficient understanding of the priorities of preservation of the environment in the society and the benefits of sustainable development; and (f) non-compliance with environmental legislation. The purpose of the national environmental policy is to stabilize and improve the state of the natural environment of Ukraine by integrating environmental policy into the socio-economic development of Ukraine to ensure environmentally sound natural environment for life and health of the population, introduction of an ecologically balanced system of nature management and conservation of natural ecosystems. The main principles of the national environmental policy are: (a) strengthening the role of environmental management in the system of public administration of Ukraine in order to achieve the equality of the three components of development (economic, environmental, social), which predetermines the orientation of the priorities of sustainable development; (b) consideration of environmental consequences in the process of managerial decision-making when developing documents containing political and/or programmatic principles of state, sectoral (sectoral), regional and local development; (c) cross-sectoral partnership and stakeholder involvement; (d) prevention of emergency situations of natural and man-made nature, which envisages analysis and forecasting of environmental risks based on the results of strategic environmental assessment, state ecological expertise, and state environmental monitoring; (e) ensuring environmental security and maintenance of ecological balance on the territory of Ukraine, overcoming the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster; (f) the responsibility of the present generation for the preservation of the environment for the benefit of future generations; (g) participation of the public and business entities in the formation and implementation of environmental policy, as well as consideration of their proposals when improving environmental legislation; (h) liability for violation of environmental legislation; (i) priority of the requirement "polluter pays principle"; (k) responsibility of the executive authorities for the availability, timeliness and reliability of environmental information; and (l) state support and stimulation of domestic business entities that carry out modernization of production, aimed at reducing the negative impact on the natural environment.
This policy document sets forth the following objectives: (1) raising the level of public environmental awareness; (2) improvement of ecological situation and increase of the level of environmental security, including reduction by 2020 of an average of 5-10 percent of the arable land in the provinces by removing from the arable land slopes more than 3 degrees, the land of water protection zones, conservation of degraded, unproductive and technogenically contaminated agricultural land, followed by their afforestation in the forest and forest steppe zones and forest planting in the steppe zone; development and implementation by 2020 of systems of management of agro-landscapes by forest-meliorative methods on the basis of sustainable development; an increase in the area of afforestation of the territory up to 17 percent of the state territory by 2020 by means of reforestation and afforestation on the land plots of the forest fund, creation of protective forest plantations on non-agricultural land and land allotted for afforestation, restoration and creation of new field-protective forest strips, except natural steppe areas; protection against man-made and natural disasters to increase the efficiency of functioning of the state emergency intervention system by 2020; modernization of the national system of informing the population on natural and man-made emergency situations by 2020; ensuring the functioning of local alert systems of the population; (3) protection of public health and environment, including introduction by 2020 of the system of ecological labelling of commodities and foodstuffs; (4) integration of environmental policy and improvement of the integrated environmental management system, including adoption of environmentally-oriented and organic farming technologies and achieving their use in 2020 and doubling land area with their use in 2020 by comparison to a baseline level; (5) prevention of loss of biological and landscape diversity and the formation of ecological network; (6) ensuring ecologically balanced nature management; (7) improvement of regional environmental policy, including risk assessment of regions by 2020.
The policy is oriented to the prevention of emergency situations and disasters of natural and technological types by means of forecasting and assessment of environmental risks and environmental monitoring, and also through improvement of environmental policy at the regional level, including regional risk assessment.