The environmental protection system has been functioning in the republic since 1960, since the formation of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the BSSR for Nature Protection (Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the BSSR of August 29, 1960 No. 480)
The State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the BSSR for Nature Protection was formed taking into account the great state importance of nature protection and the rational use of natural resources of the Byelorussian SSR.
The State Committee for Nature Protection was assigned the responsibility for preserving, restoring and enriching natural resources, monitoring their rational use, protecting and monitoring the rational use of the republic’s water resources, and was given the following state structures:
- State Inspectorate for the Protection of Fish Stocks and Regulation of Fisheries under the Council of National Economy of the BSSR;
- Department of Hunting and Nature Reserves of the Main Forestry Department under the Council of Ministers of the BSSR;
- Berezinsky State Nature Reserve, as well as Volmyansky, Leninsky, Kozyansky, Naliboksky, Cherikovsky and Chechersky hunting reserves.
In 1990, by the Law of the Byelorussian SSR of July 16, 1990 “On Amendments to the Law of the Byelorussian SSR “On the Council of Ministers of the Byelorussian SSR” the State Committee of the BSSR for Nature Protection was renamed the State Committee of the Republic of Belarus for Ecology, and in 1994 by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of March 14, 1994 No. 145 “On Improving the Structure of Government Bodies of the Republic of Belarus and Reducing Expenses for Their Maintenance” the State Committee of the Republic of Belarus for Ecology was transformed into the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus.
Currently, the main tasks of the Ministry of Natural Resources are:
- implementation of a unified state policy in the field of environmental protection and rational use of natural resources, use and protection of subsoil, as well as hydrometeorological activities in accordance with the law;
- implementation of public administration in the field of study, protection, reproduction and rational use of natural resources, including subsoil, water, flora and fauna, environmental protection, as well as state regulation in the field of hydrometeorology and environmental certification;
- coordination of the activities of other republican government bodies, local executive and administrative bodies, organizations in the field of ensuring environmental safety, environmental protection and rational use of natural resources, including subsoil, hydrometeorological activities, protection of atmospheric air, the ozone layer, rational use and protection of water resources, mitigation of the effects of climate change and adaptation to climate change;
- implementation of state regulation of activities related to geological exploration of the subsoil and hydrometeorological activities, as well as the creation of conditions for the development of organizations of all forms of ownership that carry out these types of economic activities;
- interaction within the limits of its competence with local executive and administrative bodies in resolving environmental issues;
- control in the field of environmental protection and rational use of natural resources;
- ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, participation in the development and implementation of measures for the reproduction of flora and fauna;
- providing republican government bodies, local executive and administrative bodies, citizens with environmental and hydrometeorological information, organizing the dissemination of environmental knowledge, participating in the creation of a system of education, training and upbringing in the field of environmental protection;
- implementation of international cooperation, study, generalization and dissemination of international experience in the field of environmental protection and rational use of natural resources, hydrometeorological activities, as well as protection of atmospheric air, the ozone layer, rational use and protection of water resources, mitigation of the effects of climate change and adaptation to climate change, environmental certification.
