To ensure the rational use of natural resources, organised and environmentally harmless collection of lingonberries and cranberries by the population in their ripe state, and the sale of their surplus to procurement organisations and private entrepreneurs entitled to engage in trade and procurement activities, the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee adopted a resolution on berry picking dates on August 3rd of the current year: lingonberries – from August 20th, cranberries – from September 3rd. Violators will be brought to administrative responsibility, which entails the imposition of penalties.
If material losses are inflicted on nature on a particularly large scale, the guilty parties bear criminal responsibility. For example, a court case was heard regarding residents of the agro-town of Chareyshchyna, M. S. Kostiukovich and Yu. V. Kulakov, who jointly caught fish with nets on Lake Negraza on May 27, 2011. They caught eleven kilograms of fish, thereby causing damage to fish stocks amounting to 5,796,000 rubles (165 base units).
The court sentenced each of the poachers to one year of imprisonment with a one-year suspended sentence, and decided to confiscate the fishing nets and recover the material damage caused to natural resources.
Aliaksandr BARADULIN,
Head of the Lepel Inter-district Inspectorate for the Protection of Fauna and Flora