Reclamation of Disturbed Lands in the Mining Industry of Kyrgyzstan: Problems and Prospects (Legal Aspect)

Analysis of the current legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic in the mining sector shows the existence of legislative gaps in terms of legal regulation of the issues of reclamation (restoration) of disturbed lands used for the purposes of subsoil use. On the one hand, there is no system of legal measures aimed at quality assurance of the process of reclamation of lands disturbed during mining. On the other hand, the current legislation does not provide for specific legal consequences for various parties in case of failure to fulfill obligations on reclamation or poor-quality reclamation of disturbed lands, including responsible authorities whose activity is to coordinate the reclamation process. And thirdly, the existing normative legal acts in the field of rehabilitation of disturbed lands used for subsoil use are exclusively declarative in nature, thus the norms establishing the responsibility of subsoil users for non-fulfillment or poor quality fulfillment of reclamation requirements do not solve the legal problems and consequences in case of non-fulfillment of reclamation requirements of the legislation.