Assessment of the legal framework of the state-protected areas and vulnerabilities that facilitate environmental crime

URL: https://dspace.academy.police.md/assessment-of-the-legal-framework-of-the-state-protected-areas-and-vulnerabilities-that-facilitate-environmental-crime/

Data: 2026

This scientific study aims to assess the legal framework applicable to protected natural areas from the perspective of the effectiveness of legal norms designed to prevent, detect and sanction unlawful acts that affect protected natural values. The study is based on the premise that protected areas represent spaces subject to a special legal regime, within which biodiversity conservation, the protection of natural habitats and the maintenance of ecosystem balance require coherent regulatory mechanisms, functional institutions and effective instruments of administrative and judicial control. In this context, the study examines normative, institutional and practical vulnerabilities that may facilitate environmental crime, including the fragmentation of regulations, the insufficient delimitation of the competences of public authorities, deficiencies in the monitoring system, the sometimes formal nature of ecological control, as well as the inconsistent application of legal liability. The purpose of the research is to identify the dysfunctions that reduce the effectiveness of the legal protection of protected natural areas and to outline directions for strengthening the mechanisms aimed at preventing and combating environmental crime. The study highlights the need for an integrated, interdisciplinary and systemic approach, by correlating environmental law norms with the instruments of administrative, contraventional and criminal law, in order to ensure the real, effective and sustainable protection of natural heritage.