[Draft] World Assembly Park System

[Bisofeyr]

I do not expect this proposal to be well-received, though its creation falls in line with the canon of my nation. There are a few arguments "for" which I think go beyond environmental preservation:

1. This proposal would likely end up being a net-positive for the General Fund, because of clause six. While getting the Park system established would likely require some investment, the light subsidization of such an ordeal is most likely nothing compared to potential revenues which would come in.
2. Measures such as this are likely incentivizing for nations to join the World Assembly for, and then to properly apply to the program. Clause five is intentionally written in such a way that, if a nation needs help with infrastructure in a particular area (for example a new airport), they can receive WA assistance with that if there is a Park nearby and that infrastructural improvement would positively impact said Park (for example, needing additional capacity to bring in tourists).
3. While the thought of "voluntarily ceding territory" to the World Assembly may not appeal to member nations, it in effect would have very little impact on their operations, unless they were to leave the Assembly. This would encourage continued participation in the WA, instead of joining, reaping any potential benefits, and then leaving before the consequences set in.

There is a bit of an issue, particularly with clause four. [2024] GAS 6 clarifies many of the staff-related restrictions that committees may or may not have, and this is borderline. Paragraph [4] of that opinion may restrict such activity as I laid out here, but I don't think it is cut-and-dry, and this is a borderline case. As such, I welcome discussion on this particular case below. The obvious solution to this is to have WAPS manage each Park directly, but I'd rather not expand WA bureaucracy more than I need to, to accomplish this policy.

The World Assembly,

Aware of the many beautiful environments sprawling across the World Assembly, which many people may never get the opportunity to see or experience in its fullest nature, and

Cognizant of many nations' efforts to preserve these natural environments via "national parks" or other similar institutions, which have proven great success in the promotion of environmental sustainability and in ensuring the average person is granted the ability to see such wonders during their lifetime, and

Believing that it is possible to scale up these efforts to create "World Assembly Parks", in order to promote environmental tourism, preservation, and to incentivize nations to join the World Assembly, and

Hoping that this act will incentivize World Assembly ambassadors to touch grass, therefore enacts the following:

1. The World Assembly Park System (WAPS) is established as a board dedicated to the management of any World Assembly Parks (Parks) as designated by this resolution. WAPS shall be responsible for processing applications, assisting in upkeep and promotion of any Parks, and working with other World Assembly offices as required. WAPS shall be empowered to set general policy and Park-specific policy in order to ensure the integrity of the park is upheld.
2. Any member nation may submit an application for a specific piece of land, monument, or other notable landmark to be considered by WAPS to be designated as a Park. In this application, the submitting nation must include all relevant information about the proposed Park, including tourism output, environmental biome, location, number of residents within that locality, any notable natural features, and anything else deemed relevant by the submitting nation. WAPS may request additional information, and if the submitting nation does not comply with any informational requests made by WAPS within a reasonable timeframe, their application shall be withdrawn.
3. Any land which is accepted as a Park shall be advertised by the hosting member nation ("host nation"), in collaboration with WAPS, as officially sanctioned Park land. This land must follow all protocols and regulations as designated by WAPS in order to uphold the environmental sanctity of the region. This land must be made open to all residents of World Assembly nations (though a host nation or WAPS may ban specific individuals for violation of national law or WAPS regulations).
4. Each Park shall have a local park authority designated to it by the member nation which hosts said Park, and each of these park authorities shall be managed by WAPS. These park authorities shall have the responsibility in ensuring proper compliance with any WAPS policy as outlined in clause one, and shall ensure that the maintenance of their Park remains up-to-date and to ensure the Park's continued success and sustainability. Once per year, each local park authority shall meet with a representative from WAPS to give an annual report on their Park, alongside any needs the park authority needs to fulfill their responsibilities effectively.
5. Member nations hosting Parks may request funding from the WA General Fund in order to assist with pay of local park authorities, maintenance and general improvements of their Park, and any other infrastructural needs that a Park may have. After receiving a request from a nation, the General Fund will approach the General Account Office (GAO) and WAPS. The GAO shall do an analysis on the fiscal responsibility of the request, while WAPS shall do an analysis on the positive benefit and necessity that the request would grant. The GAO and WAPS will then meet and jointly determine a fiscally-responsible amount to allocate toward the Park, and the General Fund will grant that amount of money. Unauthorized usage of these funds is strictly forbidden.
6. Either WAPS or the host nation may revoke Park status, in which case any benefits of being a park shall be nullified. This shall occur automatically if a host nations ceases its World Assembly membership for any reason.

Let me know your thoughts!
4074 Characters

[Wallenburg]

Carrying over from the Discord:

I maintain that clause 6 is a naked Metagaming violation. The WA may not legislate on non-member states, and the WA removing jurisdiction of territory from non-members is perhaps the most severe form of such illegal legislation. Your desire to have the General Fund collect taxes directly on these parks also Contradicts WA General Fund, since while the parks are under WA administrative control, you explicitly describe member states as retaining "full autonomy over the territory", which requires it to remain a part of the member state and therefore typical in-park activity to remain domestic.

Excepting the illegal language, I can certainly see why you don't expect a warm reception. Despite your insistence to the contrary, your goal of the General Fund capturing "any economic activity within that area which would normally go toward the host nation" including "any lodging/transportation/general tourism revenue" and to steal land from members who wish to pull out is a massive disincentive for anyone to participate in this program. The effect is that the captured area becomes at best an economic dead zone and a political millstone to the member state.

[Bisofeyr]

Carrying over from the Discord:

I maintain that clause 6 is a naked Metagaming violation. The WA may not legislate on non-member states, and the WA removing jurisdiction of territory from non-members is perhaps the most severe form of such illegal legislation. Your desire to have the General Fund collect taxes directly on these parks also Contradicts WA General Fund, since while the parks are under WA administrative control, you explicitly describe member states as retaining "full autonomy over the territory", which requires it to remain a part of the member state and therefore typical in-park activity to remain domestic.

Excepting the illegal language, I can certainly see why you don't expect a warm reception. Despite your insistence to the contrary, your goal of the General Fund capturing "any economic activity within that area which would normally go toward the host nation" including "any lodging/transportation/general tourism revenue" and to steal land from members who wish to pull out is a massive disincentive for anyone to participate in this program. The effect is that the captured area becomes at best an economic dead zone and a political millstone to the member state.

For what its worth, I have become convinced that the current version of this is bad policy and as such will be changing it; that won't be today but will hopefully be soon, but I maintain that this is not illegal under metagaming; if it were to be illegal, then much established practice would also have to be deemed metagaming.

Notably, the current standard is not "Resolutions cannot affect non-members", it is (as you put it) "Resolutions cannot legislate non-members". This does not apply any legislation to any non-member at any point, it merely enacts provisions which would have an impact on those non-members. The WA removes territory from a member nation (legal), and then gives administrative control (but notably not ownership) back to a specific nation (in this case, the member nation which had its territory removed). This delegated jurisdiction is an act of the World Assembly in administering World Assembly land; that is, it is giving an additional right to certain World Assembly members (the right to administer a specific territory). However, the WA, as the delegating authority, can remove that jurisdiction from any time, regardless of that nation's member-status: this is purely an act pertaining to World Assembly territory.

It is no different from, say, a proposal which would remove offices of non-members from the WA headquarters; it is removing an additional right granted by the Assembly, upon a nation's exit from the WA. This is not legislating a non-member, it is removing one of the perks of WA membership from the nation upon exit. So, if your assertion that this is illegal under metagaming is correct, it must mean that either (1) proposals cannot have an affect on non-members at all, which is a standard which I feel is far too burdensome; or (2) the WA cannot revoke certain aspects of membership following the end of one's membership, which is an absurd standard to put in place. Yes, seizing territory from members is not good policy (though my ambassador likely wouldn't understand why there is such opposition), but it is perfectly legal under metagaming, and that is what this proposal does. Granting authority over certain World Assembly territory to specific members is permitted, and would be considered an "additional right" (as I have put it earlier in this post) to members of the WA (and has been mimicked in part in the real world, under the League of Nations). Revoking benefits of membership upon the end of one's membership is legal. So, every step in the chain of events laid out by this proposal is legal, and as such, the policy here ought to be legal as well.

[Bisofeyr]

The World Assembly,

Aware of the many beautiful environments sprawling across the World Assembly, which many people may never get the opportunity to see or experience in its fullest nature, and

Cognizant of many nations' efforts to preserve these natural environments via "national parks" or other similar institutions, which have proven great success in the promotion of environmental sustainability and in ensuring the average person is granted the ability to see such wonders during their lifetime, and

Believing that it is possible to scale up these efforts to create "World Assembly Parks", in order to promote environmental tourism, preservation, and to incentivize nations to join the World Assembly, and

Hoping that this act will incentivize World Assembly ambassadors to touch grass, therefore enacts the following:

1. The World Assembly Park System (WAPS) is established as a board dedicated to the management of any World Assembly Parks (Parks) as designated by this resolution. WAPS shall be responsible for processing applications, assisting in upkeep and promotion of any Parks, and working with other World Assembly offices as required. WAPS shall be empowered to set general policy and Park-specific policy in order to ensure the integrity of the park is upheld.
2. Any member nation may submit an application for a specific piece of land, monument, or other notable landmark to be considered by WAPS to be designated as a Park. In this application, the submitting nation must include all relevant information about the proposed Park, including tourism output, environmental biome, location, number of residents within that locality, any notable natural features, and anything else deemed relevant by the submitting nation. WAPS may request additional information, and if the submitting nation does not comply with any informational requests made by WAPS within a reasonable timeframe, their application shall be withdrawn.
3. In the event that a nation's application for a Park is granted, the territory which the Park lies on shall be voluntarily ceded to the administrative control of the World Assembly. However, the World Assembly shall allow the member nation to retain full autonomy over the territory, setting local laws, and for the area to remain economically integrated with the rest of the nation. There are two exceptions to the autonomy of host nations over their Parks: the first the is enforcement of WAPS policy as designated by clause one, and the second is that all residents of any member nation may enter the Park territory (unless said resident has broken policy or otherwise violated a Park's integrity, in which case WAPS may deem them banned from one or multiple Parks).
4. Each Park shall have a local park authority designated to it by the member nation which hosts said Park, and each of these park authorities shall be managed by WAPS. These park authorities shall have the responsibility in ensuring proper compliance with any WAPS policy as outlined in clause one, and shall ensure that the maintenance of their Park remains up-to-date and to ensure the Park's continued success and sustainability. Once per year, each local park authority shall meet with a representative from WAPS to give an annual report on their Park, alongside any needs the park authority needs to fulfill their responsibilities effectively.
5. Member nations hosting Parks may request funding from the WA General Fund in order to assist with pay of local park authorities, maintenance and general improvements of their Park, and any other infrastructural needs that a Park may have. After receiving a request from a nation, the General Fund will approach the General Account Office (GAO) and WAPS. The GAO shall do an analysis on the fiscal responsibility of the request, while WAPS shall do an analysis on the positive benefit and necessity that the request would grant. The GAO and WAPS will then meet and jointly determine a fiscally-responsible amount to allocate toward the Park, and the General Fund will grant that amount of money. Unauthorized usage of these funds is strictly forbidden.
6. In the event that a member nation hosting a Park is no longer a member of the World Assembly for any reason, any Parks they host shall fall under the sole jurisdiction of the World Assembly. In this scenario, WAPS shall send out a force to act as a local park authority per clause four. The World Assembly will continue normal operation of these Parks, and any revenue generated by the Park shall be first put toward Park maintenance, then directed into the coffers of the WA General Fund. If the previous host nation or proper successor state returns to the World Assembly, they shall regain autonomy over the Park and this clause will not be in effect, unless they once again cease being a member.
7. WAPS may, at their discretion, revoke Park status from any Park. In this case, the land shall return to the host nation.

I've updated this draft to not steal land from members, and it is now more symbolic and has to do with open borders. I've left the ability for WAPS/WAGF to fund some projects to do with the parks but I may remove that, I just need to replace it with something else more meaningful.