The Ministry of Environment or the Ministry of Forestry: how do officials contribute to the destruction of Ukrainian forests?

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The name of the Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine “sewn” two functions – to protect the environment and control the use of natural resources. But lately it seems that the focus of the Ministry of Environment is completely different – not to interfere with the exploitation of Ukrainian nature.

The most telling is the example of forests. Illegal felling, destruction of ancient forests and rare species, continuous felling of Carpathian forests – all this has not disappeared since February 24. What’s more, the forest industry strongly promotes the idea of ​​increasing the volume of forest cutting! In fact, it is possible to increase the volume of felling with minimal damage to the environment. First of all, due to maintenance felling in numerous artificial forests. But the forest industry wants to cut down more not in monocultures, but in the remains of ancient forests!

What about the Ministry of Environment? Back in 2022, the minister… publicly supported the idea of ​​cutting down more, especially old forests! And the Ministry of Environment is confidently moving in this direction.

Foresters wrote in the summer of 2023 draft law No. 9516, which will make it possible to remove certain legal restrictions and radically increase the volume of felling. The foresters also propose to cancel the assessment of the impact of sanitary felling on the environment and to take away from the Ministry of Environment the authority to approve felling plans for 10 years to the foresters.

Draft Law 9516 is a threat to Ukrainian forests. But the ministry, which under any circumstances must defend the interests of the environment, supported the draft law! Surprisingly, the department did not object to the fact that its powers were being taken away.

Soon, the draft law 9516 will be considered by the Verkhovna Rada, as usual, eco-activists and a handful of conscious deputies will oppose the disastrous initiative for forests. Not the Ministry of Environment, as it should be.

Another logging initiative is on the way − changes to the rules of reshaping fellings. These changes will be detrimental to our forests, and it would be up to the specialized ministry to defend them: the decision is entirely up to the department. However, so far it seems that the ministry is on the side of the loggers. Coordination of the document is in progress.

Another example: planting invasive trees in forests. Invasive trees are alien trees that actively spread across Ukraine and displace local species. Foresters are used to planting them by the millions, regardless of the fact that scientists have called to abandon this destructive practice for nature.

In the spring of 2023, after noise from environmental activists and scientists, the Ministry of Environment approved a list of 13 invasive trees that are prohibited from being planted in forests. It was unexpectedly cool and progressive! However, already in October, the Ministry of Environment canceled the list of prohibited alien trees. “Accidentally” it turned out that the list was approved after the spring planting of trees, and canceled before the autumn planting. That is, the ban on planting invasive trees was valid only in the summer, when foresters did not plant anything.

What about illegal logging? The “digitalization” of logging permits announced by the Ministry of Environment has turned into a farce. The introduced electronic logging ticket does not add anything in terms of transparency. In addition, the new changes gave foresters the opportunity to independently change information about the characteristics of forest plots. For example, about the density or age of trees to be able to abuse sanitary and other felling.

All calls from the public to make the industry truly transparent – to open access to forest maps and information on the movement of wood – remained unanswered by the Ministry of Environment.

There is also no progress with the eco-inspection, which should detect illegal logging. During martial law, the eco-inspection travels for inspections only with the permission of the Ministry of Environment. For some reason, the Ministry of Environment leaves most of the requests for inspections related to forests without consideration – and the eco-inspection does not go anywhere. For example, since February 24, the eco-inspection applied to the ministry 77 times for approval of inspections in forests. How many appeals did the Ministry of Environment ignore? 54!

No one is in a hurry to solve the “classic” problems – illegal sanitary logging – either.

AND what about the protection of ancient and valuable forests of Ukraine? In recent years, scientists have sent documents to the Ministry of Environment for the creation of protected areas in tens of thousands of hectares of our forests. Since 2023, there has been one large state forest farm operating in Ukraine – State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”, which is under the management of the Ministry of Environment. It would seem that the ministry finally has an opportunity to influence the bequest of forests. But no, only forests are bequeathed, which are of little interest to foresters from the point of view of felling.

A wonderful illustration is the nature reserve on the Svidovets mountain range. Despite the will of the Ukrainians (the petition to create a nature reserve on Svidovets quickly gained the necessary 25,000 votes), the Ministry of Environment did not move a finger to preserve the unique nature of Svidovets. However, the Ministry of Environment approves the transfer of forests for mining (in particular, sand and amber, which can be safely mined outside the forests).

To be honest, there were also positive moments: this year, the Ministry of Environment twice did not support logging changes to the legislation, and resolved a number of problematic issues in nature reserves and national parks. Forbade planting trees in the steppes and lobbied for legislation on protected zones. However, it often looked like a reaction to noise on the part of the eco-community, rather than the systemic work of a state body.

The environmental community in Ukraine is not yet powerful enough to monitor everything, but the logging lobby is extremely powerful. Therefore, the prospect of losing most of the most valuable forests of Ukraine with the help of the Ministry (called to do everything to preserve these forests) looks quite real.

Yehor Hrynyk, biologist of the Ukrainian nature protection group, specially for UP. Life

Publications in the “View” section are not editorial articles and reflect exclusively the author’s point of view.

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