The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine is drafting a decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to deprive the Markhaliv Forest of the status of an international Emerald Network site.
This information was made public on Facebook by Volodymyr Boreiko, director of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center (KECC).
According to him, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Ecology Victoria Kireeva is in charge of developing the draft document.
Why the Ministry of Ecology wants to exclude the Markhalivskyi Forest from protected areas
Volodymyr Boreyko reminded that the construction of the National Military Memorial Cemetery is planned for the territory of the Markhaliv Forest. He says that the international Emerald Network is the weighty argument that allows the CECC and the NGO “Markhalivka. Support” NGO to win lawsuits against the Cabinet of Ministers and the Kyiv Regional State Administration in defense of this forest in the suburbs of Kyiv.
“As we can see, the Minister of Environmental Protection of Ukraine S. Hrynchuk decided to act in a Stalinist way, according to the principle “no man, no problem” or “no law, no justice”. In fact, under Hrynchuk's leadership, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is turning into the Ministry of Environmental Destruction. Minister Hrynchuk, the destroyer of nature, has taken a step on the side of evil,” expressed his vision the CECC director.
He promised that environmentalists will prepare their response to such actions of the Ministry.
We would like to remind you that the Ministry of Ecology is the leading organization responsible for the development of the Emerald Network in Ukraine. It is responsible for development, not for “cutting”.
In 2019, the current scheme of the Emerald Network of Ukraine was approved at a meeting of the Berne Convention's Standing Committee. The list of its sites in Ukraine and other countries is available here. In the latest version, the Ukrainian Emerald Network consists of 377 sites and territories. The Markhalivskyi forest is part of the UA0000338 site “Pryirpinia and Chornobyl Forest”.
How environmentalists defended the forest near Markhalivka
The history of the activists' legal battle began in late July 2024. Then, members of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center sued the government over what they considered to be illegal Resolution 225, which allows the demolition of trees to build a military memorial cemetery.
EcoPolitics also wrote that the KECC accused officials of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine of trying to destroy 270 hectares of the Markhaliv forest in order to sell the wood and make a profit of UAH 80 million.
On September 25, 2024, the Kyiv District Administrative Court declared illegal the Ukrainian government's Resolution No. 225, which allowed massive logging of the Markhaliv forest near Kyiv for a military memorial cemetery.
On January 16 of this year, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal also confirmed the illegality of the resolution. In early February, we reported that despite the court's ban, logging continued in the Markhalivskyi forest.
On March 6, EcoPolitics informed that the Kyiv District Administrative Court had declared illegal the order of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration to allocate the territory of the Markhalivskyi Forest for the National Military Memorial Cemetery. This was the third trial that ended in favor of the forest's defenders.
