Major violations in the ecosphere for June 14-20. Digest

EcoPolitic journalists have collected for their readers the 14 most significant cases of environmental damage that became known during the week of June 14-20. Information about them was published by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), the press services of prosecutors, as well as the State Environmental Inspectorate (SEI) and its subdivisions.

1. SBI investigators exposed three former heads of a military forestry enterprise in Dnipro region who had been issuing permits for years to cut down trees in the territory for which they were no longer responsible. They were served with a notice of suspicion of abuse of power (part 3 of Article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The defendants face up to 10 years in prison.

Investigators reported that in 2013, after reorganization, the Novomoskovsk Military Forestry began to be subordinated to the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine. Its employees, buildings and property were transferred to the State Forestry Agency, but more than 20 thousand hectares of forest remained on the balance sheet of the Ministry of Defense.

Despite the reorganization, the heads of the forestry issued permits to cut down trees in this area without proper documentation. As a result, illegal logging took place in the forests of the Ministry of Defense for years. Trees were cut down and sold by employees of private companies.

The pre-trial investigation revealed that in 2023 alone, trees worth more than UAH 68 million were illegally cut down. But this figure is not final – the work on calculating the damage is ongoing.

2. In Volyn, the organizers of an illegal slaughterhouse were sentenced. EcoPolitic talked about this case in one of our previous digests. As a reminder, the heads of two private enterprises and an entrepreneur were illegally slaughtering cattle and horses, and dumping animal waste on the territory of the slaughterhouse. Later, they buried this waste on land plots not intended for its disposal.

The court imposed fines of UAH 294 thousand each on the entrepreneur and one of the managers. The head of another company was sentenced to a fine of UAH 17 thousand and deprived of the right to hold positions at enterprises whose activities involve enforcement of environmental legislation for 2 years.

An employee of the Main Department of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection in Volyn Oblast was also punished: he was deprived of the right to hold positions in law enforcement agencies related to the organization of work and control over compliance with environmental legislation and sanitary and epidemiological standards for 2 years.

3. Prosecutors in Zhytomyr region forced the “Capital Forest Office” branch of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” to pay more than UAH 1 million to the budget of the Emilchyn village council for contamination of the community's land with sawdust. The forestry illegally dumped its woodworking waste on an area of 1.5 hectares. This resulted in littering the area and soil contamination.

4. A senior forester of a state-owned enterprise will stand trial. He is accused under several articles of the Criminal Code: abuse of office, which led to illegal felling of trees in the territory of the nature reserve fund, forgery of documents and legalization of income (part 4 of article 246 and part 2 of article 364, part 1 of article 366, parts 1, 3 of article 362 and part 1 of article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The official illegally instructed his subordinates and employees to cut down 63 pine trees in the Seimsky Regional Landscape Park without a logging permit. The defendant sold part of the illegally obtained wood for cash to local residents. To do this, he forged consignment notes for the transportation of timber and changed the relevant information in the automated system. Such actions of the official caused losses to the state in the amount of UAH 5.9 million.

5. In Kirovohrad region, prosecutors sent to court an indictment against the director of a company for air pollution with substances harmful to life, health and the environment. The company is located in one of the settlements of Kropyvnytskyi district and is engaged in plastic recycling.

Excessive emissions from the production process caused an upper respiratory tract illness in a local resident. According to the measurements made by the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, the concentration of formaldehyde in the sanitary protection zone of the enterprise, as well as in the victim's living quarters and residential area, exceeded the permissible limit by 18-26 (!!!) times.

The accused now faces restriction of liberty for up to 3 years with deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain activities for the same period.

6. In Kyiv, a court ordered an entrepreneur to demolish a restaurant that had been illegally built on a plot of land in the Holosiivskyi National Nature Park. The Kyiv City Council had not made any decisions on the use of this land plot.

The restaurant was built on the territory of the Sviatoshyno forestry.

7. A forester of the Velyko Oleksandrivske Forestry State Enterprise will be tried in Kherson region for failing to fulfill his duties to protect his land from illegal logging in 2020.

His inaction caused losses of UAH 3 million, as a significant number of trees were illegally cut down on the territory of the forestry without appropriate permits.

8. In Chernihiv region, a forest master of one of the forestries in Nizhyn district was notified of suspicion of negligence. In November 2022, he was responsible for the sanitary felling of 89 trees on the territory of a botanical reserve of local importance. However, the official failed to check that the loggers complied with the rules of logging and did not control the correctness of forest use, protection and defense of the forest, so he allowed the illegal felling of 41 trees of different species, including oak, ash, birch and alder, without a special permit.

The amount of damage caused is over UAH 1.6 million. The forester faces imprisonment for a term of 2 to 5 years with disqualification to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 3 years, with or without a fine.

9. Various units of the State Environmental Inspectorate recorded illegal felling of trees and calculated the damage caused in such locations, and in two cases filed claims for the destruction of trees:

• In Vinnytsia region, 205 trees of various species were destroyed on the territory of the local landscape reserve “Hopchytsia” outside the village of Burkivtsi in the Pohrebyshche territorial community of Vinnytsia district. The damage amounted to almost UAH 2.2 million.
• In Zhytomyr region – 150 trees of different species between Korosten and the village of Korosten and the village of Iskorost of the Korosten City Territorial Community, as well as 63 trees outside the village of Raztyazhyn of the same territorial community. The total damage amounted to almost UAH 2 million.
• In Ivano-Frankivsk region, the Kosiv Regional State Enterprise “Rayagrolis” received a claim from the Carpathian District Inspectorate for the illegal felling of 123 raw trees of various species without a special permit in the territory of the Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park. The claim amounted to almost UAH 17 million.
• In Chernihiv region, environmental inspectors filed a claim against the Baturyn City Council for the illegal felling of 122 trees of different species in the territory of the Baturyn territorial community of Nizhyn district for the amount of UAH 2.7 million.

10. In Odesa and Cherkasy regions, SEI specialists recorded facts of poaching. The first was in the Shagany Lake (estuary) within the Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park near the village of Trykhatky, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district, and the second was in the Kaniv Reservoir, near the village of Lukovytsia, Kaniv district. The losses from illegal fishing amounted to UAH 3 million and UAH 1.2 million, respectively.

11. In the Zhytomyr region, environmental inspectors of the Polissia district calculated the damage caused by the death of fish in the Sluch River near the Pedynka HPP in the territory of the Lyubar territorial community of the Zhytomyr district. They amounted to UAH 3.4 million.

Read about the exposure of both “black loggers” and forestry workers in our previous digest.