The KECC said that massive deforestation in forest parks in Kyiv and the region lasted from 2000 to 2018. Most of the wood was cut down in the Sviatoshynskyi and Darnytskyi districts of Kyiv, and wood was also massively cut down in Koncha Zaspa.The now-liquidated Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine has doubled deforestation in national parks and reserves over the past 8 years.
This was reported by the KECC Director Volodymyr Boreyko based on a study conducted by the Center.
According to the KECC, the analysis of logging tickets issued annually by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources to national parks shows that in 2013 the Ministry issued limits for logging almost 330 thousand cubic meters of wood to 32 national forest parks.
And in 2021, the Ministry set a limit of almost 700 thousand cubic meters of wood for 26 national parks and 2 biosphere reserves (Carpathian and Chornobyl), which is twice as much as in 2013.
While in 2013, logging was carried out on an area of 18.7 thousand hectares, in 2021 it will be on an area of about 40 thousand hectares. According to the Ecological and Cultural Center, the sale of about 700 thousand cubic meters of wood can generate revenues from UAH 1 billion 750 million to UAH 3 billion 500 million.
According to Volodymyr Boreyko, an ecologist and director of the KECC, together with logging in nature reserves and other protected areas of national importance, the volume of logging in protected forests in 2021 reached 1 million cubic meters, which is 1/10 of the total volume of timber harvested in Ukraine and put up for electronic auction. The sale of 1 million cubic meters of protected wood can bring in between UAH 2 billion 500 million and UAH 5 billion.
Also, the analysis of logging by national parks in 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025 shows that in 9 national parks, logging volumes have increased by 2-6.7 times over the past 4 years – these are the national parks Beloozersky, Zalissia, Synihora, Skole Beskydy, etc.
"The leadership of the Ministry of Ecology is to blame for the fact that the process of issuing limits for logging has become a mere formal process. National parks and reserves submit applications to the ministry for limits, which no one in the ministry is seriously studying, no one is monitoring their implementation on the ground, no one is checking their compliance with environmental legislation," the KECC said.
The KECC representatives added that logging in national parks is mostly accompanied by sanitary clearing. But in fact, under the guise of their rehabilitation, unjustified destruction of forests continues.
We remind EcoPolitics readers that the Environmental Protection Department of the Kyiv City State Administration plans to cancel the decision to ban clear-cutting in Kyiv region, said Volodymyr Boreiko, director of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center.
