The environmental tax is intended to compensate businesses for their negative impact on the environment. However, local communities often allocate these funds in ways that make it difficult to call this “compensation” for pollution. Environmental programs include a wide range of measures that experts consider to be of questionable environmental value. How common are these in the communities of the Ternopil region?
EcoPolitics analyzed several local environmental protection programs and was surprised by some of the decisions made by local councils.
The amount of environmental tax in Ternopil Region
Ternopil Region does not have as developed an industrial sector as Dnipropetrovsk or Zaporizhzhia regions. Therefore, fewer polluting enterprises mean lower pollution fees.
According to the results for 2025, businesses paid 45.2 million UAH to Ukraine’s consolidated budget. Compared to the previous year, this amount was 8.5 million UAH higher.
The upward trend continued in 2026. According to the State Tax Service, more than 2.2 million UAH in environmental tax was collected from regional polluters in one month, which is over 240,000 UAH more than during the same period in 2025.
These funds are distributed by the state among special environmental protection funds (EPF) within the budgets of the country, region, and communities. It should be recalled that these funds may be used exclusively for environmental protection measures.
Usually, there are not enough funds in the EPF for environmental activities, so additional financing from other budgetary and non-budgetary sources may be required.
Environmental program at the regional level
Ternopil region approved its environmental protection plans back in 2021. The program is valid until 2027 and is amended annually and sometimes several times a year.
The region planned to improve the quality of surface and groundwater through a range of works on sewage networks: constructing new facilities in several villages and reconstructing existing ones. There are 21 activities in this section, and with a few exceptions, they are all “dedicated” to wastewater treatment.
The program also separately plans for safe waste management – from ensuring collection, transportation, and disposal to implementing the regional waste management plan.
It should be noted that a major section of activities is dedicated to preserving biodiversity and the nature reserve fund, as well as to forest protection with their inventory and forestry management.
Environmental activities in the regional center's version
The Ternopil urban community approved its own environmental program during the full-scale war, designed for four years – from 2024 to 2027.
It should be noted immediately that the EPF funds are not separately mentioned in the program's budget. Among the sources of funding are the community and regional budgets, as well as other sources.
Let us review the program measures. The city plans to reclaim land under illegal landfills and inspect soils in the impact zone of the legal landfill. The list also includes air pollution monitoring, including acoustic pollution, as well as a range of measures to preserve water resources. Among them, alongside restocking ponds and improving the hydrology of local water bodies, we see sewerage works. However, this refers not to the central city sewage system, but to stormwater drainage. Under the program, Ternopil intends to build and reconstruct stormwater collectors.
Traditional landscaping (with which environmental care is most commonly associated) is listed under the section “Biodiversity, green spaces, and recreational zones.” Here, among other measures, we see:
- landscaping of residential areas as part of the “Green Yard” program – approximately 2,500 seedlings annually;
- creation of wild nature islands in the city;
- restoration of lawns after the removal of temporary structures;
- greening of schools, hospitals, and municipal institutions.
Ternopil also plans to adapt to climate change through plants – by planting so-called “climate trees”, whatever that may mean, as well as establishing green islands, including on city rooftops.
And of course, no program would be complete without a waste management section. Here, we find measures for degassing the landfill, installing containers for separate waste collection, and even the calculation of waste management service norms – all as part of the environmental program.
Environmental care at the community level
As part of its nature conservation program for 2025–2027, the Saranchukivska Village Council plans to develop a range of documents, from an ecological passport for the community to a sanitation scheme for the territory. The council’s practical steps are quite ambitious.
Typically, communities consider sewerage networks as an environmental issue, as these transition from the realm of engineering infrastructure to environmental concerns due to the harm caused by wastewater discharges. However, the Saranchukivska community has gone further and included a number of water supply network maintenance measures in its eco-program. They plan to construct, reconstruct, purchase pumps and automation systems. And this is all in the name of nature, not for the everyday comfort of residents. Certification and maintenance of hydraulic structures, as well as the clearing of drinking water springs in residential areas, are also treated as environmental matters.
The eco-program also aims to improve the waste management system – by purchasing additional waste bins for public spaces, refining the waste collection scheme, arranging container sites, and installing separate collection bins.
Maintenance of parks, squares, and roadsides, which is quite logically to be performed by the “Blahoustrii – Servis” municipal utility, is also classified here as an environmental measure, rather than just upkeep or beautification.
In the environmental protection program of the Khorostkiv community for 2024–2026, only 14 measures are listed. Among them is a whole range of landscaping works. These include greening areas with flowers and lawns, maintaining green spaces, mowing grass in green zones and along streets. Even the creation of recreational areas near water bodies, including sand delivery and paving slab pathways, is considered an environmental measure.
The most interesting item is cleaning public toilets, including the purchase of tools and supplies.
Реconstruction and repair of water supply networks, as well as the purchase of pumps for sewage systems, are also part of the eco-program of the Khorostkiv City Council. There are also plans to purchase special equipment for the local utility company.
Will environmental tax funds be used for this? At a minimum, the Nature Protection Fund (ONPS) is indicated as one of the sources of financing.
The program of the Husiatyn Settlement Council is planned for 2026–2027 and is less comprehensive. It includes only six measures, among which are the greening of the settlement and villages, as well as the collection, transportation, and disposal of waste, and the management of sewage.
EcoPolitic has already reviewed environmental programs of communities in the Lviv, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Odesa, Vinnytsia, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, and other regions.
Everywhere we see that councils use imperfect legislative regulations to address household issues with environmental funds.
