Crimes against the environment this week have been quite varied. In Svitlovodsk, a company was poisoning the soil by dumping tyre decomposition waste on it. In Volyn, the director of a company is suspected of laundering over 30 million hryvnias through the sale of illegally extracted minerals. Meanwhile, in the Kyiv region, an environmental inspector, together with his father and a relative, organised monthly extortion payments from foresters in exchange for not carrying out inspections.
EcoPolitics has compiled an overview of environmental offences that came to light between 19 and 25 September. The information for this report was sourced from publicly available publications by the State Bureau of Investigations, the Office of the Prosecutor General and regional public prosecutors’ offices, as well as the State Environmental Inspectorate.
Illegal extraction of mineral resources
He laundered illegal profits totalling 30 million hryvnias. The director of a company in Volyn, who is already suspected of illegal extraction causing losses to the state of over 102 million hryvnias, has been charged with a new offence. The company held a special permit for subsoil use, but without the right to extract minerals. However, this did not prevent the extraction of over 56,000 tonnes of aleurolite, over 34,000 tonnes of argillite and over 14,000 tonnes of sandstone. The director sold part of the minerals to other companies – amounting to over 30 million hryvnias.
Source: Office of the Attorney General
Forest matters
Due to the negligence of officials at the state-owned enterprise ‘Forests of Ukraine’, trees were unlawfully felled in the Velykodil Forest District in Zakarpattia. The forest foreman has already been convicted of dereliction of duty. Now, the Court of Appeal has upheld the prosecutors’ claim that the state-owned enterprise should compensate for the damages caused – approximately 2.3 million hryvnias.
Monthly extortion payments from foresters. In the Kyiv region, the acting head of one of the departments of the State Environmental Inspectorate imposed a monthly fee on agroforestry enterprises – $500 each, payable by the 10th of every month. What were they supposed to be paying for? For the absence of inspections and failure to respond to violations during timber harvesting. The environmental inspector was assisted in collecting the bribes by his father, a former head of a forestry unit, as well as another relative who is a forester at one of the state-owned enterprises. All three were arrested and charged.
Джерело: Офіс Генерального прокурора
Environmental pollution
He caused environmental damage amounting to nearly 10 million hryvnias. In the Kirovohrad region, the director of a company that recycled used tyres has been charged. It transpired that after the tyres had been broken down by pyrolysis, the resulting products were simply dumped onto the ground. In the samples taken, the zinc content was almost 11 times the permitted limit, and the copper content was twice the limit.
Source: National Police of Ukraine
Valuable land
"Devil’s Rock" now has protected status. Following a court ruling, this geological natural monument in the Lviv region has been assigned defined boundaries in the State Land Cadastre. The Pidkamin Town Council was ordered to carry this out. The site is a distinctive 16-metre-high rock formation, which is a remnant of the barrier reef of the ancient Sarmatian Sea. It was formed 11–14 million years ago from the remains of algae and invertebrates.
Source: Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office
Over 538 hectares of woodland in the Rivne region will be returned to state ownership. Whilst processing the paperwork for these lands, prosecutors had previously discovered that they were registered in the name of a local authority. The local authority, in turn, had transferred them to a municipal enterprise. The court ruled in favour of the prosecutors, as forested land requires enhanced protection under a special regime of use.
In addition, 2.5 hectares of land within the ‘Dniester Canyon’ National Nature Park have been transferred to municipal ownership. These areas are now being managed by the municipal forestry enterprise. The Public Prosecutor’s Office is demanding that the registration be revoked and the land returned to state ownership.
You can read a round-up of crimes against nature from the past week by following this link.
