Due to the discovery of rare animal species, State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” publicly pledged back on June 3 to suspend logging, which is being carried out for the construction of a power transmission line (PTL) in Zakarpattia region. However, in practice, it turned out that the logging continued.
This was reported by Espreso media, citing environmentalist Andrii Tupikov.
Empty promises
Even nearly a week after the announcement of a pause in logging, forestry workers continued to destroy the forest. Evidence of this can be seen in satellite images published by the environmentalist.
As of June 9, loggers had cleared another 350 meters of area. Previously, after the promise to stop logging, forests had already been destroyed over an area of 1.1 ha.
Reason for suspension
The pause in logging was supposedly due to the fact that environmentalists once again provided evidence of the presence of red-listed salamanders at the site. The state enterprise even announced that it would form a commission to determine all the circumstances, which would include representatives of the authorities, the scientific community, and public environmental organizations.
Earlier, activists stated that a continuous strip of forest was being cleared for the construction of a PTL for a wind power plant on Polonyna Runa.
Before the work began, the areas were surveyed, but even then, public eco-experts called such an inspection a sham. Among the reasons was that only selected sections of the future logging area were surveyed, and the timing was highly questionable, namely, the beginning of March. At this time, it was physically impossible to record the presence of species whose activity period starts later.
EcoPolitic consistently covers the situation with the construction of wind turbines in the Carpathians. The implementation of energy projects is often accompanied by violations of legislation and disregard for the positions of the public and members of parliament.
