This week's overall picture of ways to destroy nature consists of the usual illegal tree felling, violations in waste management and illegal mineral extraction. At the same time, prosecutors are gradually returning to the state lands of the nature reserve and water funds that illegally ended up in the wrong hands. EcoPolitic has prepared an overview of crimes against nature that became known during the week from 7 to 13 November. The material is based on information published on the official resources of the Office of the Prosecutor General and regional prosecutor's offices, the State Bureau of Investigation and the State Environmental Inspectorate.
Illegal subsoil use
Over UAH 1.1 billion in damages due to illegal sand mining. In Kyiv Oblast, an entrepreneur was served a notice of suspicion for organising the crime in the village of Khodosivka. He acted in collusion with other persons, bringing in special equipment with skilled workers. The work was carried out not only without a special permit, but even on plots belonging to other owners. One of the uses of the stolen minerals was raising the ground level on plots where a cottage town was being built. In addition to UAH 1.16 billion for the illegal extraction of more than 962 thousand cubic metres of sand, the crime also caused over UAH 234 million in property damage to the owner of the plots seized by the dealer. The soil cover there has to be fully restored on an area of more than 3 hectares.
Forest cases
Chose where to fell trees himself. A resident of Zhytomyr Oblast will stand trial for a large-scale crime that resulted in the illegal felling of about 4,300 trees. The damage amounted to almost UAH 34.3 million. Without any permits, the man decided on his own where to carry out felling, hired workers and later sold the timber as legal. A female entrepreneur was also involved in the legalisation and will also stand trial for legalising property obtained by criminal means.
Source: Zhytomyr Regional Prosecutor's Office
Illegally harvested raw materials for a woodworking enterprise. Its owner brought in four more men to cut down trees. In total, the state suffered losses of more than UAH 2.8 million. After processing, the entrepreneur sold the illegal timber. The indictment against the four members of the scheme has been sent to court.
Source: Zhytomyr Regional Prosecutor's Office
Issued illegal felling permits. In Ternopil Oblast, the director of a communal forestry enterprise is accused of official negligence. The official issued illegal permits for tree felling, even though the mandatory forest documents had not been drawn up. As a result, the damage exceeded UAH 4.5 million. Compensation for destroying a shelterbelt. A court ordered one of the village councils in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to pay over UAH 1 million in damages for 150 illegally destroyed trees. The local council was found liable as the permanent land user of the plot with a field-protective shelterbelt. The funds have already been collected to the budget. In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, a forest user enterprise also had to pay compensation for illegal felling on its territory, almost UAH 3.5 million. The prosecutor's office does not specify which enterprise it is. In Kherson Oblast, however, SE "Forests of Ukraine" is responsible for violations during sanitary felling. 541 pine trees were cut down there without an environmental impact assessment. The court ordered the foresters to pay almost UAH 2.5 million in damages. SE "Forests of Ukraine" will also pay for illegal felling in Zakarpattia. The court agreed with the prosecutors' arguments and ordered it to compensate for the destruction of 37 trees. Some of them grew on the territory of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, and the damage exceeded UAH 1.6 million.
"Waste" violations
Over UAH 26 million embezzled on the maintenance of Dnipro's only landfill. Six people will stand trial for this scheme, including the directors of a communal and a private enterprise that had a service contract. The controlled contractors did not perform most of the work, but the customers duly signed certificates of completed work and paid money from the regional budget. More details about this case are in a separate article by EcoPolitic.
Source: Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor's Office
Waste in improper places and questionable landfill operations. In Cherkasy Oblast, the director of a communal enterprise will stand trial. Due to improper performance of his official duties, he allowed the pollution of land of SE "Forests of Ukraine", causing almost UAH 2 million in damage to nature.
Source: Cherkasy Regional Prosecutor's Office
Valuable lands
30 years without a project and boundaries. In Zakarpattia, a court ordered SE "Forests of Ukraine" to finally prepare a land management project and establish the boundaries of the "Hrofa" landscape reserve. The protected site is named after the mountain of the same name. It includes the upper reaches of the Limnytsia River, and its unique features are glacial landforms and Red Book fauna species. In total, the reserve covers an area of more than 2.5 thousand hectares. Without actual boundaries, there were risks of violating the reserve's protection regime. In Ternopil Oblast, almost 32 hectares of nature reserve fund land became communal property with the status of agricultural land. This is a plot of the "Dniester Canyon" National Nature Park. The court declared this registration illegal and returned the valuable natural complexes to the state. Prosecutors are also fighting for the return of water fund lands:
- in Cherkasy Oblast, two land plots with an area of almost 1.4 thousand hectares worth UAH 30 million were returned to the state. State hydraulic structures are located there, so they were taken from the communal ownership of village councils.
- in Chernivtsi Oblast, the situation was similar: in 2022, 97 hectares worth UAH 2.7 million became the property of a village council, even though there are hydraulic structures there. The Sovytsia River, which is of national importance, also flows through the plot. The right of communal ownership has been cancelled and the land returned to the state.
- in Mykolaiv Oblast, over 300 hectares of territory with the Shcherbanivka Reservoir and adjacent water fund land plots were returned to the state. The reservoir was used by an entrepreneur who was actually breeding fish there, which violated the interests of the state.
Source: Mykolaiv Regional Prosecutor's Office
The digest of environmental offences of the previous week is available at the link.
