Eco-activists from the "Ukrainian Nature Protection Group" criticized the draft instructions of the Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources on maintaining the state cadastre of territories and objects of the nature reserve fund.
The document increases the risk of "deriban", plowing, construction of protected areas, legalization of illegal decisions, and also reduces the possibility of public control and access of scientists to data, UPG reports on Facebook.
Eco-activists emphasized that this cadastre is important for Ukraine. Currently, official information about protected areas exists only in the form of signs.
"We hoped that this would be an open resource, where anyone who wants to can see the boundaries of protected areas and the documents about their creation. This resource could help the public detect violations in the use of protected areas, and scientists – to plan research," they wrote.
The following were named as potential threats in the message:
- paid access to the cadastre for the public, and free for developers of environmental impact assessment reports (EIA) and land managers;
- appointment of the technical administrator of the cadastre without competition by decision of the head of the Ministry of Environment;
- paid change of data in the PZF cadastre by registrars;
- determination of the boundaries of protected areas according to urban planning documentation;
- not a complete list of restrictions on economic activity in protected areas, in particular, on carrying out certain types of felling.
Eco-activists emphasized that the budget will also bear additional costs for the payment of administrators and registrars.
"Last time, the idea of creating a "business" based on access to information about the nature reserve fund appeared in the draft law developed by the Ministry of Environment in the spring of this year. The project was rejected after public criticism. And here it is again," they noted.
The UPG called on the Ministry of the Environment to review the instructions and, when carrying out digitization, take into account first of all the interests of preserving protected areas.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that eco-activists from the "Ukrainian Environmental Protection Group" accused the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of destroying healthy forests for the sake of mining, despite the availability of alternative sites.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, the Deputy Chairman of the KMDA Petar Olenych was informed of the suspicion of abuse of office, which led to the development of 0.6 hectares of Nyvky Park.
