Eco-activists suspected foresters of illegal felling of trees in the "Yezutskyi" nature reserve, which is part of the protected zone of the "Seymskyi" regional landscape park, located in the Sumy region.
The external signs of felling are not similar to the "classical" arbitrary one, because there is a mark on the trees, reports the public organization "Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group" on Facebook.
The Seimas Regional Landscape Park is the largest nature reserve in the Sumy region in terms of area. Any felling in the protected zone of the park is prohibited.
It is noted that the permanent forest user of the landscape park is "Vyrivske" State Agricultural Enterprise, which manages several hundred hectares of forest.
Eco-activists turned to state authorities, because public access to documents on logging is currently closed in Ukraine. However, the administration of "Seymskyi" reported that "Vyrivske" SE does not carry out such felling. And it is generally unknown who conducts them.
"The position is extremely strange. According to the legislation, the forest user bears full responsibility for felling on his territory. Therefore, it is very doubtful that the state-owned enterprise "Vyrivske" did not know about the logging in the protected zone of the Seimas Park", they said.
The authors assumed that due to the use of outdated documentation, SE "Vyrivske" simply did not know that part of their territory is a protected zone of the Seymskyi.
"The majority of illegal logging in Ukraine is done by those who should protect this forest – forest users," they emphasized.
In order to avoid illegal logging, ecoactivists suggest opening public access to currently closed information about logging. And also to change the Criminal Code - to provide for the direct responsibility of officials of forest users for illegal felling "with documents".
Eco-activists added that law enforcement officers are already working on this case.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in the Vinnytsia region, 5 officials of the forest industry, who were swindled, will appear before the court losses of 87 million hryvnias. In 3 years, they illegally cut down about 13 thousand trees.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, in the Yagotyn district of Kyiv region, on part of the territory of the future reserve of local importance "Chernyakhiv meadows" destroyed self-seeded forest.
