Environmental activists from the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group said that the parliamentary environmental committee voted in favor of draft law No. 9516 "On Effective Forest Management," which was criticized by the environmental community.
The document will eliminate the possibility of public influence in the appointment of deforestation, the UPG reports on Facebook.
It is noted that the bill was not supported only by MPs and members of the Environmental Committee Yulia Ovchynnykova and Olena Kryvoruchkina.
The environmental activists explained that the draft law abolishes the environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure for clearance felling for
- plots of less than 10 hectares;
- Areas affected by fires, windfalls and massive drying out.
"In fact, this is the same as canceling the EIA altogether," they emphasized.
The UPG emphasized that in 2023, the state enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" carried out 7,786 continuous sanitary felling. Among them, there were only 26 sites with an area of more than 10 hectares.
At the committee meeting, environmental activists suggested that EIAs should be conducted for plots of 3 hectares or more. They also proposed to introduce a safeguard against abuse, so that fires, windstorms, and massive drying out would be recorded as part of the definition of emergencies.
"Our proposals were completely rejected. The foresters want to determine where to cut, how to cut, and what to cut," the environmental activists said.
They added that the forests of the Carpathians are particularly affected by clear-cutting.
The environmental activists also called for an appeal to MPs to prevent the adoption of the draft law in the Verkhovna Rada, which is expected to be considered at a meeting on the week of March 18-22.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, environmental activists from the NGO SaveDnipro said that 70% of the provisions of draft law No. 9516 should be removed, and the rest should be significantly changed due to the threat of deforestation.
