Leading Ukrainian environmentalists stated that Svitlana Hrynchuk, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, was unable to solve the country's key environmental problems, accusing her of non-transparent personnel policy and persecution of representatives of the environmental community instead of dialogue.
A large article with assessments of the head of the ministry by industry experts was published on the portal of the Ukrainian National News Agency.
The assessments of the experts interviewed by the journalists were extremely negative. Here are the main complaints against the top official:
1. Approval of environmental impact assessment (EIA) conclusions for those businesses that actually harm the environment.
As an example, Maria Belkina, an expert and head of the agriculture department at the NGO Ecodia, cited the situation around the pollution of the Psel River in Poltava Oblast. Thus, despite the environmental disaster caused 2 years ago by the waste from the pig farm of LLC SPE “Globinsky Pig Complex” due to improper storage, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine approved the EIA conclusion for the company at the end of last year. The document states that there is allegedly “no impact on surface water” and “insignificant impact on groundwater.”
This decision shocked and outraged the environmental community in Poltava region. The journalists rightly noted that this is just one of the scandals involving the Ministry of Environment.
The environmentalists also reminded the Ministry of its complete disregard for the very high-profile confrontations over the destruction of the Markhaliv forest and the Runa valley, which are still ongoing.
2. Failed efforts to set up a system for recording Russia's crimes against the environment.
According to Lyudmyla Tsyhanok, president of the Association of Environmental Professionals (PAEW), the environmental monitoring system has dozens of “white spots” with data that is either unavailable or has lost its credibility.
"There is still no effective automated monitoring system. Without it, there will be no reparations. There will be no justice in international courts. How can we prove the damage? A photo from a drone? A two-page report from the village council? Or with analytics collected months after the explosion? To win a case in The Hague or Strasbourg, we need data that has legal force. Integrated monitoring systems synchronized with the European Copernicus, EEA, EPA," the expert insists.
Oleh Lystopad, an environmental expert at ANTS, agrees with her. He reminded that the methods currently used in Ukraine to assess environmental damage do not meet international standards and are based on the Soviet principle of maximum permissible concentrations.
"It is not the environmental impact that is being assessed. Environmental damage is the loss of a part of ecosystem services," the expert says.
3. The system of fines for environmental damage has not been revised.
This is where the information is a bit outdated: in April, the Ministry published a draft law that provides for a multiple increase in fines for waste management offenses, and in June, the Parliament registered draft law No. 13364, which provides for a 30-40-fold increase in fines for violating water and water body protection rules.
4. Lack of progress in reforms.
The journalists reminded that the environmental control reform, which was promised to be “intensified” by Hrynchuk's predecessor Ruslan Strilets more than a year ago, has remained at the level of statements. Later, the new minister repeated the promise.
“In April of this year, Svitlana Vasylivna again mentioned a ”completely new body with new approaches,“ but the reform remains at the level of ”strategy development," UNN reports.
Lyudmyla Tsyhanok also recalled the stalling of another reform in the field of waste management. She stated that there is still no electronic waste accounting, and the bylaws are mostly under development. The expert says that officials have focused only on “re-licensing, permits and paperwork.”
“There is no infrastructure, no reform, and instead of comprehensive actions, they are launching ‘experiments’... You cannot launch an ”experiment" where there is no system yet. It's like allowing airplanes to fly without airports and dispatchers," explained Tsyhanok.
And the situation with regulatory documentation on chemical threats is even worse, experts add.
5. Simulation of work.
Both Oleh Lystopad and Volodymyr Boreiko, director of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center (KECC), consider Svitlana Hrynchuk's activities to be purely imitative.
"I would rename the Ministry of Environment into the Ministry of Imitation Environmental Protection. In my opinion, I do not see any significant achievements during Ms. Hrynchuk's tenure. If we look at her Facebook, we will see meetings with representatives of international organizations, she discussed something, visited something, and the results? No," the ANTS expert believes.
The director of the CECC gave an extremely negative assessment of the minister's activities and blamed her for the lack of concepts for biodiversity protection, development of nature reserves, environmental education, and for approving the hunting strategy in Ukraine.
6. Unprofessional appointments.
Environmentalists call the personnel policy of the head of the department unclear and non-transparent.
"Recently, a new head of the Ministry's Department of Nature Conservation, Edgar Tokar, was appointed. This is a person who has neither specialized education nor work experience. Prior to that, this gentleman was the head of the Mukachevo Employment Center," says Lystopad.
UNN attributes the personnel scandals to Hrynchuk's lack of independence. The journalists claim that to this day, the official “has no subjectivity, in fact, she remains Herman Halushchenko's deputy in the status of minister.” UNN says that all important appointments to “resource” positions are controlled by Svitlana Hrynchuk's adviser, former prosecutor Dmytro Korobchenko.
7. Disorder in national parks:
- The issue of taxation of land in the nature reserve fund has not yet been resolved. Experts say that national parks owe hundreds of millions of hryvnias to local budgets.
- This year, work has not even begun on formalizing the right to use the lands of the nature reserve fund. Because of this, territories are being lost to land deals.
- Trees in national parks are cut down, the timber is either exported “in the black” or bought by intermediaries for a song and resold to the public at many times higher prices.
Volodymyr Boreyko cited an example when illegal logging permits for the Bilozerka National Park, which had been canceled under the previous leadership of the Ministry of Ecology, were approved again under Hrynchuk.
"Hrynchuk has not created a single new reserve or national park. She dispersed the people who actually knew something about it, and surrounded herself with incompetent sycophants," the ecologist says.
8. Lack of progress in deregulation.
According to journalists, the Ministry of Environment has been and remains the most overregulated government agency in Ukraine.
"According to the decision of the interdepartmental deregulation group, Hrynchuk should have canceled or digitized more than 100 permits. However, the minister has done nothing to implement the decision," they said.
Also, the ministry did not initiate changes to the Environmental Policy Strategy, which the Verkhovna Rada adopted under the previous government in early 2019, UNN said.
9. Persecution of environmental activists.
The KECC director said that after a picket held by animal rights organizations in front of the Ministry of Environment, instead of a dialogue with them, the minister sent a complaint to the Security Service of Ukraine.
"An appeal to the SSU? What is this? Against one of the most influential environmental organizations that has been operating for about 30 years and has created about 600 protected areas. For criticizing Hrynchuk at a picket. The environmental protection system is simply collapsing," Boreyko was outraged.
A sad conclusion
The interviewed experts believe that the tasks set by the country's leadership for the Ministry of Environment last fall have remained slogans. They agree that Svitlana Hrynchuk has failed to fulfill any of the promises she declared after her appointment.
"The Ministry of Environment cannot be just a ‘ministry of permits and licenses’. It is not a folder administration center. And not an event agency with managers who speak beautifully about problems. It should be a think tank for green transformation – with vision, analytics, management levers, technical support for the regions, and responsibility to people. Paper imitation abounds. But real changes are suffocating," says Lyudmyla Tsyhanok.
As a reminder, on September 5, 2024, the Verkhovna Rada voted to appoint Svitlana Hrynchuk as the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.
Recently, EcoPolitic wrote that an environmentalist accused the Ministry of Environment of introducing censorship.
