With the tacit consent of forestry officials, hundreds of ancient trees are being illegally felled in Polissia and the Carpathians.
This was announced by members of the Ukrainian Nature Protection Group (UPG) on Facebook.
They drew attention to a new trend in the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine", when, not having the opportunity to obtain documents for felling old forests, foresters cut them down without any documents. The UPG cited two examples:
- a year ago, officials of the branch of the Kivertsi Forestry illegally cut down dozens of ancient oaks in the Tsumanska Pushcha National Park in Volyn;
- and now hundreds of 100-year-old spruce trees in the branch of the Yasinyan Forestry in Transcarpathia have been affected.
Specialists of the group examined the place of arbitrary felling of fir trees. It was previously discovered by the State Environmental Inspection of the Transcarpathian Region.
UPG analyst Petro Testov says that more than four dozen tree stumps and large spruce logs remained on the spot. He claims that such a felling could not have taken place without the knowledge of the branch management. In support of his thesis, the analyst gives the following arguments:
- Such a huge scale of felling could not remain unnoticed by the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" – the central or regional office. Testov considers this to be an indicator of their incompetence.
- The site on which the unauthorized felling is located is not some remote area rarely visited by foresters. It is located less than 1.5 km from Bukovel, about 200 m from the road leading to the resort.
"Forestry workers should definitely have seen such large amounts of felling", – a member of the UPG is confident.
He suspects that local law enforcement agencies may also be involved in the "crushing" of this log house.
"But if the head of the Kivertsi branch remained in his position, does it mean that the State Enterprise "Lisa Ukrainy" completely tolerates such actions?" – asked UPG activists.
They called on the law enforcement agencies to bring those responsible for this illegal logging to justice.
The UPG also appealed to the Minister of Environmental Protection, Svitlana Grynchuk, with a request to show political will and create new and expand existing national parks within the boundaries of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine": "Black Forest", "Dermansko-Ostrozky", "Sokolini Gory", "Verkhovynskyi". and others.
In September, EcoPolitic told about the fact that the deputy head of the Polissky Forestry Office of the State Specialized Economic Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" condemned up to 5 years of imprisonment for illegal enrichment, and 104 million hryvnias seized from him during the investigation were confiscated for the benefit of the state.
We also reported on request of European manufacturers to the European Commission to postpone the implementation of the EU regulation on deforestation.
