Illegal logging in Ukraine: the anti-rating of regions by volume

Kharkiv region topped the list of Ukrainian regions with the largest absolute volume of recorded illegal logging in 2023.

This is stated in the research of the public organization "Forest Initiatives and Society" ("LIiS").

The authors of the report compiled an anti-rating based on the level of recorded illegal logging based on the analysis of data from the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine (DALRU) for 2023 by region. It looks like this:

• Kharkiv region – 6,993.7 cubic meters (24.5% of all illegal logging in DALRU forests);
• Zhytomyr (13.4%);
• Lviv (10%);
• Dnipropetrovsk (9.5%);
• Zakarpattia (8.3%);
• Zaporizhzhia (6.9%);
• Kyiv (5.3%).

For the rest of the regions, the indicator was less than 5%.

The NGO "LIiS" noted that the total volume of illegally harvested wood in Ukraine in 2023 was 30,262 cubic meters, in particular in the forests of the State Forestry Agency – 28,538.8 cubic meters (94.3%).

In terms of the subordination of forests to departments, the volume of illegal felling was distributed as follows:

The total amount of losses due to documented illegal logging in 2023 reached UAH 703.936 million. Of these, 580 million UAH (82.4%) are in the State Forest Agency system, 49.03 million UAH (7%) are in the forests of the Ministry of Defense, 57.09 million UAH (8.1%) are in the forests of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources resources of Ukraine.

The damage caused in 2023 in the forests of the State Forestry Agency more than triples the level of 2022 (186.7 million UAH), of which only 14.385 million UAH were compensated.

The dynamics of consideration of criminal cases regarding illegal logging for 2022 and 2023 is as follows:

In 2023, the level of illegal logging increased compared to 2022. The authors of the report attribute this dynamic to the incomplete accounting of all cases due to hostilities and martial law and the ban on visiting forests in certain regions.

They also noted that during the period 2019-2022, there was an annual decrease in the level of illegal logging.

The highest level of illegal tree felling among the institutions of the Nature Reserve Fund (NRF) was recorded in the Rivne Nature Reserve – 66,115 cubic meters. m. This is almost a third (31.8%) of the volume of illegal felling in the forests of the Ministry of Environment.

This study was based on the following data:

• State Forestry Agency (on the territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine);
• a number of communal enterprises that are forest users (18 enterprises in 7 regions);
• 10 NRF institutions of the Ministry of Environment (in 5 regions);
• parts of military forest farms of the Ministry of Defense (4);
• and other forest users.

The rest of the departments and forest users did not provide answers to the request of the NGO or provided them incompletely.

The other day, EcoPolitic wrote about the case of "black loggers" from Khmelnytskyi, who caused damage for 3.3 million hryvnias. We also informed that in 3 months we will be independent observers found 137 sites with changes in forest cover in the Lviv and Transcarpathian regions.