Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strilets has said that over the next six months, the timber market will be completely out of the shadows thanks to online certificates of origin.
This will prevent illegal deforestation and non-transparency of the timber market, he said on the national telethon "United News".
"During the next six months, we will have a clear picture of which business in the forest sector was operating under "gray" schemes, and which did not violate the law," said Strelets.
He emphasized that online certificates have become the actual completion of the forestry digitalization reform, which has been underway since 2021. Replacing paper documents with digital ones eliminates the risk of forgery.
Strelets said that the first online certificate was issued in December 2023 on the EcoSystem platform. Since then, foresters have already processed more than 3,000 applications from exporters, among others:
- issued – 1.8 thousand certificates;
- refused to issue – 1.2 thousand for companies that could not prove the legality of the origin of the wood, or made certain mistakes;
- canceled – 41 certificates.
"One of the reasons for refusals is the low cost of timber for the production of one cubic meter of finished products," he said.
In his opinion, such a wood accounting system will be positively approved by Ukraine's partners, because it:
- prevents falsification of permit documents;
- allows you to track the circulation of wood from the place of its harvesting to sale for export.
The shooter emphasized that now every cubic meter of the forest will be entered into the electronic accounting system. The issued online certificate is automatically entered into the electronic register, which is easy to check at customs.
"I am confident that the implementation of this service will contribute to the formation of a transparent wood market, which is also an important factor in the European integration of the forest industry," he added.
Previously, EcoPolitic analyzed what is destroying Ukrainian forests and what the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources is doing to protect them.
