Ecologists save forest and Geonaut cave from development in Kyiv region shutterstock

Ecologists save forest and Geonaut cave from development in Kyiv region

Anna Velyka

Another court case of ecoactivists ended with a positive decision

On May 21, the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center (KECC) won a case against raiders who, together with the Obukhiv District Administration, illegally distributed about 50 hectares of Kyiv Forestry Forestry Forest near Obukhiv for construction, including the area where the Geonaut Cave, the only natural cave in Kyiv Oblast, is located.

This was reported by the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center on its website.

Judge Oleksandr Tykhansky of the Obukhiv District Court upheld the lawsuit filed by the KECC against the violators. The court hearings lasted about a year. By its decision, the court returned the forests to state ownership.

The KECC says that after the regional prosecutor's office failed to help Kyiv Forestry protect the forests, they turned to environmental activists. The forestry suggests that the land was seized "thanks to the criminal activity of officials of the Obukhiv District State Administration."

The Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center is systematically engaged in the protection of state forests and returns them to the control of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine". So, last year, KECC legally protected 260 hectares of forests that raiders took from the Bilotserkiv Forest Farm.

In February, EcoPolitic reported that the center's ecologists sued the raiders who took 15 forest plots from the Klavdiyivska forest research station. We are following this case closely.

Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, thatin March, ecologists from the "Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center" detected deforestation near the village of Ivankovichi, near Kyiv, where red snowdrops grow.

Also in May, the eco-activists of KECC announced the illegal felling of old oaks in the National Park "Biloozerskyi".

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