In Kyiv and the region on the eve of New Year's holidays, eco-inspectors, forest guards and law enforcement officers will conduct the "New Year's Tree" operation to strengthen the protection of forests and coniferous plantations.
Violators face fines from 510 to 5,100 UAH and from 17,000 to 25,500 UAH, or arrest for a term of up to 6 months, for illegal logging in forests, the State Environmental Inspection of the Capital District reports on Facebook.
It was emphasized that raids to control the transportation, procurement and sale of conifers, prevention of illegal felling will primarily be carried out:
- in the territories of breeding plantations;
- on areas of particularly valuable conifers;
- in forest areas adjacent to settlements and objects of the nature reserve fund.
In addition, offenders will be looked for in places where New Year's trees are sold.
Eco-inspectors emphasized that the "correct" Christmas tree can be purchased at specialized sales points. For such a tree, the seller must have with him and, at the request of the buyer, present:
- forestry invoice;
- consignment note;
- certificate of radiation examination of trees;
- permission to trade with a wet seal;
- every tree must have an electronic chip.
When buying a Christmas tree, citizens can ask the seller to provide these documents in order to make sure that the Christmas tree is being bought without violating the requirements of the law
"In December-January, the amount of damages due to illegal felling of conifers within the population centers increased by four times, outside the population centers by three times," the report emphasized.
As EcoPolitic reported before, in Ukraine for 9 months of 2022, at least 15 thousand m3 of wood were illegally cut down, which caused losses of more than 125 million hryvnias.
