On Thursday, October 10, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Law No. 9665, which provides for stricter liability for forest destruction, illegal felling, and prevents the illegal circulation of wood.
The corresponding message appeared on the website of the parliament.
242 people's representatives voted for the adoption of this law.
The authors of the document claim that the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code of Ukraine on Improvement of Liability for Offenses in the Field of Protection of Plant Life, Forest Use and Combating Illegal Trafficking of Timber" improves the process of prosecution for violations of felling rules, damage or destruction of trees or shrubs.
The adopted law supplements the Code of Ukraine on administrative offenses with a new Article 65-2. It provides for fines for illegal transportation, storage, sale of trees, shrubs or wood, without documents or with forged documents. Such violations will be punished by the imposition of a fine on citizens in the amount of UAH 510-15,300, on officials in the amount of UAH 3,400-15,300.
The Criminal Code of Ukraine also received new article number 246-1 . It provides for criminal liability for a similar violation committed on a significant scale. This article provides for a fine of 34,000 to 51,000 UAH or restriction of liberty for up to 3 years.
Article 245 of the Criminal Code was supplemented with part 3, which provides for liability for illegal reed harvesting that caused significant damage. Such a violation is punishable by a fine of two to two thousand five hundred tax-free minimum incomes of citizens or restriction of freedom for a term of up to 3 years, or imprisonment for the same term.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that exactly one year ago the parliamentary Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management recommended Verkhovna Rada to adopt as a basis draft law No. 9665 "On improvement of liability for offenses in the field of forest use and combating illegal timber circulation" taking into account comments. On May 9 of this year, deputies adopted it as a basis in the first reading.
