Forest with Red Book plants is being illegally destroyed near Kyiv – KECC

Forest with Red Book plants is being illegally destroyed near Kyiv – KECC
Katerina Belousova

Environmentalists appealed to the prosecutor's office and called for the foresters to be punished

Ecologists from the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center have discovered deforestation near the village of Ivankovychi, near Kyiv, where the Red Book snowdrops grow.

Although the deforestation is carried out by foresters, such destruction of trees harms snowdrop populations, so it is illegal, the KECC reports on Facebook.

Environmentalists explained that the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses provides for a fine for deterioration or destruction of the habitat of rare animals and plants. It reaches:

  • from twenty to thirty tax-free minimum incomes – for citizens;
  • from thirty to fifty tax-free minimum incomes – for officials.

"Because of this violation, we turned to the prosecutor's office with a proposal to punish the foresters," said the KECC.

Environmentalists urged residents of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr and Cherkasy regions to inform them about the places where snowdrops grow for their protection. In the message, it is necessary to indicate the village, district, forestry, forest farm, district, department and preferably the coordinates of plant centers.

Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that environmentalists from the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center said that near Kyiv, the Petrivske village council had distributed 15 plots of the Klavdiyivka Forest Research Station for construction, and raiders seized part of the pine forest near the village of Liutizh, Vyshhorod district.

As EcoPolitic previously reported, a mountain with hundreds of Red Book primroses, brandushki, was discovered in the Cherkasy region near the village of Stetsivka.

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This week’s round-up of environmental crimes: tree felling, environmental pollution and theft of mineral resources
This week’s round-up of environmental crimes: tree felling, environmental pollution and theft of mineral resources

Separately, prosecutors are attempting to return land belonging to the water, forestry and nature reserve funds to the state

Forests are on fire in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, but air quality in the Kyiv region remains normal for the time being
Forests are on fire in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, but air quality in the Kyiv region remains normal for the time being

The fires are thought to be linked to the effects of military operations, which have been exacerbated by the dry and hot weather