Recently, the environmental community was shaken by information about a resolution that the government allegedly plans to adopt. Without being made public or discussed, the document aimed to abolish the environmental impact assessment procedure for continuous sanitary logging. Under the guise of war, the authors included overly abstract wording in the text, which could give free rein to "black loggers" in government positions. An expert review by the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP) confirmed this.
The conclusion, published by the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP), analyzes the gaps in the document in detail. It states that they create conditions for violations of the law and subjective decision-making.
Not prohibited = permitted
The draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers "Some issues of forest management during martial law and amendments to the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1010 of December 13, 2017" provides for a number of loopholes for the potential destruction of Ukrainian forests.
In particular, the NACP drew attention to the following:
- The document allows skipping the EIA procedure for planned activities aimed at ensuring defense, responding to emergencies, or undertaking recovery work. However, the resolution provides neither specifics nor criteria for such “activities.” This means the executor may, at their discretion, determine which actions fall under this broad formulation.
- The draft resolution proposes to eliminate the calculation of forest plots for clear sanitary logging carried out in stands damaged by war or emergencies. Essentially, the document seeks to approve the disregard of environmental protection legislation norms.
The anti-corruption body’s brief conclusion is as follows:
“The draft resolution contains corruption risks and requires substantial revision in view of the provided recommendations.”
It could not be silenced
The environmental community learned in early January that the government intended to abolish the EIA for sanitary logging. The scandalous draft was not even published by the government, as if they were trying to avoid attracting public attention.
Eco-activists emphasize that this is not the first attempt to establish regulatory grounds for uncontrolled logging. The previous attempt was bill No. 9516, which ultimately failed to pass the Verkhovna Rada. So now they tried to “push through” via the Cabinet.
“We know for certain that the State Forest Agency will ignore this conclusion as well. They will once again speak of tremendous successes in forest reform, blaming ‘bad ecologists’ for all the sector’s problems, as they have done for years. But we hope that at least the Ministry of Economy will finally realize the need to address corruption and illegal logging in forests,” – stated the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (UNCG).
EcoPolitic reported that even without the cover of this resolution, officials still find ways to cut down Ukrainian forests. In 2025 alone, the calculated damages from their crimes amounted to over UAH 546 million.
