According to the annual report of the State Forestry Agency, the amount of illegal logging detected by them in 2022, the military year, amounted to 20.6 thousand m3, which caused damage of UAH 186.7 million. Interestingly, 76.6% of this figure (15.8 thousand m3) is felling "committed by undetected trespassers." In practice, this means that no one will be held responsible for ¾ of the hectares of Ukrainian forest illegally destroyed last year. And the lack of punishment naturally provokes new violations.
What else is destroying Ukrainian forests and what is the ministry doing to protect them – EcoPolitic investigated.
The state of forest resources in Ukraine
In our country, the average level of forest cover is relatively low. Forests cover 15.9% of the area. This is the lowest indicator in Europe. For example, the forest cover of Germany is 30.1%, the Czech Republic is 33.4%, and Slovakia is 40.8%.
In total, the area of forests in Ukraine is 10.4 million hectares, but unfortunately, not a small part of them grows in the zone of radioactive contamination. In addition, approximately half of the forests in Ukraine are artificially created and require special care. Therefore, we can say that our forest fund is not only relatively small, but also quite vulnerable.
In 2021, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced an ambitious plan: Ukraine should plant a billion trees in 3 years. At the same time, he signed a decree on the initiation of the corresponding project – Green Country. As part of the initiative, they wanted to increase the area of Ukrainian forests by 1 million hectares in 10 years, and also eliminate the gray wood market and conduct an inventory. The project is actively promoted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, which regularly shows off new landings. In May, for example, it was reported about the planting of 109 million seedlings and the construction of new selection and seed centers. However, they forget to clarify that a significant part of the saplings are planted on the site of log cabins, and this does not increase the area of forests.
By the way, a little more than a third of the plantations planned by the project have been planted so far.
War and the forest
The active phase of the war left its mark on the state of the forests. According to official estimates, as a result of hostilities since February 24, 2022, more than 280,000 hectares of forest have been destroyed at a cost of UAH 6.5 billion. But war is dangerous for the forest not only because of rockets and bombs. It gave rise to a number of other circumstances that have led to the critical condition of forests.
When the Russian invaders captured our territories, one of the first things they did, as it turned out, was massive deforestation. According to the State Forestry Agency, arbitrary felling was and continues to be carried out in temporarily occupied territories in various parts of the country. The State Bureau of Investigation has already announced that it is investigating the expropriation of the forest by Russian troops and local collaborators in the Kharkiv region. The real scale of the fellings will become known only after the liberation of all occupied territories.
The next problem that arose from the large-scale war was the lack of money in forestry. In peacetime, forestry in Ukraine is self-financed by legal logging. But since a large part of the forest territories is currently mined, farms lose the opportunity to receive the necessary funds. As a result, the protection of forests is suffering, and the problem of littering is growing.
Due to the mined territory, another problem appears: the complication of inspections. Closed access to the forest does not allow the controlling authorities to see the full picture of the damage to the forest fund, as well as to control illegal logging.
Another factor of damage to forests is the separate approaches of the Ministry of Environment. A year ago, relevant minister Ruslan Strilets noted that his department managed to exclude Russia and Belarus from FSC certification.
"And for Ukraine, this is a chance to fill their niche and to enter the European markets with Ukrainian processed wood as widely as possible, to get the profit that our state needs today," he wrote.
We definitely need profit, no one disputes that. But in the pursuit of profit, it is important not to incur losses.
According to the minister's post on Facebook, they planned, among other things, to review the issue of exporting raw wood:
"It is necessary to objectively and carefully approach the issue of increasing forest harvesting – not with the aim of increasing the number of fellings, but with the aim of renewing that forest, which will lose its market attractiveness tomorrow anyway."
In practice, this means an increase in logging at the expense of old forests, in which commercial logging was previously prohibited. As a rule, this is a nature reserve fund, high mountain, coastal, protective and recreational forests.
Not by war alone
In the territories less affected by hostilities, meanwhile, illegal logging continues actively.
On May 17, in the Poltava region, illegal pruning and felling of trees near the village of Brodchyno was discovered. A total of 114 trees of various diameters and species were cut down or damaged.
At the beginning of May, illegal felling of trees and shrubs in significant volumes was established on the territory of the landscape reserve of local importance Rika Svicha with its tributary Mizunka, in the Kaluska district of Prykarpattia.
In March, the State Bureau of Investigation reported suspicions to the head of the forestry section of the State Enterprise Irshav Forestry, who organized illegal logging in Zakarpattia region. As a result, more than 5,000 trees of valuable species were cut down both in the district assigned to the official and in other territories. The damage caused to the environment amounted to more than UAH 50.8 million.
These are cases recorded by the mass media only in the last few months.
Of course, it is very difficult and sometimes impossible to reduce damage to forests from hostilities, but nothing prevents the Ministry of Environment from fighting post-war damage through massive illegal logging.
How the Ministry of Environment protects forests
In the last year, the relevant ministry tried to take certain steps to reform the forest resource protection system, but the effectiveness of these steps raises questions.
For example, let's take draft law 5650 "On amendments to certain legislative acts on forest conservation", which the parliament passed in the second reading last summer. This document was supposed to create mechanisms for the preservation of self-seeded forests, giving the right to the owners of the lands where they grew to legalize them. At first glance, it seems that this solves the problem of self-seeding, but in practice, such legalization involves a number of costs for the plot owner. At the same time, the law does not oblige to legalize the forest, but only gives such a right. Does it then make sense for owners to legalize self-seeded forests in order to receive losses? Unlikely. Without the development of new forest management regulations that will be available for implementation by smallholders, 5650 is a step nowhere.
Let's return to the President's Green Country program. In addition to planting trees, it has two more points. The inventory of forests is currently stretched over time for objective reasons – it is simply impossible in part of the territory. As for the elimination of the gray wood market, the corresponding draft law 4197-d on the wood market was adopted as a basis back in 2021, but is still being prepared for the second reading. This document would close the largest corruption schemes in the market and significantly reduce the amount of illegal logging. However, we are not observing an advocacy campaign for this draft law on the part of the ministry. They seem to have forgotten about him.
At the same time, the Ministry of Environment actively supported the formation of the State Enterprise Forests of Ukraine, which currently monopolizes the management of forests. Minister Ruslan Strelets even called the creation of this enterprise one of the main goals of the updated environmental strategy of the ministry. At the same time, according to the Temporary Investigative Commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, this decision has many risks. Further corporatization of the enterprise (and there are such plans) may ultimately lead to the appropriation of national resources by third parties.
At the same time, the Ministry of Environment actively supported the formation of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine", which currently monopolizes the management of forests. Minister Ruslan Strelets even called the creation of this enterprise one of the main goals of the updated environmental strategy of the ministry. At the same time, according to the Temporary Investigative Commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, this decision has many risks. Further corporatization of the enterprise (and there are such plans) may ultimately lead to the appropriation of national resources by third parties.
Therefore, a situation arises when the Ministry of Environment creates the appearance of concern for the expansion of the forest fund, but in practice does not work out new mechanisms to protect existing forests. Meanwhile, rockets, bombs, marauders-occupiers and local corruption continue to destroy forest ecosystems with no end in sight.
