The official reason for sanitary logging is to restore forests by removing diseased or damaged trees that cannot be restored. However, in practice, sometimes completely healthy trees are declared diseased on paper. According to activists, the reason for this manipulation is to cover up the harvesting of valuable timber.
This is evidenced by data from surveys conducted by the NGO Forest Initiatives and Society (LIiS).
Three different areas, but all with violations
For comparison, experts examined three areas in the Zakarpattia region. All of them allegedly have changes in forest cover. And everywhere, trees are either already being cut down or are planned to be cut down. In particular, intensive selective logging is already underway in the Kvasiv Forestry, while in Kobyletsk and Lazeshchyna, they are planning a complete sanitary felling.
In the Kobylets-Polyansky Forestry, 0.2 hectares of beech forest have been allocated for sanitary felling. After checking the condition of the trees in person, the experts emphasize that they are healthy and there are no obvious reasons for felling.
The activists also had doubts about the clear-cutting in the Lazeshchynske forestry. There, they plan to destroy a forest tract, although the visual inspection showed that the trees have no critical damage. Ironically, 1 ha of trees will be felled on the grounds that a few trees died on an area of 0.06 ha.
In the Kvasivske forestry, there really are some diseased and dry trees, formally. However, instead of thinning the declared 10 ha, operations are being carried out on an area of just 1.3 ha. In the experts’ opinion, this will lead to an unjustified reduction in forest density – in some places, the stand fullness is already less than 0.1.
“Sanitary cutting should be a tool for forest recovery rather than a means of its depletion. All three sites show signs of abuse: the condition category of the trees is understated, and most trees designated for cutting are healthy or only slightly weakened,” emphasizes the LIS NGO.
The experts added that they are communicating with forest users and responsible forest protection agencies regarding updated information.
Sanitary logging often serves as a cover for illegal timber harvesting. EcoPolitic recently reported a telling example that occurred in Chernihiv region. There, the chief forester and forester of “Koryukivske Forestry Enterprise” artificially divided the forest into plots of less than 1 ha to avoid the environmental impact assessment procedure. After this, the officials issued logging tickets for sanitary cuts; in this way, over 4,300 trees were destroyed without EIA, causing the state more than UAH 9.4 million in damages.
Ukrainian activists are also outraged by several draft government resolutions that could weaken forest protection. According to environmentalists, one of them may legalize the return of clear-cutting, while another could abolish the EIA procedure for carrying out clear sanitary forest cuttings.
