The Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture does not support the abolition of the environmental impact assessment procedure for logging and requests that these changes be excluded from the draft law No. 13227-d "On the Timber Market."
This is stated in a letter from the Ministry of Economy "On the Timber Market" dated September 10, 2025, and the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (UNCG) has paid attention to and responded favorably to the decision.
"The Ministry of Economy does not support the draft law in
part of amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Environmental Impact Assessment" and
considers it necessary to exclude subparagraph 3 of paragraph 2 of Section VII "Final and
Transitional Provisions," the letter says.
According to the UNCG, this position of the Ministry of Economy is based on the requirements of the European Commission and the European Parliament, which have repeatedly emphasized the importance of the EIA procedure in the context of Ukraine's European integration.
The environmental group added that earlier, the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" and the State Forestry Agency, instead of fighting corruption and illegal logging, wanted to solve the problems of the forestry industry by lifting environmental restrictions on logging. If they had succeeded, they would have cut down hectares of forests, including those in the Carpathians.
What is Draft Law No.13227-d about?
The purpose of the draft law is to comprehensively regulate relations related to the sale and purchase of timber, as well as to define the legal, economic and organizational framework for the timber market.
In particular, it will make public information on the sale of wood and wood products. And also to provide access to such information to all market participants, which will ensure equal competitive conditions for all buyers to access timber.
Also, to establish conditions for the full sale of harvested timber for all timber market participants and to create high value-added products based on it.
As a reminder, on April 29, the Verkhovna Rada did not support the European integration draft law No. 4197-d "On the Timber Market" – it did not have the necessary 226 votes to pass it.
