The Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Viktoriia Kyreieva, provided the Secretariat of the Berne Convention with false information about deforestation in the Markhalivskyi forest near Kyiv.
The text of the letter, its translation, and analysis were posted on Facebook by Volodymyr Boreiko, head of the Kyiv Ecological-Cultural Center (KECC).
European officials launched an investigation in response to a complaint filed by activists with the Secretariat of the Berne Convention. They reported deforestation in Markhalivka, which is part of the Emerald Network and the UA0000338 site “Pryirpinnia(Irpin Region) and Chornobyl Forest.”
During the investigation, the Secretariat sent a letter of inquiry to the Ministry of Environment on September 3, 2024.
The Ukrainian ministry responded to this letter almost 5 months later, on January 25 this year.
How the Ministry responded to the activists' complaint
Here are the main points from the response of the Ministry of Ecology to the Secretariat of the Berne Convention, signed by Deputy Minister Viktoriia Kireieva:
- The government chose state-owned land plots next to the existing Southern Cemetery to build the National Military Memorial Cemetery. Since it is surrounded by state forest plots with the status of the Emerald Network UA0000338, it was impossible to avoid using this territory for these purposes.
- These land plots occupy only 4.38% of the territory of the UA0000338 Emerald Network. Only this land will be changed and used for the construction of the necessary infrastructure.
- The project of the National Military Memorial Cemetery provides for maximum preservation of the ecosystem.
- Trees will be removed only in the area of 13 hectares, which is 0.2% of the territory of the Emerald Network UA0000338.
- The removal of dangerous, dead, and diseased trees and shrubs will be carried out on an area of 130 hectares.
- No logging works are carried out on this territory, only the planned removal of tree and shrub vegetation in a small area is carried out.
- These measures and the construction of the cemetery are not considered to be harmful to the survival of the relevant populations of flora and fauna species and their habitats in other parts of the UA0000338 Emerald Network.
Source: facebook.com/kekz.ua.
How the KECC commented on this response
Having analyzed the letter of the Ministry of Environment, Volodymyr Boreyko noted the following points:
- The ministry decided to conceal the fact that at the moment of sending the response letter to the European institution, two Ukrainian courts had declared the Ukrainian government's Resolution #225, which allowed massive felling of the Markhalivskyi forest near Kyiv for a military memorial cemetery, illegal.
- In his opinion, the ministry is lying when it claims that “the project of the National Military Memorial Cemetery provides for maximum preservation of the ecosystem.”
- According to him, the statement about the removal of trees on an area of 13 hectares is not true. The director of the KECC claims that in fact, “about 30 hectares of beautiful forest have already been cut down there.”
- The statement that “no logging operations are being carried out on the territory of the Emerald Network UA0000338, it is rather about the planned removal of tree and shrub vegetation in a small area for the construction of the National Military Memorial Cemetery” is also false, the ecologist says. As proof, he provides photos taken by the KECC that show the logging of century-old pines. Boreiko assumes that they were then taken out for sale.
- No one has conducted any studies on the damage to "the survival of the relevant populations of flora and fauna species and their habitats in other parts of the UA0000338 Emerald Network".
We would like to remind you that on March 15, 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine officially approved this place as a location for the establishment of the National Military Memorial Cemetery. The story of the activists' lawsuit began at the end of July 2024. Then, members of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center sued the government over what they considered to be illegal Resolution 225, which allowed the deforestation to build a military memorial cemetery.
EcoPolitics also wrote that the KECC accused officials of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine of trying to destroy 270 hectares of the Markhaliv forest to sell the wood and make a profit of UAH 80 million.
On September 25, 2024, the Kyiv District Administrative Court declared illegal the Ukrainian government's Resolution No. 225, which allowed massive logging of the Markhaliv forest near Kyiv for a military memorial cemetery.
On January 16 of this year, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal also confirmed the illegality of the resolution. In early February, we reported that despite the court's ban, logging continued in the Markhalivskyi forest.
On March 6, EcoPolitics informed that the Kyiv District Administrative Court had declared illegal the order of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration to allocate the territory of the Markhalivskyi Forest for the National Military Memorial Cemetery. This was the third trial that ended in favor of the forest's defenders.
On March 18, we reported on the suspicion of environmental activists that the Ministry of Ecology wants to remove the Markhalivskyi forest from the Emerald Network.
