The Central Forestry Office stated that they were unaware of the expansion of the Kaniv Nature Reserve in Cherkasy Oblast, so they carried out logging on its territory. In response, expert Petro Testov accused the foresters of outright lying and published documents proving the opposite.
The foresters posted their official comment on the Facebook page, and the expert replied to them in his own telegram channel.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
What the Central Forestry Office says
The foresters deny the accusations of violating the regime of the Kaniv reserve. They said that in 2023-2024, the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi branch was working in accordance with the materials of the 2013 basic forest management and the 2020 continuous forest management approved by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.
"Neither in the materials of the basic forest management, nor in the continuous forest management, there is no information about the areas assigned to the Kaniv nature reserve", – claim the foresters.
According to them, the Korsun-Shevchenkiv branch has no data on the expansion of the reserve within the former Kaniv forest farm, and in the materials of forest management, these areas belong to recreational and health, exploitation and protection forests, where economic felling is allowed.
The Central Forestry Office claims that the cut-off area was approved for the cut-down area of the main use, agreed with the Ministry of Environment. The rest of the plots, according to the foresters, are selective sanitary fellings that were necessary for the health of the forests.
"From all the information that the branch had, there was no reason to consider these areas to be the lands of the nature reserve fund and, accordingly, to limit forestry activities," the foresters summarized.
They added that they will conduct an official investigation into the situation.
What arguments about falsity did the expert give
Petro Testov, the head of the analytical department of the Ukrainian Nature Protection Group (UPG) and an expert on forest management, was indignant at such a response from the Central Forestry Office. He listed the facts in chronological order, gave links and screenshots of materials that disprove the foresters' excuses about their ignorance:
1. On June 6 of this year, the UPG received a response from the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine", which states that "The Kaniv Nature Reserve includes lands for forestry purposes, which are currently in permanent use by the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" and are assigned to the company's branches. namely: ... branch "Korsun-Shevchenkiv Forestry": Kaniv Forestry, quarters 8, 15, 16, 18-21, 25, 26, 33, 34, 58 (allocated 1-4), 61 (allocated 41-47), 65-70, 72, 74, with a total area of 1297.9 hectares....".
Source: t.me/natureprotectionukraine.
2. July 5 is issued logging ticket No. 20240705-000091 on a plot in the 34th quarter, 5th division of the Kaniv Forestry.
"A month later, after the reply from the DP itself that this area is included in the nature reserve!" – Testov is indignant.
Screenshot from lk.ukrforest.com.
3. October 2 are made public forest management materials of the "Korsun-Shevchenkiv Forestry" branch of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine."
Source: t.me/natureprotectionukraine.
Source: t.me/natureprotectionukraine.
"In the division of forests into categories, it is written that these areas are part of the nature reserve! And it is directly indicated "Expansion of the Kaniv Nature Reserve without seizing forest land from the user," says the expert.
He was indignant that on December 26 it suddenly became clear that the branch already "doesn't know anything about the reserve." He is sure that such stories will continue in the future.
"Unlike many of my colleagues, I consider high salaries in the central office or branches of the State Enterprise "Lisy Ukrainy" to be normal. But on the condition that behind these high salaries there is a high quality of work. And it's not like we work as before, only for 5 times more money," says Testov.
As EcoPolitic wrote earlier, members of the UPG reported illegal logging in the Kaniv Nature Reserve, which was carried out by the Korsun-Shevchenkivsky Forestry Enterprise. The activists say that according to the regime of this object, this type of economic activity is strictly prohibited here.
