In the Lviv region, near the town of Skole, a new ski resort may be built on Mount Benky, and 190 hectares of protected forests are going to be cut down for this purpose.
This was reported by the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group UNCG on Facebook.
Representatives of the organization noted that the state enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" is ready to compensate for the losses and include the remaining 190 hectares in the reserve, but this applies only to young forests, up to 60 years old. It is noted that 30 of these hectares have already been cut down in recent years. And the only agreed 139-year-old forest plot was cut down a year ago.
"The very idea of building a ski resort in the face of climate change at low altitudes is strange. But if you really want to, there are bare slopes on the other side of Benka Mountain that were destroyed in previous years by clear-cutting by Skole Forestry. Why destroy valuable nature?" commented UNCG.
According to environmentalist Petr Testov, the Skoliv City Council made four purchases of UAH 49,000 each from ECO STANDARD ZAKHID LLC to order a scientific rationale for changing the boundaries of protected areas in favor of this resort.
"According to these justifications, in order to preserve nature, it is extremely necessary to remove 190 hectares of forests from the protected tract and reserve. Including several areas of natural forests that are 150+ years old. Of course, then all of them will be cut down," Testov notes.
It became known that the Lviv Regional Military Administration has already supported the proposed changes. Now the decision of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine is awaited.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, near Khmelnytskyi they started cutting down a part of the Hrynivetsky forest, where, according to local residents, in the 1970s, a cattle cemetery was set up for cattle that died of diseases.
