Bill No. 9516 on the abolition of the environmental impact assessment for continuous sanitary logging during the vote on September 4 gained only 122 votes of deputies of the Verkhovna Rada.
This was announced by MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak in Telegram.
According to members of the Ukrainian Environmental Group (UPG), SE "Forests of Ukraine" and the State Forestry Agency lobbied for the inclusion of draft law No. 9516 "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Effective Forest Management Based on the Principles of Forest Management Close to Nature, Adapted to Climate Change, Conservation of Biodiversity in Forests" in the agenda of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
"Neither the critical position of the EU nor the conclusion of the anti-corruption committee regarding the presence of corruption risks stops the lobbyists of cutting down the forests of the Carpathians. Their goal is to provide millions of cubic meters of wood for a new woodworking plant being built in Transcarpathia by oligarch Yurushev," the UPG said.
On the eve of the vote, deputy Yulia Ovchinnikova, head of the subcommittee on forest resources of the Verkhovna Rada's Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management, also expressed her reasoned position against draft law No. 9516. She immediately named 6 good reasons:
- The document is aimed at increasing the scale of continuous sanitary felling, namely, the Carpathians and other forests are illegally cut down with these fellings.
- It contradicts the Environmental Treaty, developed jointly by Ukrainian and European experts to implement the Peace Formula of the President of Ukraine.
- The EU representation has repeatedly pointed out the risks of this draft law for European integration.
- The management of the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office of the General Prosecutor's Office believes that it can worsen the state of legality in the forest sector.
- The presence of a negative conclusion of the anti-corruption committee, which clearly indicates corruption risks.
- The leading Ukrainian and European environmental protection public organizations oppose draft law No. 9516.
"It is particularly disgusting to see manipulations on the topic of war and providing people with firewood. Like, we can't do it without 9516," said the member of parliament.
She reminded that during the last months the government adopted 2 resolutions on this issue. One created two new types of logging:
- "for the needs of defense and security", so that the Armed Forces or military administrations can obtain the wood they need according to a simplified procedure;
- "for the removal of trees damaged as a result of hostilities", in order to quickly remove trees damaged by shells or fires.
The second resolution regulated the supply of firewood to the population in the frontline regions.
"This is more than enough to provide wood for the construction of fortifications and people with firewood," Yulia Ovchinnikova is confident.
She stated that she will vote against draft law No. 9516 and calls on her colleagues to support her.
The following organizations and communities opposed the adoption of this document, in particular:
- 28 nature protection organizations from different countries of the world (USA, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, Slovenia, Ghana, etc.).
- WWF-Ukraine .
- "Ekodia" NGO:
- NGO "Danube-Carpathian Program":
- UPG:
- human rights organization "Ecology. Right. Man":
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that at the beginning of June, under the pressure of specialists and public activists draft law No. 9516 was withdrawn from the agenda of the Verkhovna Rada. Also Ecopolitics wrote about that The European Commission sees threats in this document about sanitary logging.
