Yesterday, Lesy Ukrainy (Forests of Ukraine) solemnly reported that it had planted one billion trees under the President's Green Country program. However, the public has doubts about these calculations. Given the situation surrounding the state-owned enterprise and the forestry industry in general, the very fact that the "green quota" was met aroused suspicion.
This was reported by the media outlet Informator.
Controversial arithmetic
The simultaneous planting of a "billionth" tree in different regions of the country raised suspicions that no one was actually counting the seedlings. And if you really count, in order to fulfill the ambitious plan of greening the country, it would have been necessary to plant a tree every second for 31 years. To keep up in five years, half a million seedlings would have to be planted every day.
The publication also mentions other messages from the official communications of "Forests." In particular, about the reform of forestry with centralized management, a transparent system for the sale of timber, and other tools designed to eradicate illegal logging. However, the Informator calls such messages not even controversial, but "ridiculous":
“After all, in recent times, the State Enterprise ‘Forests of Ukraine’ has been mentioned in the press usually in a negative context.”
Prosecutors forced to fight for primeval forests
Ukraine has special forest areas – primeval forests, quasi-primeval forests, and natural forests. They have not been affected by human activity and must be strictly protected.
On the same day that the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" planted the anniversary tree of the "Green Country," the Office of the Prosecutor General announced its fight for Ukraine's primeval forests. The specialized eco-prosecutor's office filed lawsuits to protect more than 20 such areas with a total area of about 2,000 hectares.
Prosecutors also reported on specific results. For five primeval forest monuments covering an area of 270 hectares in the Chernivtsi region, the development of a land management project has finally begun, and in the Sumy region, an area of 28 hectares has been granted the status of a primeval forest nature monument.
"Ridiculous" taxes
Quoting Viktor Mykyta, deputy head of the President's Office, Informator compares the taxes paid by the entire forestry industry in Zakarpattia and two McDonald's restaurants. The region received UAH 17 million from logging, and UAH 16 million from a couple of cafes.
"There are about 200 sawmills in Zakarpattia. Trees were cut down and exported there. Export is not bad because we received foreign currency. That's one plus. The minus is that local budgets received UAH 17 million from this type of activity in 2024," said Viktor Mykyta at the 6th Re:Open Zakarpattia forum.
Illegal logging on a massive scale
The state-owned enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" is regularly mentioned in reports from the General and Regional Prosecutor's Offices. The informant cites an example of timber worth 1.1 million hryvnia being cut down due to the actions of a forestry engineer, the return of 160 hectares of forest to state ownership in the Poltava region, etc.
"This is news that we found on Google in a couple of minutes. Perhaps, against the backdrop of this sawing in every sense, the state-owned enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" decided to create a positive news story. It turned out badly," the publication writes.
EcoPolitic previously wrote about the completion of tree planting as part of the "Green Country" initiative. We report on crimes in the forestry sector and other environmental violations in our weekly digests.
