Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Oleksandr Krasnolutsky said that in 2022-2023, Ukraine managed to return more than 90 hectares of protected land to the state through the courts.
This happened at a meeting with representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office on combating environmental criminal offenses, in particular in protected areas, the Ministry of Environment reports on Facebook.
It is noted that the meeting discussed the state of consideration of already opened proceedings, the most high-profile cases, as well as strengthening cooperation and preventing violations of environmental legislation.
Krasnolutsky emphasized that during the full-scale war, environmental violations did not stop, and in some cases became more widespread.
"Illegal logging, squatting and destruction of land plots, hunting – these are the things that cause significant damage to the environment, which is already suffering from the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. Therefore, it is important to strengthen cooperation to counteract these crimes in protected areas," said Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi.
According to him, the Ministry of Ecology is already implementing a number of preventive measures, including:
- a strategy for reforming the system of state environmental control in Ukraine was developed. The plan is to completely change the control paradigm and introduce round-the-clock patrols by inspectors in their assigned areas;
- The Cadastre of the Nature Reserve Fund was created, which includes the boundaries of about 8,000 protected areas. The resource is still being updated;
"The cadastre will allow the Ministry of Ecology, law enforcement agencies, and the public to track the legality of the use of territories and natural resources online," Krasnolutsky emphasized.
According to him, in 2022-2023 alone, more than 90 hectares of protected land were returned to the state through the courts.
Earlier, Ecopolitic wrote, that experts from the Association of Environmental Professionals (PAEW) and more than 200 experts discussed the inability of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources to resolve the environmental control crisis as part of the reform of its system.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strilets said that by July, the forest products market would completely come out of the shadows thanks to online certificates of origin.
