On March 27, the Zakarpattia Regional Council changed the boundaries of the Temnatyk reserve on the slopes of the Borzhava valley in the Carpathians.
This was reported by the Ukrainian Nature Protection Group (UPG).
The head of the analytical department of this public organization, Petro Testov, said that the deputies approved the changes by the decision “On Amendments to the decision of the Regional Council of 03.02.2014 No. 892.”
The activists say that the officials decided to cheat to circumvent the requirement of the Law of Ukraine “On the Nature Reserve Fund” and not to obtain the approval of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine to change the boundaries of the protected area. To do this, they passed a decision ostensibly to clarify the list of forest areas included in the reserve.
What really happened and who benefits from it
According to the activists, the deputies actually excluded from the reserve the centuries-old beech forests on the slopes of the Borzhava valley towards Volovets. Including those defined as “natural forests” and subject to the strictest protection.
“But they are unlucky to be located where the cadastral map has long been drawn for future ski slopes. And exactly where they recently tried to sell land plots for a resort at an auction,” the UPG said.
According to Testov, part of the allotments from block 22 and all allotments from blocks 20, 23, 24, 25 of the Verkhnevolovetske forestry were excluded. As proof, he cited an appendix to the decision of the Zakarpattia Regional Council and a fragment from the State Cadastre of Territories and Objects of the Nature Reserve Fund, where these plots are assigned to the Temnatyk reserve.
Source: t.me/natureprotectionukraine.
Source: t.me/natureprotectionukraine.
The ecologist also showed a map showing the areas withdrawn from the reserve, with designated natural forests circled in blue, and areas sold by the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) at auction last year in brown.
Source: t.me/natureprotectionukraine.
The activists said that the change in the boundaries of the reserve was initiated by a little-known NGO “Defender of Ukraine” from Dnipro. The expert opinion was prepared by the Institute of Land Use of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine. It was signed by land surveyor Andrii Tarnopolskyi, Doctor of Economics Shamil Ibatullin, and PhD in Economics Roman Kharytonenko. The extent to which they are competent to make decisions on issues related to the reserve is an open and almost rhetorical question.
Source: t.me/natureprotectionukraine.
Activists are convinced that the high mountain ranges of the Carpathians, such as Borzhava, should remain free from development. They emphasized that the decision to change the boundaries is illegal and appealed to the Ministry of Environment and the Prosecutor General's Office to take measures to cancel it.
Recently, EcoPolitics reported that foresters in Zakarpattia were going to build roads for windmills through valuable virgin forests.
