Cutting and drying of trees leads to the disappearance of the Carpathian forest

The vast majority of illegal or unjustified logging is carried out under the guise of being completely legal and justified. Foresters report this in advance on special information resources.

You can see perfectly healthy trees, important from the point of view of preserving biodiversity, which foresters are going to cut down. In this case, you can and even need to contact the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine, which deals with such issues.

The situation became even more complicated with the introduction of martial law, environmentalists say.

Now the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine must obtain permission from the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine to conduct an unscheduled inspection of the forestry enterprise. This will take more than one day, and it will not be a surprise to the foresters. And the tree will remain just a stump.

Sanitary felling, both clear and selective, is just one of the loopholes in the legislation that allows foresters to cut the forest where they want.

In addition to bill No. 9516, which proposes to simplify clear sanitary logging, this spring the State Forestry Agency of Ukraine published draft Rules for logging in the forests of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group says that almost all of their proposals for this document were rejected by the State Forestry Agency of Ukraine. If it is accepted in this form, it will mean disaster for Ukrainian forests.

It is proposed to lift restrictions on sanitary clear-cutting in the high-mountain forests of the Carpathians. It also allows trees important for biodiversity to be cut down and removes several other safeguards that would otherwise constrain foresters.

Ukrayinska Pravda contacted the Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine with a request regarding planned changes in legislation, but at the time of writing had not yet received a response.

In Ukraine, they want to remove restrictions on deforestation: the Carpathians are under threat.
Two years ago, restrictions on forest cutting were introduced, especially in high-mountain areas, which significantly improved the state of this industry and received positive evaluations from environmentalists. But now the rules of deforestation intend to change.

After the start of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the situation with deforestation in Ukraine has not changed fundamentally.

The main activity shifted to the west of the country. Last year there was such a trend that the volumes of felling in forests that were not affected by the war increased.

Of course, some problems, despite the current restrictions, remain in the industry. For the most part, according to ecologist Bohdan Kuchenko, this is an abuse of the same sanitary cleaning - when healthy trees are cut down or instead of a selective felling, a continuous felling is carried out.

"There are some forestry farms, mainly in the Carpathians, which still abuse this. The problems can also include the felling of forests that were classified as primeval forests, but the forestry farm did not accept their status and continues to cut down such trees for the sake of income."

On the website of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine, a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers entitled "Some issues of felling in the forests of Ukraine" was published.

The ecologist explains that only one of the three points of the project looks like a positive solution: to combine the rules of all types of felling in one document.

The remaining two points cancel any restrictions on the most dangerous logging in Ukraine. And this directly concerns such valuable Carpathian forests. If this project is adopted, it will contribute to illegal logging, with which the situation in the country has improved a little for the time being.

Specifically, the project allows continuous sanitary felling in recreational national parks, in the forests of the Carpathians, allows the felling of trees important for biodiversity and cancels restrictions on the total amount of felling in Ukraine.

"If we talk about the forests in the highlands, then they prevent the danger of snow avalanches, but if there are feelings, it will significantly increase the risk of avalanches in the mountains. There is also a warning about the forests on the slopes of the mountains - juniper and beech, which are the most valuable, because they are left there are relatively few. Currently, there are restrictions on the felling of such forests in protected areas in particular. If these provisions are canceled, it can be assumed that there will be abuses in the protected areas and healthy trees will be cut down for the sake of profit from the sale of wood," says Bohdan Kuchenko.

He also notes that the area of the forest fund now remains unchanged, even slightly growing. However, lifting existing restrictions puts us in a situation where we will catastrophically lose valuable forest ecosystems.

As noted in the Ukrainian Nature Protection Group, according to environmental organizations, the new rules create the basis for a significant increase in the volume of felling in Ukraine, as well as for manipulations. Environmentalists note that this document will contribute to an even greater spread of continuous felling. In addition, the document introduces numerous new types of felling, without detailing the reasons for their implementation. In their opinion, this will lead to abuse and manipulation.

The law enforcement officers reported the suspicion to the head of the forestry section of the State Enterprise "Irshav Forestry", who organized illegal logging in Zakarpattia Oblast.

According to the investigation, the official gave illegal instructions to his subordinates to develop forest cuts for felling without permits.

"As a result, more than 5,000 trees of valuable species were cut down both in the district assigned to the official and in other territories. Later, the illegally cut trees were sold. The damage caused to the environment amounted to more than UAH 50.8 million," the SBI said.

The official was informed about the suspicion of exceeding official powers. He can spend up to 10 years behind bars. To compensate for the damages caused to the state, a motion to seize the suspect's property is already ready.

19:00. About 450 households in 13 districts of the Ivano-Frankivsk region are flooded because of floods. These are such districts as Kolomiysky, Verkhovinsky, Kalushsky, Rozhniatinsky, Kosovsky, Dolinsky, and others. 73 settlements were partially flooded. Three villages were left without light.

Heavy rains and widespread downpours led to a real collapse, which affected almost all towns and villages in the Ivano-Frankivsk region and Transcarpathia. Deforestation was also among the main causes.

President Vladimir Zelensky signed a law regarding the prohibition of clear-cutting on mountain slopes in the fir-beech forests of the Carpathian region.

The volume of illegal logging in Ukraine has increased sevenfold, the State Agency of Forest Resources reported.

The law would extend the logging moratorium, which was enacted in 2000 but expired in 2011. The document also prohibits logging in national nature parks.

The moratorium on the export of Roundwood led to a reduction in illegal logging on the one hand, and on the other hand brought very positive economic effects, in particular an increase of 2 billion in capital investment in the industry, an increase of 4 billion in raw material exports, half a billion in tax revenues to the budget and tens of thousands of new jobs.

The law banned the export of untreated timber for 10 years.

The court arrested 600 tons of timber transported to the ATO zone. Deliveries were also made to the occupied Crimea.

The moratorium on logging is suspended.

A natural disaster occurred in the summer of 2008 due to intensive thunderstorm rains and, as a result, a sharp rise in water levels in rivers. The peak of the flooding was on July 23-27. Total losses from the flooding were estimated at 3 - 4 billion hryvnias. The top 7 causes of the disaster included increased deforestation.

A moratorium on logging was adopted.