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Forest corruption literally destroys Ukraine
Here are four ways for you to cut down Ukrainian forests illegally and with impunity, writes ZN
From the first hit research about “forest corruption” in Ukraine five years have passed and it only got worse. About this, in fact, latest western research, this time from the Basel Institute of Management, dedicated to illegal logging in Ukraine – a problem with which everything is consistently bad in our country. Here are four ways to cut down Ukrainian forests illegally and with impunity. Four types of offenses, to which for many years everyone, from the district inspector to the whole relevant ministry, turn a blind eye. Four extremely primitive, but very effective ways to rob the state. Remember them when you once again hear whining about an “unnecessary moratorium on timber exports”, well, or about the progress of anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine.
black lumberjacks. For several years, unknown people completely destroyed 10 hectares of forest located on the lands of the reserve near the town of Tyachev, Transcarpathian region. As of October 2022, not a single tree older than 20–30 years old remained in the forest area of the Dubki tract (see Fig. 1).
Rice. 1. Dubki tract in 2017 (left) and 2022 (right)
Since we are talking about reserve lands, no one carried out any economic activity there, but the trees disappeared. Back in 2018, representatives of the State Environmental Inspectorate, examining the forest, recorded 239 felled oaks. The police, the media, the local forestry, the local authorities and the Regional State Administration were informed, since, in fact, it is engaged in the supervision of the reserve lands. There are eyewitnesses, there is video evidence, there are records of sawing huge oaks at local sawmills. The names of most of the performers are also there, because they are all local, they were identified by a large number of people. But there was no arrest. To date, most open proceedings in this case have simply been closed. Capercaillie…
Only in the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration there are more than 20 thousand hectares of land, throughout Ukraine there are hundreds of thousands of hectares of old forests, for which the same level of supervision.
Gray forestries. In February 2022, V. Sysa was found guilty of giving a bribe and sentenced to five and a half years in prison. But this is not a happy ending, this is a failure … Sysa gave a bribe to the NABU detective, because he wanted to agree on the closure of criminal proceedings for illegal logging and other crimes in the Gutyany forestry enterprise. In 2019, the environmental inspectorate found that at least 750 trees were cut down in the forestry without official documents. A lot, as for black lumberjacks, without the knowledge of the forestry enterprise, this cannot be done. And, according to the preliminary data of the investigation, Sysa not only coordinated illegal logging, he organized a chain of timber sales to “his” companies, and then later on to completely legal woodworkers, but at a good discount so that they turned a blind eye to dubious origin. And that $100,000 bribe, you see, is a good opportunity to stop the criminal scheme and bring everyone to justice, including the end buyers of stolen goods, because there are estimated losses of $2 million. But no, it all started and ended only with a bribe. And this shameful ending is not the worst option.
In 2020, about 700 illegally felled trees were identified on the territory of the Yasinyansky forest and hunting economy of the Transcarpathian region. Suspicions were announced only to the lower officials of the leshoz, moreover, under the article “official negligence”. You see, they overlooked, did not ensure the protection of forests. And in 2021, in the Transcarpathian region, when control of the territory was transferred from the Irshavsky forestry enterprise to Dolzhansky, it turned out that 10 hectares of forest had disappeared somewhere without a trace. And in general, there were no suspicions who needed this forest.
White nurses. In June 2020, the Free Svydovets initiative group and the Ukrainian Environmental Group conducted field monitoring of the activities of the Yasinyansky and Brusturyansky state forestry enterprises. Leshozes planned so-called sanitary cuttings, marking supposedly diseased trees that needed to be cut down in order to improve the forest. And the activists followed and checked whether seriously ill trees were going to be cut down by the forest attendants (see Fig. 2). Well, in one leshoz, there were numerous unhealthy trees in four out of seven marked plots, and in another – in eight out of eight! The activists turned to the State Environmental Inspectorate with a request for an unscheduled inspection, and the trouble is, by the time the inspectors arrived, they had already cut down everything. And there are many such stories in every leshoz: somewhere, of course, the environmental inspectorate succeeds, but, as a rule, not. Sanitary logging is a classic of illegal logging, because in the end you get wood “with documents”. Truth can no longer be found in stumps, and if everything is done quickly, then it is almost impossible to prove illegality. Sanitary cuttings are possible anywhere, even in protected areas. According to ecologists, only 20% of Ukrainian sanitary cuttings do not arouse suspicion, despite the fact that, according to documents, we are a country of “very sick trees”, because 44.6% of all our logging is sanitary cuttings.
Rice. 2. A forest area in the Brusturyansky forestry enterprise, where illegal sanitary logging was planned and carried out. According to the documents, before felling, most of the trees on the site were blown down by the wind, the photo shows that this is not so // forest corruption
Stained inspectors. Of course, the environmental inspectorate is also not aloof from events. They not only do not have time for the “sanitary felling”, they are not in a hurry at all, they are not very attentive, sometimes they are deaf, sometimes they see poorly. They do not ask for much, but are constantly in active search. There was a case when a newly minted inspector demanded a bribe literally on the very first trip “to the fields”, while still on probation. He asked for a little – UAH 8,000, but this is more than half the average salary of inspectors, and bribes are almost the only goal in their work. Moreover, there is no punishment, because most often inspectors are fined for bribes. For non-admission of the inspector, by the way, only a fine is 760 UAH and there will be no check. The inspectors themselves, for a bribe, can “help” in the reclassification of cases from criminal to administrative for other defendants, so that they, too, are liable with fines, and not with freedom. As a result, everyone around the circle manages to fine thousands of hryvnias, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to the state. Ideal conditions.
forest corruption
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What do we hear now when it comes to the forest? The woodworking industry is dying! In logging, continuous losses! Cancel the moratorium on exports, at least for the duration of the war! This is foreign exchange earnings, and GDP growth, and jobs! Save! Cancel the moratorium!
What should we be hearing? Case “Dubka” – six years in prison for black lumberjacks. The case of the Gutyansky forestry enterprise – a criminal group was exposed and the channels for selling timber were blocked. The case of the Carpathian “orderlies” – the conspiracy of the heads of forestry enterprises and forest pathological stations was exposed. The case of environmental inspectors – the state body will be completely reformed.
In fact, the two-fold drop that you see in the official forest statistics is the heyday and rise in the forest “shadow”. They just lack workers. Because, let’s be honest, the Monaco battalion is helped by the Prykarpattya and Transcarpathia battalions to keep the distant frontiers. But work as such has definitely not become less, on the contrary, sawing and sawing. With the start of a full-scale invasion, the government imposed a moratorium on any inspections in the industry. Indeed, why are they needed?
Yes, we know that environmental inspections are not a panacea. There is also corruption. Yes, and checks are possible once a year and only in certain areas of the forest. But we still don’t have another one. In the era of drones and satellites, we do not have any other systems for broader monitoring of forests. This is a ready-made illustration of how the authorities really want to fight these illegal logging.
In addition to the moratorium on inspections, access to any public information related to logging was also limited. Undoubtedly, such sensitive information as afforestation or logging plans, data on logging tickets or the results of previous inspections by the State Environmental Inspectorate should not get to the enemy. Accordingly, the work of NGOs dealing with the problem, except for the war, was also complicated by the complete absence of any data.
Golden time – neither state nor public control.
And here everyone in the country is finally busy with anything but the forest. And then energy terror from the Russian Federation, which drove into the forests for firewood both those who really needed it, and those who decided to earn extra money at the moment. And here is the customs office, where seven leaders have changed in a year and a half, all of them are acting, and even in the “center” there is already such a mess that in the regions customs officers have simply lost touch with reality. And it’s not that wood of dubious origin cannot be sold in the EU. We have already talked about IKEA chairs made from Ukrainian beech, and about paper made from “doubtful” Ukrainian wood for world giants. There is a demand and it is stable. Over the past five years, there has been no improvement on the part of the buyers of our forest of dubious origin. Therefore, there are more incentives to cut, as on the last day, while no one controls anything, more than necessary. The moratorium on the export of round timber is perhaps the last obstacle in the way of these hucksters – not that insurmountable, but if it doesn’t exist, we won’t have time to come to our senses, as there will be nothing left to save. The only legitimate reason to lift this moratorium can only be the overlap of the schemes mentioned above. Everything else is complicity in a crime.
Julia Samaeva
