Commotion in the forest. ‘Servants of the People’ take up the axe.
Logging in the Carpathians and other forests could reach unprecedented scales. Parliament plans to cancel environmental impact assessment during sanitary logging. This is the initiative of MP Oleksandr Matusevych (“Servant of the People”), which is very necessary for the activities of the state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine.” And here it was not without the involvement of the deputy head of the Office of the President Rostyslav Shurma, as the public initiative “Holka” for “Glavkom” has already reported.
Matusievych’s bill (9516) has passed the relevant committee and may be considered by the Verkhovna Rada at any moment.
Unlike Europe, Ukraine does not have another system of control over sanitary logging besides environmental impact assessment, and now this is the only (!) mechanism being attempted to be dismantled.
And it’s not just about protection for the ecosystem; it’s about creating conditions for corruption on an extremely large scale.
Environmental impact assessment is typically considered in the context of ecology. However, in the situation of sanitary logging, its role as an anti-corruption mechanism is no less significant than its ecological role.
The author of the bill, Matusievych, worked as the director of the State Enterprise “Vygodsky Forest Management” before becoming a member of parliament. Foresters themselves are among those interested in minimizing control over logging. So Matusevych justifies the need to cancel the environmental impact assessment with firsthand knowledge:
What is the reasoning of the MP?
Olexander Matusevich
People's Deputy (Servant of the People)
Because timber that could be used is being lost. In six months, it will become firewood. Local budgets may miss out on money. Business timber costs 25 times more than firewood. The losses are obvious.
This voiced difference by Matusievych of 25 times in price between quality timber and firewood creates tremendous corruption risks. Leaves are hidden in the forest, while merchantable timber is hidden in firewood after sanitary logging.
There aren’t many corrupt schemes with instant profitability of 2400 percent. Namely, the absence of environmental impact assessment will allow transforming healthy forests into sick ones on paper. According to this scheme, the state will receive payment for firewood, while someone will sell it at a price 25 times higher.
The easiest way to build such a corruption scheme with the looting of state forests on an industrial scale is through widespread sanitary logging, which lawmakers are being urged to vote for.
The insane profits are evident, and covering up the tracks here is elementary: after logging, only stumps remain, making it impossible to determine whether the tree was actually sick. As a result, there will always be those willing to profit from this in forestry enterprises, so an effective mechanism to prevent the logging of healthy trees under the guise of sick ones is indispensable.
Deputy Head of the Office of the President Rostyslav Shurma outlined steps for “reforming” the industry last year, including increasing timber harvesting, mechanizing logging, and producing more timber products.
And the planned indicators for timber harvesting of 25 million cubic meters of timber per year, voiced by Shurma, are already included in the Ukraine Facility plan for 2024-2027, published by the Ministry of Economy.
Chairman of the Committee on Environmental Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Oleg Bondarenko, argues that by the decision of the Committee, which supported bill 9516 for the first reading, provisions that raised doubts among both the Committee and the public were removed from the text.
What provisions remained?
Oleg Bondarenko
Chairman of the Committee on Environmental Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
We have left only the provisions that should answer the question "what to do with the vast areas of forests affected by fires and windfalls?". Therefore, before the second reading, these contentious provisions can be constructively and transparently revised to avoid corruption risks.
Ecologists do not see it as appropriate to revise this bill and talk about risks. Thus, the head of the expert department of the NGO “Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group,” Petro Tiestov, considers the arguments of foresters who claim that the environmental impact assessment procedure hinders the fight against pests as manipulative.
Why is this manipulation?
Petro Tiestov
Head of the Expert Department of the NGO "Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group"
On the "Forests of Ukraine" website, there is a logging plan for this year. In the Carpathians, for example, in the Vygodsky branch, sanitary logging is scheduled for both August and September. If the forest there is indeed sick and foresters believe it needs to be cut, waiting until autumn would be absurd even from the standpoint of classical forestry. The answer is simple – in the Carpathians, widespread sanitary logging has long been nothing more than a way to harvest timber, where planned logging is prohibited by law.
Sanitary logging in the Carpathians at the Vygodsky Forestry Enterprise, 2023. Photo by the “Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group.”
The organization “Ecology-Law-Human” also opposes this bill.
Environmentalists have repeatedly documented the destruction of valuable forests during widespread sanitary logging. Geobotanist-forester Serhiy Panchenko talks about this:
What are the cases of destruction of valuable forests that have already occurred?
Serhiy Panchenko
Geobotanist-forester, PhD in Biological Sciences, Associate Professor
In the "Shalyhinsky" nature reserve in Sumy region, there are ancient light oak forests. Their peculiarity lies in the fact that on poor soils, oaks are stunted, hollow, and with dry branches due to their age. Such forests provide shelter for rare plants, animals, and fungi. These light oak forests have been almost completely destroyed, but they could have served as a model even for foresters. Let's make historical films! Instead, the oak forest in the Shalyhinsky reserve was cut down precisely through widespread sanitary logging, and instead, pine plantations were created, and we will no longer see a naturally composed forest. Going through the environmental impact assessment procedure is a way to preserve such forests, as there are examples in the region of implementing gradual logging, transformational logging, and even oak forest cultivation.
Moreover, deforestation can negatively affect the forest’s ability to retain water. This is emphasized by Kyiv-Mohyla Academy lecturer Mykhailo Khoriev.
What does the environmental impact assessment procedure provide?
Mykhailo Khoriev
lecturer at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Mountain forests primarily play a role in water protection, soil conservation, and climate regulation, and also perform recreational functions. Widespread logging significantly affects the forest's ability to retain water. The environmental impact assessment procedure is precisely the mechanism that allows assessing the consequences of logging. There are even special methodological recommendations for studying logging impacts on watersheds, precisely within the framework of the environmental impact assessment procedure! Therefore, adopting this bill and canceling the environmental impact assessment for the majority of widespread logging in the Carpathians is absurd.
Currently, there is a law “On Environmental Impact Assessment,” which provides for conducting an environmental impact assessment for widespread sanitary logging on an area of over 1 hectare. In most European countries, environmental impact assessment for sanitary logging is either not provided for at all or only for significantly larger logging areas over 5 or 10 hectares.
Environmental impact assessment is a rather complex procedure, and in most cases, its implementation looks like using a microscope to drive nails. So it seems quite reasonable to ask why we shouldn’t abandon it if the EU can do without it?
The answer is simple: in the West, there is a well-established system of control that has been developed over decades, thanks to which serious studies are needed only in isolated and quite unique cases. And we don’t have any other control system besides environmental impact assessment.
The biggest misconception about the changes proposed by bill 9516 is the ingrained view that any stringent requirements established by the state are obstacles to economic activities. Forestry is primarily a state sector of the economy, where the key role is played by the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine.”
Our state does not create obstacles to itself out of goodwill or without reason and does not establish anti-corruption safeguards.
Until 2017, sanitary logging, according to the then-existing environmental legislation, was not even considered work posing an increased environmental risk, so it was not subject to environmental assessment. And this led to rampant corruption, a catastrophic scale of fictitious sanitary logging of healthy forests, “deforestation” of the Carpathians, and a number of other negative consequences.
To rectify the situation, the state itself chose the path of significantly increasing environmental requirements and mandatory environmental impact assessment for large-scale forest logging, although the law “On Environmental Impact Assessment” was adopted as part of the implementation of the Aarhus Convention, which did not include requirements for such logging.
One can argue for a long time about how appropriate and justified the chosen path of solving the problem was seven years ago, but one fact remains unchanged: over these years, no other mechanism has been created that could replace the current requirements for conducting environmental impact assessments, while providing no less ecological and anti-corruption protection.
Under current legislation, environmental impact assessment for sanitary logging is like open bidding in public procurement.
Are there losses for the state from delays in the implementation of projects due to lengthy public tender procedures? Undoubtedly, yes. But no one in their right mind proposes returning to the “dark Prozorro times” because everyone understands that the benefits of transparent procedures and saving budgetary funds far outweigh the negative consequences of the initial delay in project implementation for the sake of this transparency and openness.
Similarly, environmental impact assessment is a loss for the state from deteriorating wood condition due to delays in starting sanitary logging. But if we remove environmental impact assessment, transparency of the entire process will disappear, and only the losses from corrupt schemes in the logging of healthy forests under the guise of sick ones will significantly outweigh any potential benefits. And the negative consequences for the environment will be difficult to assess in monetary terms.
Borys Indychenko, head of the specialized environmental prosecutor’s office, notes that during pre-trial investigations, there are not isolated cases of illegal logging under the guise of sanitary logging:
What will be the consequences of legislative changes?
Borys Indychenko
Head of the specialized environmental prosecutor's office
Cutting on areas up to 1 hectare does not require an environmental impact assessment, the presence of which could hinder illegal logging. Given the proposed increase in the area of sanitary logging without an environmental impact assessment up to 10 hectares by the draft law may only worsen the state of legality in this area. Moreover, the draft provides changes to the legislation, which effectively weakens control over such logging by excluding from the competence of the Ministry of Environment the authority to approve norms for the use of forest resources and to coordinate forest management materials. At the same time, no other body is endowed with such powers. This will not improve the legality in this area.
Ecologists refute the argument that the environmental impact assessment procedure alone cannot ensure a front of timber.
Is the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure really an obstacle to providing timber?
Petro Tiestov
Head of the Expert Department of the NGO "Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group"
In "ProZorro," there are tenders from military units for purchasing timber for the front lines (by the way, a private firm won the tender, not the State Forest Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" itself). There is information available there regarding the volume and diameters of the required timber. And this can be harvested through planned cuts in artificial pine forests in Polissya right now, without any changes to legislation. This is essentially what foresters are doing.
According to official data, forest reserves from potential large-scale sanitary logging represent slightly over 11% of the total timber volume.
Thus, the proposed bill, effectively canceling environmental impact assessments, would, at best, result in only a marginal gain in terms of the overall volume of timber harvested, which is insignificant and hardly justifiable given the risks outlined above.
Moreover, since the registration of the bill, the situation regarding environmental impact assessments has fundamentally improved.
Last July, a law was passed that, according to the Ministry of Ecology, reduces the time for conducting environmental impact assessments from 216 to 67 days.
Just this reduction in procedure time by threefold essentially mitigates all possible negative consequences of deteriorating forest conditions prior to logging, which was the rationale behind the necessity of passing bill 9516.
Furthermore, in 2022, a law was passed stating that activities aimed solely at ensuring the defense of the state, eliminating the consequences of emergencies, carrying out restoration work to eliminate the consequences of armed aggression against Ukraine during martial law, are exempt from environmental impact assessments, according to criteria established by the Cabinet of Ministers.
Thus, during martial law, there is already the possibility to carry out any necessary logging for defense purposes without the need for environmental impact assessments.
People’s Deputy Yulia Ovchynnikova (“Servant of the People”), who is a member of the environmental committee, emphasizes that bill 9516, if adopted, carries significant risks not only for the Carpathians but also for European integration.
How will the law affect European integration?
Yulia Ovchynnikova
People's Deputy (Servant of the People)
Next year, the EU will implement a new regulation on combating deforestation (EUDR), aimed at preventing the entry of timber into the European market that has been harvested illegally or unsustainably. The Environmental Impact Assessment procedure is precisely the safeguard that allows for some control over extensive sanitary logging.
Reminder, in April, a bill (No. 11185) was registered in the Verkhovna Rada, which contradicts the case law of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court in cases where the prosecutor returns illegally distributed land in forests and coastal strips to the ownership of the state and communities. The relevant changes to the Civil Code are proposed by “Servant of the People” MPs Stepan Chernyavsky, Oleksandr Horobets, Serhiy Bunin, and other deputies.
Specially for “Glavkom“.
