Despite the fact that there are a number of important legal tools for environmental protection, environment continues to be a silent victim of military conflicts in the whole world2. Since 1999, the UN Environmental Program has conducted more than twenty post-conflict assessments of environment determining the main influence of the war. «Having analyzed reports of the UNEP and the World Bank about assessment of environment in the post-war period in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, Sudan, former Yugoslavia (now Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Kosovo, we clearly detected adverse impact of war on the environment. Qualitative changes and calculated damage were stunning”, – says the Executive director of International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law” Olena Kravchenko. – Therefore, we could not stay away from the situation in eastern Ukraine and decided to perform such economic assessment for our country. This is because it is hard to imagine the scale of damage caused to the environment by the war in Ukraine.
International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law” (EPL) decided to analyze methods used abroad for economic assessment of damage to the environment and develop recommendations for their application in Ukraine.
«It is important to mention that even the most accurate economic assessment of damage to the environment can reflect no more than 35-40% of real damage because it makes it possible to assess only visible things”, says EPL environmentalist Kateryna Norenko.
Usually economic assessment of damage to the environment includes costs of restoration of ecosystems and natural resources, costs of transporting and utilization of waste (solid domestic waste, medical waste, debris), costs of restoration of recreational zones, costs of organizing monitoring systems for timely detection of mistakes3.
«The state of environment in eastern Ukraine constantly deteriorates. Water and soil pollution, degradation of natural reserves, destruction of forests and steppe by fires, transformation of landscapes, mines flooding became every day reality”, adds EPL environmentalist Alla Voytsikhovska.
In order to develop a plan and start restoration of pre-war state of environment, it is necessary first to assess the scale of economic damage. To this end EPL chose several methods: the method of market price, assessment of costs of transporting and utilization of waste, costs of alternative resources, reconstruction costs, the method of travel costs, “willingness to pay” approach. Also, there will be used national methodology of calculating reparation of damage caused to the state as a result of exceeding emissions of pollutants into the air and violations of legislation on protection and rational use of water resources.
Such an examination is very important because it allows to involve environmental aspect to the system of decision-making.
It is important to mention that full assessment of environmental damage is possible only after full termination of military actions in eastern Ukraine.
For further information please contact:
Olena Kravchenko, EPL director
Email: okravchenko@epl.org.ua, tel.: (032) 225 – 76 – 82
Kateryna Norenko, office manager, EPL environmentalist
Alla Voytsikhovska, EPL environmentalist
Email: alla.voytsyhovska@gmail.com, tel.: (032) 225 – 76 – 82
