On August 22, 2022, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine registered a government draft law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Simplifying the Conditions of Doing Business (Deregulation)”.
According to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, “the adoption of the draft Law is conditioned by the need to cancel permits that are impractical and economically unjustified, taking into account the need to support business entities during the period of martial law in Ukraine/post-war period”.
However, the reality of the draft law does not meet the stated goal, because it is planned to completely cancel a number of permits related to the animal world:
– permission for the right to engage in breeding in semi-free conditions or in captivity of animal species listed in the Red Book of Ukraine;
– permission to keep wild animals in captivity;
– permission to conduct scientific animal testing;
– permission to hold events involving animals.
It is also planned to significantly simplify the regulation of treatment of representatives of the animal world by eliminating from the permitting legislation the following permits:
– a permit for hunting game animals (hunting permit);
– a permit or a certificate for importing into Ukraine and exporting to other countries objects of the animal world;
– a permit to relocate animals to new places of residence, acclimatization of wild animal species that are new for the fauna of Ukraine;
– a permit to carry out activities related to interbreeding of wild animals.
These permits are a safeguard against the use of Red Book animals for commercial purposes, protecting animals from harsh treatment and preventing threats to the animal world due to the introduction of alien animal species.
In fact, we are talking about satisfying the interests of the hunting lobby under the pretext of helping businesses during the war. At the same time, the hunting industry does not play any significant role in the economy of Ukraine.
On the contrary, the users of hunting grounds, contrary to the requirements of the law, do not pay any fees for the use of the grounds, which leads to losses of more than one million hryvnias in the budgets of various levels.
Hundreds of man-hours of employees of the Ministry of Environment, other central executive authorities, and the Secretariat of the CMU were spent on the development of this draft law, which could have been spent on the implementation of tasks that Ukraine really needs, for example, the development and implementation of environmental draft laws promoting Ukraine’s European integration.
Therefore, we call on the People’s Deputies of Ukraine not to support the draft law regarding permits related to the environment and the animal world.
And once again, we raise the question of the professional unfitness of the current Minister of Environmental Protection of Ukraine, Ruslan Strilets, who, in wartime, instead of working for the benefit of the state, is engaged, in particular, in promoting the interests of the hunting lobby.
EPL team
UNCG team
