Experts of International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law” collected facts proving destruction of protected areas in the ATO zone. The damage caused by war to protected forests only is worth 13 890 700 000 UAH.
According to earlier information, during fights for Sloviansk about 1000 ha of the national natural park “Sviati hory” were damaged by fire as a result of summer Grad shelling.2 It turned out that there were other cases of causing damage to protected areas as a result of military actions.
”The damage to protected areas that we detected was caused by three main factors: shelling, transportation of heavy equipment and fires, explosion of ammunition and intentional arsons”, explains EPL environmentalist Oleksiy Vasyliuk.
Movement of heavy equipment, first of all tanks, through territory of the protected object – the natural reserve “Provallia steppe” – turned it into a maze of roads. A division of Luhansk natural reserve “Provallia steppe” is located in the border area that is not controlled by the Ukrainian army during the conflict, and therefore, there were much more illegal border crossings by heavy equipment here.
There were some fights directly on the territory of protected areas. As a result, landscapes of protected areas were ruined. Among others, fights were on the territory of “Bilohorivskyi” reserve in Luhansk region, the division of Ukrainian steppe natural reserve “Kreydiana Flora” (there were fights here for the bridge near Zakitne village) and within the regional landscape park “Donetsk kriazh” (that is where Savur Mohyla is located).
It is also important to mention that fires damaged territory of some natural reserves. These are natural reserves “Naholchanskyi”, “Volnuhinskyi”, “Bilorechanskyi”, “Bilohorivskyi”, “Luhanskyi”, “Perevalskyi” and “Pishchanyi” in Luhansk region. Kalyniv part of Luhansk reserve “Provallia steppe” has burned down (327,5 ha). The burned area is about half of the area of the regional landscape park, of which about 50% are forests (up to 1800 ha). As mentioned earlier, about 1000 ha of forests of the national park “Sviati hory” were damaged by fire.
Moreover, benefiting from the occupation regime and absence of inspection bodies, some people started using natural resources of natural reserves. As reported by the press-service of Prosecutor’s office in Donetsk region, the interdistrict prosecutor’s office for environmental protection in Kramatorsk (Donetsk region) performed inspection of compliance with the Land Code of Ukraine and the law “On Natural Reserves of Ukraine” in the regional landscape park “Kramatorskyi”. It was detected that on the territory of 100 ha unknown persons performed agricultural works without any permits for use of natural resources and without a decision of local executive authorities, which caused the damage worth 1 mln UAH.3
“It is hard to calculate damage caused to the state by destruction of protected areas. We tried just to make rough calculations – says Olena Kravchenko, Executive director of EPL. The Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of 24 July 2013 #541 approved the rate for calculating amounts of damage caused to protected areas because of violation of environmental legislation.4 According to this Resolution, it is possible to assess some damage, in particular damage to trees and plants with hard stems, the degree of growth delay, damage to forest vegetation, natural growth of seedings and planted trees”.
The approximate estimation of the damage caused to the territories mentioned above as a result of fires is 13 890 700 000 UAH. However, we are not able to estimate the number of destroyed steppe plants included into the Red Data Book of Ukraine growing on the territory of 1500 ha that was burned down. We cannot estimate even approximate number of animals (including insects and other invertebrates, including those listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine), the damage caused to soil as a result of explosion. These are dozen times bigger sums and we are unable now to calculate them”, adds Oleksiy Vasyliuk, EPL environmentalist.
For further information please contact:
Olena Kravchenko, EPL Executive director
Email: okravchenko@epl.org.ua,
tel.: (032) 225 – 76 – 82
Oleksiy Vasyliuk, EPL environmentalist
Email: vasyliuk@gmail.com,
tel.: (097) 100 – 04-73
