Events and Announcements

The Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on Environmental policy, Nature Use and Liquidation of Consequences of Chornobyl disaster issued a positive conclusion on the draft law 2009a “On Environmental Impact Assessment” that introduces an European model of preliminary assessment of environmental impact of various types of activities that cause adverse environmental impact.

Ecologists and volunteers of the ICO «Environment-People-Law» (EPL) started studying the losses of nature and reserve fund (NRF) in the regions of Ukraine. Besides present NRF areas, a lot of others were established not long time ago. Still for some reasons these sites were cancelled.

On 16 February 2016, Kyiv Appellate Economic Courts supported the decision of Economic Court of Kyiv by which EPL was refused the right to challenge state acts on the right to use lands by regional landscape park “Hranitno-stepove Pobuzhzhia”.

19 February is the World Day of Sea Mammals Protection. Ukraine has also habitats of mammals. There are three types of cetaceans in Ukrainian territorial waters – bottlenose dolphins, porpoises and azov dolphins. All of them are on the Red Species List of Ukraine and International agreement on the conservation of cetaceans.

Despite the fact that the Strategy of regional development of Ukraine envisages expansion of the network of protected areas, during 2015 only in 10 regions of Ukraine decisions about creation of protected areas were adopted. Moreover, one protected object was created by the Ordinance of the President of Ukraine.

As known earlier, in October 2015 the territory of Kozachelaherska arena of Nizhniodniprovskiy (Oleshkivski) sands was entered by military troops. Military armed forces in fact illegally seized the territory, including the part that borders on the national natural park “Oleshkivski sands.”

The construction of a multistoried residential complex in Mykilska Slobidka in Dniprobskyi district of Kyiv is a bright illustration of one of the most widely spread schemes used by Kyiv municipal council for allocating particularly valuable land lots from protected reserve for construction purposes. This is the persuasion of environmentalists of International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law”…

In Ternopil region, local population destroy a hill with rare plants by extracting sand and ignoring the fact that it is the newly created nature monument. The nature monument of local importance called “Dzherelna” was created on public lands of Kremenets City Council by the decision of Ternopil Regional Council of 9 April 2015 #…

The war in eastern Ukraine causes massive abuse of the soil cover. Shell explosions, passage of heavy equipment and construction of various fortifications lead to considerable damage to soil and vegetation both on natural areas and in the agricultural land.