V. Sereda, the village mayor of Plesetske village in Kyiv oblast, appealed to the head of the Kyiv Regional Council H. Starikov with the request to prevent the establishment of a new national park in Kyiv oblast.
The creation of the national nature parks “Pryirpinnya and Chernechyi lis”1 was initiated by scholars and activists of several villages in Kyiv oblast. The national nature park is supposed to include all lands of Boyarka forest research station (DFRS)2, which is a structural unit of the National University of Bioresources and Nature Use of Ukraine (NUBNUU)3. The territory of the University is a by-pass of the Dnieper Ecological Corridor, which is a migration way for birds around Kyiv. NUBNUU is an educational institution, but most of the forests of Boyakra forest research station (BFRS) are used for industrial logging. Given that BFRS went through forest certification process, the cut wood is indirectly sold abroad, and it has nothing to do with the educational process or with interests of the communities. In addition, more than 200 hectares of forest belonging to BLDS were allocated for construction of elite cottages. In half of the cases, this misuse of forests is approved by the Academic Council of the University, in the other half of cases it happens without approval of the university, which does not do any attempts to protect its lands.
Hundreds of activists of the communities adjacent to forests of BFRS called for creation of a national park in order to stop the destruction of the forests. Since October 2016, the working group on creation of the national nature park “Pryirpinnya and Chernechyi lis” has been working at Kyiv Regional State Administration.
Seeking ways to counter the creation of the national park, BFRS decided to act through mayors of villages who started a campaign against the national park but hiding this from their communities.
The first was the mayor of Plesetske village council that covers the most deforestated area in Kyiv oblast. The Global Forest Watch system shows that over the last 10 years, more than half of all the forests around the village Plesetske were cut. Local residents oppose the barbaric logging but neglecting their opinion the mayor of the village council states that the local community support massive forest logging.
1 https://www.facebook.com/pryirpinnya.chernechyi/?fref=ts