EPL continues to study the situation with forestry management within protected areas. As a result of this study we discovered facts indicating that, despite the statements of the forestry authorities, on-site unscrupulous forest management units continue to use all opportunities to log maximum amount of forest within protected areas.
This time “the hero” became one of the most advanced and exemplary forest enterprises – the state enterprise “Tsuman forest management unit”.
According to the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 761 dated May 23, 2007, “On the Regulation of Issues Concerning the Special Use of Forest Resources”, forest logging tickets for main forest logging are issued by the regional department of forest and hunting economy.
According to the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine № 733 dated May 16, 2007, “On approval of the procedure of defining forest categories and allocation of specially protected forest areas,” forest areas located within the territories and objects of the nature reserve fund are classified as forests of environmental, scientific, and historical -cultural value.
In accordance with the Decree of the President of Ukraine No203 / 2010 of 22.02.2010, the Kivertsi National Natural Park “Tsumanska Pushcha” was created including 18,148,50 hectares of land of the State Enterprise “Tsuman forest management unit” without transferring these lands to the permanent use of the national park.
The information on issuing of forest logging tickets on the web-site of Volyn regional administration of forestry and hunting has not been updated since 01.04.2017. However, actual information (as of June 10, 2017) is available on the website of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine.
According to materials of the project of the National Nature Park “Tsumanska Pushcha”, the state enterprise “Tsuman forest management unit” has agreed to include to the structure of the National Nature Park 19754.5 hectares of the land of the forest management unit.
EPL environmental scientists have checked the list of forest logging tickets issued for total forest logging in 2017 in the state-owned enterprise “Tsuman forest management unit” and found out that the total forest logging will be carried out also at the sites included to the National Nature Park “Tsumanska Pushcha”. For example, only in Berestyan forest management unit the following instances of forest logging were found within the national park:
Quarter | Lan lot | Age | Species |
10 | 4 | 100 | 7ДЗ1СЗ2ГЗ |
39 | 40 | 160 | 3ДЗ2ВЛЧ2ГЗ2ЯЗ1БП |
47 | 12 | 100 | 10СЗ |
51 | 28 | 85 | 5СЗ4БП1ДЗ |
53 | 16 | 199 | 4ДЗ(199)4ВЛЧ1ГЗ1ДЗ(84) |
In the forests of protected areas, total forest felling is allowed (but only if it is the economic zone of national natural parks), however, the age of maturity for these forests is 130 years for oak and 100 years for pine.
Instead, the state enterprise “Tsuman forest management unit” carries out total forest felling according to the following gradation of commercial forests maturity: 80 years for pine (felling in the 47th quarter) and 100 years for oak (felling in the 10th quarter).
Such logging is justified by availability of estimated logging area and forest management plans, which do not take into account the existence of the National Nature Park “Tsumanska Pushcha” and according to which quarters 10 and 47 have “operational” status.
There is no doubt that similar violations exist in other forest management units of the state enterprises “Tsuman forestry”.
In January 2017, EPL appealed to the Ministry of Environment of Ukraine with the request to review the norms of forest logging for the state enterprise “Tsuman forestry” and for other forest management units where large objects of protected areas were created. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Environment, in particular the specialist of the department of preservation of biodiversity and biosecurity Kazymyr Kobylianskyi re-directed the appeal to the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine. The Agency redirected the appeal to the JSC “Ukrderzhlisproekt”. Forest managers said that recalculation will be carried out “somewhen in 2017” and that in general the National Nature Park has no project of organization of its territory.
Reply from JSc “Ukrderzhlisproekt”
Consequences of such omissions and bureaucratic “ping pong” we now see in the form of illegal forest logging in Tsumanska Pushcha.
It is also worth mentioning that although forest logging in quarter 53 of section 16 is legal and reasonable from the point of view of forest economy but from moral and nature protecting positions it is a barbarism to cut 200-year old oaks, particularly within protected areas. Unfortunately, the state enterprise “Tsuman forest management unit” does not involve specialists of the National Nature Park “Tsumanska Pushcha” when allocating territories for forest felling within the National Park.
Centuries-old oaks in Tsuman Pushcha
EPL addressed the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine with the following requests:
- to cancel all forest logging tickets for total forest felling that were issued to the state enterprise “Tsuman forest management unit” within Kivertsi National Nature Park “Tsumanska Pushcha”
- to initiate urgent amendments to forest management plans and calculation of norms of forest logging for the state enterprise “Tsuman forest management unit”
- to ask Volyn’ regional administration of forestry and hunting not to approve any forest logging within the National Nature Park “Tsumanska Pushcha” without approval from the administration of Kivertsi National Nature Park “Tsumanska Pushcha”
Contacts:
Petro Testov, EPL environmental scientist
office@epl.org.ua, petro.testov@gmail.com
(032) 225 76 82
