Transcarpathian region is the most forested administrative unit of Ukraine (forest accounts for 51% of the territory). These are state-owned forests. In 1999 and 2001, catastrophic floods occurred in the region due to the clearing of the mountain slopes with continuous felling. Then these floods brought destruction and human casualties. Since 2002, our organization has been active in sustainable forest management in the Transcarpathian region, in particular in developing practices for engaging local communities in managing forest resources, sustainable approaches to forestry in mountainous environments and conserving biodiversity. The Ecosphere NGO also promotes the FSC forestry standard through forest certification of forest holders.
Over the last 12 years, we have seen a clear improvement in the situation of forestry interactions with local communities, as evidenced by the minimization of conflicts with the local population through felling and other forestry activities. However, the situation of illegal logging and forestry offenses remains a pressing issue.
Today, there are legislatively established democratic mechanisms for local people’s participation in forest management. But the majority of the population does not know about them or cannot use them. At the same time, through participation of local people and public organizations in public control and cooperation with law enforcement, forest certification and media, it is possible to reduce forestry offenses and to achieve sustainable practices and good governance in Ukrainian forests.
Area of activity: Transcarpathian region.
Objective: To achieve good practices of sustainable forestry in the state forestry of the Transcarpathian region, to establish interaction of public experts, activists and law enforcement agencies to prevent corruption in the forestry sector through public participation and other stakeholders in the management of forestry resources through state resources and public control.
Objective 1 is to constantly monitor the compliance of forestry practices with the national legislation in the state forestry of the region, to develop and increase the potential of the regional information network of public activists.
Objective 2 is to qualitatively influence the forestry practices and state forestry of the region, using the legislative mechanisms of democracy in Ukraine: public control, interaction with law enforcement agencies, broad coverage of the problem in the media and social networks.
Result:
- reorganized local information network for community activists in communities of forest districts of Transcarpathian region and through participation in specialized seminars increased their awareness on forestry issues and forest legislation in Ukraine. Today, the network has 38 permanent and situational participants. The main discussions and awareness of forest offenses are in the Carpathian Forest group on the social network Facebook;
- on the basis of official documents the situation in the forestry of the Transcarpathian region is analyzed and presented in the Forest Analytical Document;
- democratic mechanisms of public participation in the control of forestry offenses, prevention or termination of forestry offenses by state forestry enterprises have been worked out. These mechanisms are described and published in the STOP Forest Breach;
- within the framework of the project, an illustrated information brochure “Forest Advisor for Carpathians Walking” was published to help interested parties to understand how to distinguish illegal logging from legal logging, as well as to see and properly document offenses committed by loggers during logging;
- the Ecosphere NGO’s YouTube channel contains 10 videos about major environmental issues in the Carpathians caused by poor forestry practices.
Partners: NED.
More about the results of the project and the problems that were identified and covered within the project can be found in the story “Carpathians in danger. The future of a unique Witness and deforestation”.
You can also find out more about the work done during the project implementation in Ukrainian media:
1) “Will” black loggers ”be found and punished in Mukachevo?”;
2) “Black Foresters in the Tyachiv Region continue to steal centuries-old oaks”;
4) “Area of environmental violations: hidden threats of Ukraine’s largest reserve”;
5)“Forest feeder: Are the Carpathians waiting for sectoral reforms?”;
6) “Ecologists tell local communities of Transcarpathia how to better care for the forest”;
7) “Ecologist on disturbances in the Yasinya forestry: This is an active destruction of nature”..
Foreign media also covered the results of the work carried out within the project. In particular, he published an article on The New York Times – “A Disgraced Ukrainian Oligarch’s Bizarre Ski Resort Plan”, as well as on the Dutch platform Raam op Rusland – “Toekomst natuurgebied Karpaten: skioord zonder sneeuw”.
