Our government’s latest legislative activity does not seem to give the environmentalists a moment’s peace. The public has just cooled down after reacting to the Party of Regions initiative to authorize the officials to edit the Red Book of Ukraine, when the justice department prepared amendments to the legislation that might affect the further destiny of Ukraine’s natural resources. It is the draft law No. 10218 of March 16, 2012, “On Amendments into Some Legislative Acts of Ukraine (as for Optimization of Authorities of Central and Local Executive Bodies in the Sector of Environment and Natural Resources)” submitted by MP of Ukraine Yurii Miroshnychenko. This draft law was followed by mass protests among the environmental NGOs. Environmentalists think that the proposed amendments will give an absolute freedom of action to poachers, who became very numerous in Ukraine lately.
“Every year about 150,000 poachers are detained in Ukraine. I think, there is a hundred of them that were not caught for every one that was. And they cause the decrease in the variety of species of animals and plants. Poaching is the reason why so many animals appeared in the Red Book,” says ecologist and head of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center Volodymyr Boreiko. “Today all the activity directed at fighting poaching is the responsibility of the State Environmental Inspection, which has offices in every oblast and raion. Inspectors who work there are doing a bit of a superhero’s job: they are constantly exposed to danger (there are cases of injuries and even fatalities) while catching the law violators, and they do this for a rather small salary. They cannot catch every single poacher because there are not enough of inspectors, and they lack the required means of transportation, for example, helicopters, which poachers do have. But nevertheless, they become a live wall between the nature and those who destroy it.”
The public keeps to the thought that soon Ukraine may end up in a situation when there will be no one to catch the poachers, so they will not be afraid of being punished at all. According to the legislative acts that are still used by the inspectors of the central office of the State Environmental Inspection as well as oblast and raion departments, they have a right to draw up formal reports and impose fines while arresting poachers (Article 255). The amendments offered by the justice department will take these rights away.
“This draft law breaks the whole environmental protection system of Ukraine, including the right of the State Environmental Inspection to make records of the law breakers. Only one word was changed in the text of the law. Right now it says that the reports can be drawn up by ‘the representatives of the executive bodies entitled to controlling activities.’ In other words, by the employees of the State Environmental Inspection. Now they put the word ‘central’ in front of ‘executive bodies.’ And there are 15 inspectors in the central body, who now have to catch poachers in the whole country. It is clearly impossible. Another part of amendment is going to take away the right to impose fines on poachers. In order to impose a fine, the report should be taken to Kyiv now [and before that, the inspector should be summoned. – Author],” says independent ecologist Oleh Lystopad.
So, if these amendments are adopted, soon enough poaching tools will be available for purchase at every market in Ukraine, while today the environmental inspectors at least have a right to confiscate and destroy them. But the main thing is that the adoption might lead to even greater extinction of the rare species (and not only the rare ones), and we are going to end up in a country where poaching is legal. The environmental NGOs jointly with the environmental inspectors wrote letters to the president of Ukraine and the heads of all the factions in the Verkhovna Rada: the public demands for this draft law to be dismissed from consideration. They offer to make amendments in a civilized way: let the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine work on it, submit it for the consideration of the Cabinet of Ministers, these things were not done yet. Besides, the ecologists informed that neither Chief Legal Administration of the Verkhovna Rada, nor its Committee on Environmental Policy gave a positive review of the amendments offered.
