Forest is cut down – communities pay. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine has been entrusted with forming a working group to develop a mechanism to resolve the problem.

Local governments are forced to compensate for the damage caused to forests, even if no perpetrators have been found. The reason for this situation is the current provision of the Forest Code of Ukraine, which imposes financial responsibility on territorial communities, despite the fact that forests are part of the forest fund of Ukraine and should be protected by the state.

Article 66 of the Constitution of Ukraine stipulates that every citizen is obliged not to harm the environment and to compensate for any damage caused. However, pursuant to part two of Article 107 of the Forest Code of Ukraine, if the perpetrator of the forest damage is not identified, financial compensation is borne by local governments. This leads to situations where communities are forced to pay multimillion-dollar compensation for offences they did not commit.

Lawsuits illustrate the scale of the problem. For example, according to the decision of the Supreme Court dated 19 September 2024, UAH 2.9 million was recovered from the Rokytne settlement council of Sarny district, Rivne region, in favour of the State Environmental Inspectorate of the Polissia district for illegal cutting of trees. Another instance concerns the Pulyn settlement council, Zhytomyr region, which is charged with almost UAH 1.8 million for cutting down trees on a plot of land that is not even defined as a forest in any official document.

The All-Ukrainian Association of Amalgamated Territorial Communities is trying to change the situation by appealing to the National Government and MPs to amend the Forest Code of Ukraine and remove part two of Article 107 as undermining local self-government. The Association claims that the financial burden on community budgets due to imperfect legislation complicates the exercise of local powers and reduces the ability to provide quality services to the local residents.

This problem has recently been discussed at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management with the participation of representatives of the All-Ukrainian Association of Amalgamated Territorial Communities. Following the meeting, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine was entrusted with forming a working group to develop a mechanism for resolving the problem with the participation of representatives of local self-government, central executive authorities and law enforcement agencies.

The Decentralization.ua is monitoring the situation and will inform our readers about the next steps in resolving this matter.