Proposals approved at the Discussion of ways to independently confirm the legality of logging

As a result of the round table "Discussion of ways to independently confirm the legality of timber harvesting in Ukraine", the participants of the meeting worked out proposals that will be sent to the responsible authorities: the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine together with the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine and the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.

The discussion initiated by the NGO "ForestCom" primarily concerns the impact of the EU Timber Regulation on the legality of the use of wood (EUTR) and the decisions of the Expert Group of the EU Commission on the forest sector of Ukraine in connection with military aggression.

On April 29, 2022, the Expert Group of the EU Commission and "COM" adopted a second decision regarding the specifics of timber imports from Ukraine.

(https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/expert-groups-register/screen/meetings/consult?lang=en&meetingId=41495&fromExpertGroups=true), which recognizes a different situation in connection with the act of military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine at the national level regarding the observance of national legislation in the field of forestry management of Ukraine and the prevention of illegally harvested wood entering the EU market in order to reduce the factors that can lead to illegal cutting down of forests in Ukraine. Thus, the Commission agreed on a three-level approach, noting that the situation within the country may have the following three differences:

1 - Territories of Ukraine temporarily not controlled by the government (separate areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and Crimea) - from where importation is prohibited;

2 - Areas of active hostilities on the territory of Ukraine - from where imports for European market participants are also prohibited;

3 - Other parts of the territory of Ukraine - about which it is noted that the situation remains very unstable in the territory where no active hostilities are currently taking place. Therefore, despite the fact that there are problems regarding the possibility of minimizing the risk of supplying wood in violation of the current legislation of Ukraine, EU Operators can place wood on the European market if a negligible risk is achieved. However, the conclusions of the competent authorities regarding timber imported from Ukraine, which is indicated in the Annex to the meeting of the EUTR/FLEGT expert group on December 9, 2020 (Decision 1), remain valid and are important reference material. Also, it was separately stated that the contribution of non-governmental public organizations and civil society could help in this situation.

We would like to remind that in the first decision of December 12, 2021, the Expert Group of the EU Commission adopted a decision on the application of Articles 4(2) and 6 of the EUTR regarding the import of wood from Ukraine - https://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/pdf/ 201209%20EUTR%20EG%20Country%20Conclusion%20Ukraine_final.pdf (including the Annex - https://ec.europa.eu/environment/forests/pdf/201209%20Ukraine_Conclusion_Annex_final.pdf) -

The Appendix contains a list of the main potentially possible violations and possible measures for their assessment and minimization, which should be taken into account by the Operator (the buyer who sells wood for the first time on the EU market) during the assessment of the risks associated with the violations in order to take measures to minimize them.

Wood supply operators must consider the risks both in and out of this Appendix because the situation is different for each Operator, as well as for its source of supply. If the Operator is unable to take adequate measures to reduce the risks or if the risks regarding the timber consignments related to corruption and illegality are still present despite the measures taken, the Operators must refrain from placing such timber and its products on the EU market.

Considering the above, anyone who buys certain types of forest products in Ukraine should make sure that such products do not have illegal sources of the origin or other problems specified in the Appendix and outside of it. As a rule, each buyer (Operator) decides for himself how to identify possible risks and how to minimize them (and whether it is possible) based on the analysis of documented information provided by the seller and publicly available information primarily from official sources. However, without access to information, it is impossible to perform it promptly. This leads to significant delays in such assessment and negatively affects the export opportunities of the woodworking sector, which is a bona fide market participant.

In connection with the above and taking into account the state of war, which also requires both economic and environmental security measures, opportunities to influence the preservation of forests from illegal destruction and sale abroad under the guise of legally harvested wood, both by occupiers and other thieves, - GO "LIiS" organized a discussion with representatives of the authorities, environmental protection organizations and business and tried to convey the existing risks and possible ways to minimize them to all its participants.

To comply with the procedures related to the implementation of EU legislation in the field of market protection against the entry of products from illegally harvested wood, the participants of the round table initiated by the NGO "ForestCom" formulated proposals that will be sent to the responsible authorities, namely: the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources resources of Ukraine together with the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine and the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine for further consideration and adoption on the merits.

Agreed proposals:

1. To recommend the State Forestry Agency of Ukraine to publish in open access and weekly update data on the list of forestry enterprises of the State Forestry Agency that have temporarily suspended economic activity in connection with hostilities on their territories, including access to archival information.

2. To consider issued as illegal Certificates on the origin of timber materials and other documentation for the sale of timber products from economic entities from the territory that is in the zone of military operations or temporarily occupied (according to the data of the State Forestry Agency or other official data).

3. Provide the possibility of authorized (including possible through the state electronic service Diya.Signature) access through the user's electronic account (within three days from the date of the electronic message indicating the purpose of using the information) to geographic coordinates or places of felling on a cartographic basis, registers issued logging tickets (individual in electronic format, which contain detailed information about the places of logging, the reason and terms of the actual felling, the volumes and species of trees allowed for felling, the data of EDRPOU of the subjects of industrial relations), as well as pre-agreed information on the electronic accounting of wood - to employees The State Inspectorate and interested specialists (including specialists of public organizations) who specialize in studying the legality of the origin of harvested wood and perform the functions of independent subjects of information verification.

4. To monitor the legality of logging ticket assignments by forest users and the sale prices of wood under "direct" contracts and to periodically (monthly) publish the results of such monitoring. In case of implementation of the CMU resolution on the electronic logging ticket, such monitoring can be carried out automatically.

5. Oblige forest users to publish in public access the percentage and number of concluded direct contracts and average monthly prices in terms of sold forest products.

6. Make changes to the procedure for issuing certificates (Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated December 21, 2005 No. 1260) and add a certificate from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry certifying force majeure circumstances (circumstances of force majeure) at the location of the forest user to the issued certificates on the origin of timber in relation to temporarily occupied (unoccupied) territory.

7. Oblige exchanges that organize auctions of harvested wood to require all bidders to participate in auctions for the sale of raw wood to provide extracts from the EDRPOU indicating the beneficial owners and information about their affiliation to the aggressor country of the Russian Federation and Belarus or the absence of such. In the case of such affiliation - exclude from participation in the auction.

8. Promptly update the English-language version of the website of the State Forestry Agency and consider the possibility of creating an English-language version for the website of SE "LIAC" due to the fact that European clients do not know the Ukrainian language and cannot check information about their suppliers, although they (operators) require decisions made within the framework of EUTR implementation.

     

List of present participants of the round table*

1. Dmytro Karabchuk, Ph.D. s.-g. Sciences, head of the LIiS NGO, an expert on forest policy and development of forestry and hunting;
   
   
2. Oksana Pelyukh, candidate ekons.-g. of Science, assistant to the project manager of the NGO "LiiS";
   
   
3. Ihor Buksha, PhD s.-g. Science, forestry expert;
   
   
4. Yevhenii Khan, Candidate of Science s.-g. Sciences, Manager of CoC and Integrity of the National Representative Office of FSC Ukraine;
   
   
5. Pavlo Kravets, director of FSC Ukraine;
   
   
6. Ihor Budzinski, Head of the Department of Forestry and Forest Regeneration, State Forestry Agency of Ukraine;
   
   
7. Viktor Melnychenko, general director of the "Ukrderzhlisproekt" VO;
   
   
8. Ihor Kramarenko, expert of the Reform Support Office at the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine;
   
   
9. Petro Testov, independent expert;
   
   
10. Alla Oborska, Ph.D. s.-g. Sciences, executive director of the Association "National Forest Voluntary Certification System"
    
    
11. Yehor Hrynyk, forest policy expert of the NGO "Ukrainian Nature Protection Group";
    
    
12. Oleksiy Shumilo, Candidate of Science law Sciences, Prof. head of the "EkoPravo-Kharkiv" KhMGO
    
    
13. Oksana Stankevich-Volosyanchuk, PhD biological of Sciences, an expert on ecology and environmental protection, trainer of NGO "Ekosphere";
    
    
14. Yuriy, Investment Attraction Agency "Invest in Rivne";
    
    
15. Ruslan Derechynskyi, director of TzOV "Tsunami";
    
    
16. Victoria Kuchmuk, LLC "Tsunami";
    
    
17. Oleg Chaskovskyi, candidate s.-g. of Sciences, head of the Forest Monitoring Laboratory of the LIiS NGO;
    
    
18. Leonid Osadchuk, PhD s.-g. of Sciences, head of the Wood Science Laboratory of the "ForestCom" NGO;"
    
    
19. Taras Kharachko, PhD s.-g. of Sciences, head of the Forest Restoration Center of the "ForestCom" NGO;
    
    
20. Nataliya Kaplya, lawyer of "ForestCom" NGO;
    
    
21. Ihor Skolskyi, PhD s.-g. of Sciences, coordinator of forest field studies of the "LiiS" NGO;
    
    
22. Andrii Nechepurenko, IT consultant of "ForestCom" NGO;
    
    
23. Volodymyr Pasternak, Dr. sciences; forestry expert;
    
    
24. Volodymyr Yarotskyi, an expert in eco-education, study and protection of biodiversity, "ForestCom" NGO;
    
    
25. Yuriy Nestoryak, head of the branch of the State Enterprise "LIAC".

*Not all participants actively participated in the discussion and, accordingly, may "agree" or "disagree" with the proposed proposals

More details on the website of our LIiS organization and in the letter of appeal addressed to the Ministry of Environment at the link https://docs.google.com/document/d/10S3SvYwuLuAoFhdghFg4nY2OiptfG6Ev/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=110408155613589102225&rtpof=true&sd=true