Sawmills: Guardians of Timber Legitimacy or Vanishing Clues in the Shadows of Illicit Logging?

The problem of using illegally sourced timber at logging points in the Carpathian Mountains has persisted for quite some time. Operating under pretending legal documents, these enterprises process a certain amount of illegally harvested round timber. Often, such sawmills are owned by local officials or individuals who wield significant influence in the community. It's no secret that such businesses are frequently shielded by law enforcement agencies, which has become the norm from the past.

Concerning the sawmill situated in the village of Rosokhy within the Starosambir territorial community of Sambir district, Lviv region:

During an inspection of the planned conversion type of logging in 2022, situated within subcompartment 16 of compartment 52 in Staryava Forestry District of the Upper Dniester Beskids Landscape Reserve (where forestry activities are carried out by the Sambirske Forestry branch of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine"), ForestCom experts discovered unauthorized logging of white spruce, which took place after the completion of the official logging.

Signs of this include the condition of the stumps from the felled trees, fresh green remnants contrasting with the dry residues from official logging, fresh traces of illegal timber skidding, unauthorized logging in other areas of the forest, and the stumps covering.

Furthermore, to conceal the violation, certain "black loggers" simulated official logging by applying improvised orange marks on some fresh stumps. It should be noted that a legally applied marks always have an official imprint with information about the user.

Fresh traces of timber skidding indicate the transport of illegally harvested timber to one of the sawmills situated in the village of Rosokhy (which are two in the village). On the premises of this sawmill round logs of freshly cut fir were found without tags (evidences of electronic tracking system implication). The absence of such tags is evidence that this timber was most likely harvested illegally.

ForestCom have reported this forest violation to the law enforcement agencies. The response was immediate, but unfortunately, it was only from the illegal loggers: the timber at the sawmill was swiftly processed, its remnants transported off-site, and any traces of forest infringements meticulously concealed. For instance, freshly cut stumps of unlawfully felled trees were camouflaged with soil to make them appear aged, while some were burned or completely buried under earth, and the remnants of the logging operation were diligently cleaned up. If this is true - we have a problem within local police as well.

Preliminary estimates from this illegal logging suggest a total loss of approximately 589,662 hryvnias.

We have submitted renewed statements to law enforcement agencies detailing new instances of forest violations, after which a criminal case was finally initiated. We anticipate a thorough and professional investigation by the law enforcement authorities.

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In the gallery, you'll find photographs with geolocations taken prior to the 'erasure of traces'.