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- Bill No. 9665: Strengthening Liability for Illegal Logging
Bill No. 9665: Strengthening Liability for Illegal Logging
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The Verkhovna Rada has adopted Bill No. 9665, which enhances criminal and administrative liability for the destruction or damage of forests, illegal tree logging, and illegal timber sales. |
The new version of the law incorporates proposals developed by experts from the NGO ForestCom, repeatedly suggested to the Committee on Law Enforcement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for consideration. Specifically, it includes specifying liability for forestry violations and increasing the fines in the Law of Ukraine to ensure the inevitability of punishment for environmental offenses, particularly for illegally harvested timber. It is also considered crucial to develop a clear definition of "illegal tree and shrub cutting" and "illegally harvested timber."
The new version of Bill No. 9665 partially incorporates our proposals concerning one aspect of defining "illegally harvested timber" in amending Article 246-1 "Violation of timber harvesting rules within the forest fund" of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. It addresses the formulation of a criminal offense when transporting, storing, selling trees, shrubs, or timber, specifically the absence of documents confirming the legal origin of trees, shrubs, or timber, or the use of forged, illegally obtained, or knowingly falsified documents on a significant scale.
"We welcome the adoption of the updated articles of the Criminal and Administrative Codes of Ukraine, which set the punishment for illegal logging of our forests, transportation, sale, and storage of illegally harvested timber. We are pleased that the long-term work of the NGO ForestCom in advising legislators has s results. Step by step, we move towards a common success for the entire society. Now, effective law enforcement by the police and other law enforcement agencies in identifying those involved in illegal logging, sale, transportation, facilitating, and processing of illegally harvested timber is crucial. Our task is to monitor, detect, and report illegal logging to law enforcement and the public. This is vital," commented Dmytro Karabchuk, head of the NGO ForestCom.
The practical experience of the NGO ForestCom in detecting illegal logging and directing collected materials to law enforcement authorities shows that the lack of a clear legal definition of "illegal logging" and "illegally harvested timber" significantly complicates the work of law enforcement agencies in pre-trial investigations of criminal cases and in upholding the rule of law, ensuring the unambiguous punishment for illegal logging of our forests.
We believe that a precise definition of the terms "illegal logging" and "illegally harvested timber" in Ukraine is a crucial urgent issue to strengthen control to prevent illegal timber harvesting and the destruction of the country's forest resources, as well as to prevent the illegal export of timber.
Activity of the NGO ForestCom is carried out within the project "Combating illegal logging in Ukraine" with the support of the International Programs of the US Forest Service.