July 30, 2010

Ecologists demand to stop auctioning major plots of land, first of all military grounds and the lands of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, where wildlife often thrives, and leave them to be converted into zapovidnyks (nature reserves) and NNPs (national nature parks). The scientists advise to draw a plan of turning the “useless” grounds into nature reserve fund (NRF) and econet of Ukraine.
National Ecological Center of Ukraine, Pan-Ukrainian Ecological League and dozens of other non-governmental organizations and the Pan-Ukrainian campaign «Save Ukrainian Steppes» supported the request.
Incidentally, econet and NRF had actually been planned on some of the governmental lands. According to Dept. Head of NECU Oleksiy Vasylyuk, the lands might be the largest least disturbed areas in Ukraine. “They haven’t been developed in decades. Most of the ecosystems’ components weren’t destroyed by the manner in which they were used, even by military. Here, wild things still survive. That’s why the news that governmental lands would be sold out was such a heavy blow.”
Ecologists say that NNPs in Ukraine are often created on former military grounds, for example, “Oleshkivski piski” (“Oleshkiv sands”, Kozachelagersky MG), “Yagorlytsky” (now Chornomorsky bioreserve), “Tryohizbensky” (now Luhansky nature reserve).
Oleksiy Burkovsky, our activist in Dnipropetrovsk: “We do not oppose development of the areas within cities, which can not be turned into objects of nature reserve fund. However, any other ones in State’s possession and outside city borders are a good reserve to expand eco-net and should not be privatized.

If the Ministry of Defense and other state institutions sell the land, disregarding the needs of Nature, the latter will be grievously and irreversibly harmed: vegetation will be extirpated, trees felled down, Instead, houses will be built, and fields will be ploughed up. The consequences of such a decision will be tragic not only for the ecosystems of Ukraine, but also for the biodiversity of Europe, and indeed of the world, claims Yaroslav Movchan, Doctor of Biological Sciences, member of the Ukrainian Association for the Club of Rome.

Ecologists state that auctioning, for example, military grounds, will lead to numerous infringements of national and international law, among them the Laws of Ukraine On Nature Reserve Fund, On Environmental Conservation, On the State Program for Establishing National Ecological Network for 2000-2015, On the Red Data Book of Ukraine, On Flora, On Fauna, and the Statute On the Green Book of Ukraine.

Of international legislation, Ukraine has ratified the Convention on Biodiversity (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), the Bern Convention (1982), CITES (Washington, 1973), the World and the European Red Lists and dozens of others. This fall, the United Nations will host Special High Level Session on the topic of biodiversity. Ukrainian ecologists do not believe that Ukrainian environmental policy will meet with international approval.

Note: July 27, the Commission of Control over Use and Alienation of Lands of Defense and other Lands of the State Ownership, chaired by the vice-premier Volodymyr Sivkovytch, decided that some bodies of central executive power and UAAS (Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences) ought to identify lands they did not use and prepare them to be auctioned. The deadline was set on September first. Among the bodies there are Ministry for Defense, Ministry for Internal Affairs, Ministry of Emergency Situations, State Border Service, State Department of Ukraine for Execution of Punishment, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine NRF covers 5% of the state’s area, NRF in Europe covers 15%.

Contact:

Oleksiy Burkovsky, Pan-Ukrainian Ecological League, Dnipropetrovsk region
ecologist@ukr.net
066-421-91-00

Oleksiy Vasylyuk, NECU, Kyiv
vasyliuk@gmail.com
097 1000 473