Is illegal deforestation carried out by foresters themselves? (PHOTOS)

On December 21, Tyachiv Police Department received an anonymous telephone message stating that in the village of Ruske Pole, a forester was illegally cutting trees in a forest. And during the last day, three cases of transportation of wood with questionable documentation were recorded in Transcarpathian region

Over the past day, Transcarpathian police recorded three cases of wood transportation with dubious documents. Thus, in the city of Khust, a detained resident of Irshava was carrying about 5 cubic meters of beech. The driver explained that he had received the wood, that had been harvested in Irshava district, from the Khust Research Forestry and was transporting it to be sold in the city of Khust.

On the same day, in Tyachiv district, patrol officers stopped a truck with spruce and beech boards in total amount of more than 20 cubic meters and a truck with nearly 24 cubic meters of spruce. In both cases, the drivers had dubious waybills. The trucks are on the impound lot of Tyachiv Police Department.

And the other day, the police managed to detain a forester, who was cutting down trees with violations. The policemen who arrived at the scene in the village of Ruske Pole, found 14 felled oak trees. The forester provided documents authorizing the logging. However, they caused suspicion of law enforcement officers. The legitimacy of the logging is being established.

Under Art.246 of the Criminal Code, illegal logging is punishable by a fine of up to 1,700 hryvnia, arrest for up to 6 months, restriction of liberty or imprisonment for up to three years with confiscation of illegally harvested wood.

Also, according to the Forestry Department of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration, since the beginning of 2015, 221 violations in forest industry have been revealed, which caused losses in the amount of over UAH 4.5 million. However, less than two percent of losses have been recovered – through voluntary paid fines. 

So, the new police has a lot of work to do, not only in the field of forestry… Maybe, the government will think about how much money the state loses through illegal felling and sale of forest and create a separate police unit, which will specialize in this area.

The PR department of the Main Office of National Police in Transcarpathian region