State auditors discovered illegal logging worth UAH 120 million in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exclusion zone

“Sanitary felling” in the “Northern Pushcha” without assessing the impact on the environment caused damage worth millions of hryvnia

State auditors conducted an audit of the activities of the Severnaya Pushcha State Enterprise, which is under the management of the State Agency of Ukraine for Management of the Exclusion Zone (GAUV), and established illegal cutting of trees in the amount of UAH 120 million.

It was revealed that clear sanitary felling was carried out on an area of ​​29.4 hectares in the Northern Pushcha without following the environmental impact assessment procedure, which is a violation of Ukrainian legislation. Because of these “sanitary fellings,” trees worth UAH 4.7 million were illegally cut down.

On the territory of one of the forestry areas of the Northern Pushcha, hundreds of mature pines were found cut down, causing damage amounting to UAH 114 million.

It was also found out that most of the enterprise’s assets were written off or lost due to unprofitable contracts, which resulted in multimillion-dollar damage to the Northern Pushcha.

In addition, despite the large salary arrears to employees, the company increased costs for excessive bonuses to management. The total amount of damage and violations identified by auditors during an audit of the financial activities of the Northern Pushcha State Enterprise is UAH 264 million.

As previously reported, employees of the DBR completed the transfer of legal cases against one of the leaders of the Mogilev-Podolsk forestry enterprise in Vinnytsia region, who was involved in the illegal felling of more than 10 thousand trees, which resulted in damage of almost 60 million hryvnia.