The government on May 12 agreed with the proposal of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Forestry on a two-year experiment to issue a special permit for the use of forest resources (logging ticket) and a certificate of origin of timber and sawn timber made from it, starting June 1, 2023.
“This innovation is the next step in the implementation of a comprehensive reform of the timber industry of Ukraine. The purpose of the reform is to introduce transparent and effective management mechanisms in this sphere,” one of the developers of the project, the Office of Effective Regulation (BRDO), said in a statement on Monday.
It is specified that it will be possible to apply and receive relevant documents of permissive character online on the platform “Ecosystem”.
According to BRDO, conversion of these services into electronic format will reduce corruption risks, minimize “human factor”, save time and money for entrepreneurs, increase public control and transparency in felling. The project will also enable the introduction of a single electronic database logging tickets and certificates of origin of timber instead of the paper format.
The forestry reform in Ukraine, which started in 2016, is being worked on by BRDO experts together with the Ministry of Nature and the State Forestry Agency under the USAID/UKaid project “Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services/TAPAS”, the release reminds.
As part of the reform of the forestry sector has already introduced the sale of untreated timber at electronic auctions. Since 2021 an interactive map of placement of timber processing facilities has been working in test mode in some regions. The industry has also implemented the project “Forest in smartphone”, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows you to check the legality of logging on the online map of the department.
The next stage of the forest industry reform will be the separation of management, permitting and economic functions of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”, indicates BRDO.
