Ukraine’s State Forest Resources Agency has launched a pilot project of an electronic registry of logging permits, Viktor Melnychenko, the Director General of the agency’s Forestry Innovation and Analysis Center, has said.
“This is a register of permits that give the right to carry out business activities related to the harvesting of wood. The register of logging tickets covers the entire territory of Ukraine. We collected all the data in one place and started making it available to the public about a month ago,” Melnychenko said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Melnychenko said as of October 16 information on 27,000 issued permits for timber harvesting was published in the register.
In addition, the center presented an online map of timber felling, which also works in a pilot mode and extends to three regions, including Chernihiv, Poltava, and Rivne.
“Today we are working on a system of graphical display of logging on a map of Ukraine in three pilot regions. A month since we started uploading maps. Now we are solving a number of technical issues. By the end of the year, we plan to extend the project to all of Ukraine for enterprises of the State Forest Resources Agency,” Melnychenko said.
In addition, the center plans to launch a register of forest tickets for the industrial gathering of berries, mushrooms, honey, and medicinal herbs. The project is at the final stage of development.
Melnychenko said he expects the parliament to consider and adopt a number of legislative initiatives that will allow the distribution of the electronic wood accounting system, a register of logging and forest tickets and an online logging map for all permanent forest users who also harvest wood, regardless of subordination.
A logging ticket is permission to harvest wood and contains information about the location and volume of the workpiece. The document is issued by the regional forestry and hunting departments at the agency.
The total forest area of Ukraine is about 10.4 million hectares. The forest cover of the country is 15.9%.
Some 7.6 million ha of forests are subordinated to the State Forest Resources Agency (73% of the Forest Fund of Ukraine).
The State Agency of Ukraine for Forest Resources plans to launch a pilot project of an electronic register of logging permits in March, Viktor Melnychenko, the director general of the Forestry Innovation Analytical Center at the agency, has said. “This software solution will allow controlling logging permits issued for the use of a certain amount of raw materials. Now this will be a pilot project, and in future, to attract all forest users regardless of subordination, it is necessary to make appropriate changes in the regulatory framework,” he explained.
According to him, the center began the development of an e-register of wood felling licenses in December 2018. The register will allow controlling the annual volume of harvested wood. The expert noted that in the autumn of 2018 the Verkhovna Rada adopted law No. 5495 on preservation of forests, which limits the annual harvesting volume to 25 million cubic meters.
According to Melnychenko, the register will also keep records of documents that were the basis for the issue of logging permits.
A wood felling license is a permit for logging, which contains information about the place and volume of logging. This document is issued by the regional forestry and hunting directorates under the State Forestry Agency.
The total area of forest areas in Ukraine is almost 10.4 million hectares, the forest cover of Ukraine is 15.9%. Some 7.6 million hectares of forests (73% of the forest fund of Ukraine) are subordinate to the State Forestry Agency.
