The European Business Association (EBA) shares the position of the office of the president regarding the introduction of a nationwide system of electronic timber accounting and stresses the need for all timber makers to join this system. “For a more efficient operation of the electronic timber accounting system, it is critically important that all timber makers are connected to it, regardless of the form of subordination,” Yevhen Kuzmenko, the manager of EBA committees, told Interfax-Ukraine.
He noted that the system shows all the data from logging to timber sale or accepting for processing: who is involved in timber logging and on the basis of what documents, the characteristics of timber, as well as to whom and at what price it was sold.
“This system has already been introduced in forestries subordinated to the State Forest Agency. But it does not apply to other forest users, such as state enterprises of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Environment, municipal companies, and others. They, according to various sources, harvest from 17% to 27% of the total volume of timber,” the expert said.
According to him, this situation allows manipulating the origin of wood.
