A Ukrainian national has been charged with illegally felling more than 1,000 trees within the Chornobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve, causing more than US $1.8 million in environmental vandalism. “Under the procedural guidance of the Vyshhoro District Prosecutor’s Office, the director of the LLC has been charged with illegal logging within the territory of the Chornobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve,” according to officials quoted in Ukrainian media.
Wood Central understands that the individual belongs to a company contracted to clear power lines around the 1986 nuclear disaster site, and comes after it reported that crime syndicates were falsifying documents and selling deforested timber from within the exclusion zone, with syndicates converting the proceeds of crime into foreign currency, and using conflict and illegal logging to fuel an extensive criminal network.
“The criminals responsible for illegal logging and illicit timber trafficking are not just destroying biodiversity, but they also threaten the livelihoods of those reliant on the forest resources,” according to Interpol. “For example, criminal land clearing can cause landslides and deny forest-dependent communities access to food, medicine and fuel.”
The latest heist adds to more than UAH 104 million (US $2.5 million) worth of damage in Chernobyl’s Red forests, with gangs felling thousands of 100-plus-year-old trees from the reserve and selling them illegally into the EU since the start of the war with Russia. As it stands, Ukraine has lost more than 3 million hectares of forest since the beginning of the war, an area of forest twice the size of New York City, with a recent report reveals that the true environmental cost of the war could exceed US $40 billion.
According to Interpol, between 15 and 30% of all timber traded in global markets is illegal (between US$51 billion and US$152 billion), making timber trafficking one of organised crime’s most profitable trades. “Illegal logging and trade take many different forms,” according to the World Wildlife Federation. “At the forest level, it can include logging inside protected areas, logging protected timber species, extracting volumes beyond permitted amounts, and corruption associated with the issuance of forest licenses.”
- To find out how smuggled Russian (and Ukrainian) timber infiltrates global supply chains, click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
