The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has sent the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management the materials of the study “Corruption Risks in Forestry”, which was recently presented at the NACP (recording of the event). NACP is interested in further effective and fruitful cooperation with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
A number of corruption risks identified in the study are related to imperfections in forestry legislation and need to be addressed by amending regulations. These include improving the procedure for granting permanent use of forests on state-owned lands for forestry, prohibiting the transfer of the right to permanent use of forests without approved forest management materials, resuming planned state supervision (control) in the field of environmental protection, etc.
Oleh Bondarenko, Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management, and Ihor Marchuk, Head of the Subcommittee on State-Business Interaction and Investment of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development, joined the event to discuss the results of the study and the implementation of anti-corruption safeguards in this area.
Oleg Bondarenko noted the importance of the NACP's work, which could become a roadmap for changes to the legislation in the forestry sector.
In the future, the next steps will be determined in a working order to involve NACP experts in the development of amendments to the relevant regulatory acts of Ukraine.
The study “Corruption Risks in Forestry” was conducted by NACP experts jointly with the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office, the Basel Institute on Governance and WWF-Ukraine with the support of Switzerland.
