The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), the World Wide Fund for Nature Ukraine (WWF-Ukraine) and the World Wide Fund for Nature in Central and Eastern Europe (WWF-CEE) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation.
The document confirms the parties' intentions to join forces to combat corruption offences in the field of natural resource management.
The memorandum was signed by NACP Head Viktor Pavlushchyk, WWF-CEE Executive Director Andreas Beckmann and WWF-Ukraine Executive Director Bohdan Vykhor.
The cooperation aims to prevent multidimensional threats caused by corruption in the field of natural resource management, in particular economic and security risks. Cooperation under the Memorandum will cover the following areas:
- identifying and minimising corruption risks in the field of natural resource use;
- developing a joint vision for improving regulatory and legal frameworks based on best international practices, including those of European Union countries;
- expert cooperation on the implementation of anti-corruption mechanisms in the field of natural resource management;
- conducting training and practical activities to improve the qualifications of specialists.
The signing of the Memorandum is a logical continuation of initiatives already implemented. This year, a joint study by the NACP, the Specialised Environmental Prosecutor's Office of the Prosecutor General's Office, WWF-Ukraine and the Basel Institute on Governance, entitled ‘Corruption Risks in Forestry’, was presented. It identified 12 key risks, ranging from abuses during sanitary felling to the possible non-transparent sale of timber and the formal nature of administrative processes. NACP and WWF-Ukraine also systematically cooperated in the anti-corruption assessment of draft regulatory and legal acts.
"Previous experience has shown that our cooperation is real and effective, so we are convinced that this Memorandum will not be a formality, but a real tool for positive change. Such cooperation will strengthen the position of each party and enable us to achieve a common result that will ensure the implementation of effective approaches to natural resource management and the formation of additional anti-corruption safeguards," emphasised NACP Head Viktor Pavlushchyk.
The implementation of joint measures provided for in the Memorandum will enhance the transparency of decisions in the field of environmental protection and reduce opportunities for abuse in the sector.
"Cooperation between WWF and NACP is a benchmark model of interaction between public authorities and the civil society sector, which allows combining the expertise, experience and knowledge of representatives of both sectors at the national and international levels to implement the principles of good governance in the field of natural resource management to promote sustainable and transparent development in Ukraine," said Andreas Beckmann, Executive Director of WWF in Central and Eastern Europe (WWF-CEE).
‘This cooperation aims to minimise existing corruption risks and prevent new ones from arising during the development of draft legislation in the field of natural resource management. This is an important step in the context of sustainable post-war recovery and Ukraine's European integration as a whole,’ said Bohdan Vykhor, Executive Director of WWF-Ukraine.
