Animal Protectors Achieve Complete Victory

The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy, Nature Management, and Consequences of the Chornobyl Disaster approved recommendations to strengthen the protected regime in nature reserves.

Key recommendations include:

• For the Ministry of Environment: Strengthen the protected regime in reserves and national parks; restrict mechanical harvesting during May-July; reduce limits on logging, hay-cutting, and tourism activities; eliminate permits for Christmas tree harvesting and various recreational activities in protected areas.

• For the State Ecological Inspection: Enhanced enforcement of environmental legislation in reserves.

• For the National Academy of Sciences: Increased protection measures in reserves under their jurisdiction.

• For the General Prosecutor’s Office: Legal review of reserve organizational documents.

• For the Cabinet of Ministers: Reorganize state residences into national parks; create a new nature reserve; strengthen protected regimes.

This victory was achieved thanks to parliamentary hearings in November 2013, organized by the All-Ukrainian Ecological League and the Kyiv Ecological-Cultural Center.