At the fourth plenary meeting of the XXVIII extraordinary session, deputies of the Lviv Regional Council backed an appeal to central government bodies to strengthen liability for the illegal movement of vehicles in the Carpathians and other areas of Ukraine’s nature reserve fund.
The document, addressed to the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Environmental Policy and Nature Management, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and the regional councils of the Carpathian region, stresses that off-roading in mountainous, forest, meadow and protected areas has become widespread, while the existing mechanisms for bringing offenders to account are inadequate.
“The so-called ‘jeeping’ in mountainous, forest, meadow and protected areas is no longer an isolated violation and is increasingly taking on the features of a systemic disregard for the environmental protection regime, the rights of local communities and the interests of the state in the field of preserving natural heritage,” the appeal states.
The Lviv Regional Council proposes introducing two parallel mechanisms for responding to such violations. The first provides for the automated recording of the illegal movement of vehicles in areas of the nature reserve fund. To this end, according to the deputies’ proposal, it is necessary to comprehensively update the legislation, define the procedure for verifying evidence, identifying the person responsible and issuing rulings by authorised employees of the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine.
The second mechanism concerns improving the procedure for recording violations directly on site. It is proposed that this be implemented through targeted amendments to legislation, clarification of the powers of the State Environmental Inspectorate and the establishment of procedures for transferring materials from environmental institutions, local self-government bodies, state administrations and other authorised entities.
The appeal emphasises that both models should complement each other: the automated system will provide a modern monitoring tool in the most problematic locations, while the protocol-based system will allow for a rapid response to violations recorded at the scene.
The deputies call on the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada and the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine to initiate the preparation of the necessary legislative amendments. They also address the Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi and Zakarpattia regional councils separately, proposing that they support this initiative and stressing that protecting the Carpathians is a shared responsibility of state bodies, environmental organisations and local self-government bodies across the entire Carpathian region.