Who will stop the destruction of trees in Kamiansk (Dniprodzerzhynsk)?

Ukrainian partner Voice of Nature has been very active the past weeks, they not only started work on reducing the risk of local flooding as part of the Adaptation Kamiansk to climate change work, but they are making citizens aware of how to act against environmental crimes.

Who will stop the destruction of trees in Kamenka?

On February 6, 2017, Vasilyevskaya Street residents witnessed the destruction of healthy mature trees (about 50 of them) by unknown people, who refused to show their IDs and permits. Worried citizens called the police but when they arrived on the scene, they refused to consider this incident an environmental crime. Since 2016 the Kamensky Police received more than 100 complaints of illegal felling of green space, but they did not carry out any investigation and no person has been prosecuted.

“The police do not want to protect the trees in our city”

The inaction of the police is one of the main reasons that Kamensky continues to massively destroy healthy, mature trees. In accordance with Ukrainian legislation, the trees in the village are communal property and elements of improvement projects. Residents of the city, local authorities and law enforcement authorities are obliged to protect and preserve green spaces. In addition, the number of trees in town is governed by state regulations on the level of greening, which, as Voice of Nature states: “our dirty, industrial city completely ignores”.

The implementation of practical projects for the repair and restoration of storm systems in Kamiansk became possible due to Climate Forum East II project and the financial support of the Austrian Development Agency, the Austrian Red Cross, the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine and the European Commission through the CLEEN project.