UAnimals’ legal team has submitted its comments to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food regarding the draft law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts on the Liberalization of the Land Market and Land Relations.” They request amendments to reduce risks to the environment.
If the draft law is adopted in its current form, landowners will have the right to change the designated purpose of their land at their discretion. This could lead to steppes, meadows, and marshes being converted into farmland.
“A certain amount of valuable land will be diverted for other purposes, which undoubtedly harms animals and the environment in general, while it is extremely important now to preserve all natural areas,” says UAnimals’ appeal to the ministry.
Changing the designation of plots not included in the State Land Cadastre will be easier during auctions, explains land expert Kateryna Harbarchuk of the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group: “Auction initiators can put up for sale any plot of state or communal property not in use or under lease. In practice, these will primarily be natural areas: a small grove, a meadow, an area near water, a steppe plot, spontaneous forest. Everything else is already being plowed up.”
Currently, land plots are put up for land auctions by territorial communities. However, after the changes, individual users or landowners themselves will be able to do so: “The problem is that the community will not have legal grounds to refuse auction initiators to sell the plot,” adds Kateryna Harbarchuk.
The draft law proposes to exclude from the list of particularly valuable lands peatlands with peat deposits at a depth of over 1 meter, as well as drained peatlands. Thus, only peatlands within wetland complexes of international importance will remain in this category. The expert emphasizes that peatlands are marshes valuable for biodiversity.
Ecologist Oleksii Burkovskyi draws attention to another proposal by lawmakers that could be dangerous for the environment — the right to consolidate lands: “Suppose there are two fields and a hayfield between them. To avoid crossing the clearing with a raised plow, farmers can change the type of land use from haymaking to plowing and plow it, turning two fields and the clearing into one huge field. This eliminates islands or strips of natural plots. Thus, the weak ecological network completely degrades.”
Let’s preserve all the wild nature plots in Ukraine. They are precious for biodiversity!
Photo: Oleksii Burkovskyi
