According to the Minister, none of fact of illegal cutting will be left unattended.

Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Taras Kutovyi presented an Interactive Map of Deforestation of Ukraine. The pilot region on the basis of which all principles of research are presented –is Zakarpatska Oblast.

"On order of the Prime Minister there have been conducted the monitoring of the state of forests usage. The results of monitoring in Zakarpatska Oblast are impressive - one third is an illegal cutting", - said the Minister.

According to the Minister, none of fact of illegal cutting will be left unattended.

"All the data obtained as promised earlier, will be transferred to the competent law enforcement authorities, National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. None of fact of illegal cutting will be left unattended!" – the Minister emphasized. "Our goal - is a transparency and the beginning of real reform in the forest sector," - he added.

In fact, according to the Minister there were identified 871 plots of actual entire cuttings of forests with total area of 2 112.49 hectares. Of these - 530 plots with total area of 774 hectares of entire cuttings of forests that are not identical by configuration and location with regulatory deforestation.

"This pilot project on creation of an aerospace monitoring system of deforestation can be applied throughout the country. This has become possible thanks to the coordinated work of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and the concerned governmental bodies and agencies, including The State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre (StateGeoCadastre) and the State Forestry Agency. I am confident that it will quickly react on illegal cuttings of forests ", - said Taras Kutovyi.

"The functionality of interactive map allows providing control of cutting of forest fund in the annual range. As a result of its use, including by law enforcement agencies, we can establish civilized forest management and prevent budget losses, which are now caused by "black woodcutters" - said First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Maxym Martyniuk.

For information:

Monitoring results are based on materials of the State Land Cadastre, materials of regulatory cuttings of forests (according to PA "Ukrderzhlisproekt") and materials of space satellite imagery of forest territory of Zakarpattia Oblast with total area of 7881 square kilometers that was conducted during August - October 2016.

The largest number of total plots of actual deforestation in Zakarpattia Oblast, which do not match with the regulatory deforestation was found in Mukachevo Forestry Station -112 forestry plots with total area of 128 hectares, Perechynskyi Forestry Station - 88 plots with total area of 162 hectares,  Rakhiv Forest Research Farm - 42 plots with total area of 109 hectares.