By Sergey Marchenko
Along with the Crimean mineral resources extracted on a massive scale by occupants, the Crimean forests are also cut down – the number of trees there is decreasing with each passing day. The villagers cut down the trees for firewood and owners of construction companies to build hotels, apartments or cottages. Moreover, while the first one are facing with criminal cases, there is no risk for the second one – the Russian state is there to protect the interests of people in power by taking applicable laws for their benefit.
Forest reserves of Crimea
The total area of the Crimean forest amounted to 285.9 thousand hectares, which is slightly more than 10% of the territory of Crimea, as of January 1, 2014. There were 30.4 thousand hectares of forest, or about 35% of the urban area in Sevastopol as of January 1, 2015. Is it too much or too little? For example, a share of forests is even less in the neighboring regions of Crimea (Kherson, Zaporozhye, Nikolayev) – it is not more than 4% of the total territory, and quite the contrary in the Kiev region – forests occupy 22% of the territory, in the Transcarpathian region – 51.4%.
Chatyrdag beech forest, October of 2012
Most of the trees in Crimean forests are hard-wooded (78%) and pine (18%). Oak, beech and pine are the most popular trees in Crimea. There are also the trees, which are included in the Red Book of the peninsula – juniper, yew and Stankevich pine.
The Russian authorities distinguished 61 protected areas, including 4 nature reserves, 20 special nature reserves, 5 preserved nature tracts and 1 nature park. Respectively, there are 2 special nature reserves and 2 nature monuments in Sevastopol. However, even a special status does not save Crimean forests from barbaric destruction faced by all relict trees on the peninsula.
At the same time, new owners don’t hurry to restore forest reserves of Crimea while complaining of a lack of funding.
“Forest growth dynamics is below zero, we are facing the reduction of this area,” the ‘head’ of the State Committee of Forestry and Hunting Vasiliy Chelobanov said.
The occupation government’s official explained this situation by a lack of funds for planting trees as forest enterprises received compensation for cut down areas, which were used to plant a new forest. Russia doesn’t provide such funding.
Meanwhile, there is a large-scale deforestation in Crimea. The forest is cut down for firewood, handicrafts (from the juniper) or clearing an area for large-scale construction, which began in the coastal area of the peninsula.
Firewood deficit
In the fall of 2015, the Crimeans faced with a new deficit – a lack of firewood at appropriate prices for the first time. This situation has developed due to the new rules to provide the population with firewood, when the “state committee” for Forestry and Hunting, which received the right to sell the wood to consumers at a fixed price, turned out to be the only firewood supplier on the peninsula. However, it became clear by the end of October that his efforts provided firewood for only a third of the orders. Other people had to buy firewood in the market at a price that was 3 times higher: from 6 thousand rubles ($100) per cubic meter. At the same time, the price of firewood from the ‘state forestry committee’ was 2-2.5 thousand rubles ($30-38) per cubic meter.
The difficult socio-economic situation the Crimeans faced with after the annexation made many villagers to cut firewood on their own by breaking the law. Go-getting businessmen decided to use the firewood deficit and started a large-scale deforestation. As a result, for example, the trees on the territory of the Partizanskoye forestry were cut on the area of 2 hectares (about a thousand cubic meters of timber). In the forest near Bakhchisarai, 560 trees have been cut and in such a way, the damage in the amount of 3.2 million rubles ($50000) was done.
In general, according to the “Prosecutor’s Office”, 28 criminal cases for illegal cutting in green areas with a total damage of more than 260 million rubles were initiated in Crimea in 2015-2016. Very often, the illegal cuttings were conducted under the guise of sanitary measures. For example, 6 thousand trees was cut down in this way on the territory of Grushevskoye and Komsomolskoye forestry.
Cottages in nature reserves
However, large-scale construction projects in the forest area, launched when Viktor Yanukovych, the Kremlin’s favorite, came to power in Ukraine, became a much more serious problem for the peninsula. It was then that forests in nature reserves and special nature reserves of Crimea have been destroyed with impunity, which led to a record reduction of forest hectares: from 278.7 thousand hectares to 233.9 thousand hectares just in two years – from 2012 to 2014. As a comparison, the Crimean forest area was reduced by 62 hectares from 2003 to 2012. It will just suffice to mention the felling of relict trees in the special nature reserve at the Cape Aya when building a luxurious residence of ex-President of Ukraine.
Occupants continue this sad tradition by ruthlessly destroying Crimean forests for their apartments.
For example, hundreds of 500-year-old juniper trees were destroyed in the Laspi tract (near Sevastopol) during the construction of high-rise buildings and cottages.
Construction of high-rise buildings in Laspi
The land plot allocated for construction is in the list of the nature monuments – more than 500 plant species, 28 of which were included to the Red Book, are growing there. However, the Sevastopol authorities weren’t bothered with this fact and gave this land allegedly to build a children’s health resort. Instead, the construction of nine-storey buildings was started in this nature reserve.
The construction company attracts potential customers with a private beach and juniper park, as well as quite “moderate” prices: from 1.76 million rubles (27 thousand dollars).
Of course, you can blame everything on Ukraine, from which Sevastopol inherited this construction project (all permits were obtained in 2012), if it wasn’t for one significant “but”: the Russian structure – “Sevastopol city branch of the Mosgorekspertiza” – issued an approval for this construction in late 2014.
However, the company owned by the Ukrainian ex-Defense Minister Pavel Lebedev, who supported the annexation of Crimea and is currently hiding from Ukrainian authorities, conducts this construction project.
Being under the public pressure, the Sevastopol authorities were forced to initiate a litigation process against the real estate developers to stop this construction.
“There are already 123 cases in the courts, we have first instance decisions in our favour (forestry and hunting department – Ed.) for 73 cases,” the ‘head’ of the Sevastopol forestry and hunting department Sergey Skorobreha said.
However, according to the ‘deputy chairman of the Sevastopol Committee on Urban Planning and Land Affairs’ Mikhail Chaly, we can’t restore the trees by courts.
“These junipers are several hundred years’ trees. They caught the times of Ivan the Terrible. But they were destroyed under our rule. No solutions and bringing to responsibility will change this fact,” Chaly said.
However, the wants of new barbarians in Crimea can’t be stopped: over and over again the media revealed new information on trees cut down for the next cottage, hotel, phyto parks.
It is obvious that in the near future there will be a large-scale building process started at the foot of the Demerdzhi mountain, where it is planned to build a luxury cottage estate.
The General Director of JSC “Institut “Tyumenkommunstroy” Vladimr Nikiforov, who bought land plots on the secondary market in 2015 and consolidated them for construction, is an owner, investor and real estate developer at the same time.
Project of the club village at the foot of the Demerdzhi mountain
The investment project is being implemented on the land plots allocated for private ownership in 2010. According to the general plan scheme for this club village, it will take an area of 7.5 hectares, 2.2 hectares of which will be occupied by 160 cottages in area ranging from 110 to 200 square meters.
“When we were building or repairing roads in Crimea, the most difficult thing was to get a permit from environmental agencies to cut down ever tree. We even didn’t really think to do that without permission, since we would have to pay a large fine. This situation was related to a normal forest. I even didn’t mention the nature reserves and sanctuaries – in that case, the projects were changed to save the trees,” the road builder with years of experience commented this situation.
As we see, now the situation has changed and if it is needed to cut down not one, but hundreds of trees, even the ones included to the Red Book, this is done with no hassles. This is understandable: you are not sorry about the things you don’t own.
On June 24, 2016, the State Duma presented another gift to Crimean real estate developers by allowing to make constructions in nature reserves. According to the draft law adopted in the final reading, the Russian government has the right to build biosphere polygons, where it is allowed to start capital construction projects and install the necessary infrastructure to develop the tourism and sports, in nature reserves. From now on, the construction processes in the Crimean nature reserves will be conducted on a legal basis.
Quarries instead of forests
We have already wrote about a sad fate awaiting the Crimean subsurface resources, which are ruthlessly exploited by new peninsula’s owners allocating even land plots in the protected areas of water reservoirs for extraction works. So, you can imagine what is the situation with forests.
The ‘Ministry’ of Ecology and Natural Resources of Crimea have been conducted auctions that include land plots in the forest zone since the end of 2015. For example, the Chokatashsky area near Sudak, where diorites will be extracted on the 39 hectares of the forest territory.
“The hole in 39 hectares on the forest territory. Near the children’s camp “Otvazhnuy”, it is at the cross-road towards Kiziltash. Nobody pays attention to the forest reserve and ecologists’ resort,” the Crimean journalist Oleg Kryuchkov who welcomed the Russian annexation of Crimean in 2014 wrote.
If we analyze the list of land plots that have already been allocated for extraction works through the licenses, we start getting scared: hectares of Crimean forests in Bakhchisaray, Simferopol and Sudak areas have been given for quarries.
If Crimean authorities continue to work in such an accelerated pace, the unique Crimean nature will disappear in several years: there will be empty sockets of developed quarries gapping instead of the mountains and forests, luxury apartments will be built in nature reserves and 10% of the peninsula’s forest reserves have every chance to turn into 1%. Moreover, it will be impossible to change that.
