The State environmental inspectorate of Ukrainian leadership summed up the “New Year’s tree – 2021” action results, where the inspectors had detected illegal Christmas markets. According to the head of the State environmental inspectorate Andriy Malovany, in Ukraine at the beginning of December have been revealed only 274 cases of the Christmas trees sale violations rules.
As stated in the State Ecological Inspectorate website , at the beginning of December within the “Christmas tree – 2021” campaign, the department employees have found 274 cases of the Christmas trees sale violations rules. There were counted 429,456 hryvnas ($15000) of the losses.
During the month, the territorial bodies were checking the fur-trees and pines sale places. The main “checkpoints” were the tags availability on the trees with an individual identification code, the code registration in the system of the Forestry Information Analytical Center and the seller’s consignment note reliability information , – explained the head of State environmentalinspectorate Andriy Malovany.
In total, the State environmental inspectorate brought 177 people to administrative responsibility for the requirements violation , drawing up 235 reports on the administrative violations. 88 materials were submitted to the courts. Violators, detected by State environmental inspectorate, were punished under Article 88-1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses – a fine of 510 ($18) to 1,700 hryvnas ($60). Andriy Malovany pointed out that besides the penalties, unscrupulous sellers also reimbursed the damage caused to the environment due to the illegal trees trade.
To combat with the illegal trees sale on New Year’s holidays, the “New Year’s tree” campaign is annually conducted by the State environmental inspectorate. However, every year on the eve of the New Year holidays, thousands of sellers of illegally felled Christmas trees traditionally appear near the city outlets and along the city highways. Vandals cut Christmas trees in the parks and gardens, which remains unpunished.
Translation: Mariia Pylypenko