FSC and PEFC certification in Ukraine

For more than 20 years now, forest certification under the principles of the FSC certification system has been an important instrument that promotes responsible forest management and serves as a benchmark for the development of the forest sector in Ukraine. Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, set against a background of societal transformation and ongoing reforms, has aggravated the existing problems for sustainable forest management. The forest sector's operations are becoming ever more complicated, which increases the risks to the integrity of the FSC system.

Maintaining FSC certification has been possible thanks to the active stance of Ukraine's FSC international members and other participants in support of the system's core values. In response to the situation in Ukraine, a comprehensive update of the FSC normative framework was adopted. This makes it possible to continue responsible forest management in areas untouched by the military conflict, ensuring the integrity of supply chains.

By 12 March 2023, FSC certificates had been awarded to 4.19 million hectares of forest across 92 sectoral units and enterprises. Despite the suspension of certificates in the military conflict zones, the certified area did not shrink but grew by 5%. The scope of the certificates for the merged state forest management enterprises was extended to include territory that had previously not been subject to the requirements of the FSC national standard. The number of chain of custody certificates, mainly relating to timber supply chains, was 373, which is 7% fewer than in the previous year.

In the new phase of forest reform, responding to the problems that had arisen, communication had to be strengthened between the interested parties, including the state forestry authorities, certificate holders and certification bodies. FSC's constructive and open stance on Ukraine's forest reform fostered a deeper understanding of the role of each participant in the forest certification system in achieving the goals of responsible forest management. Decision-makers agreed that the existing certification model should be retained, under which the certificate holders must be branches of the state enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" rather than the newly established state specialised forestry enterprise holding a single joint certificate. Such a model reduces the risks of non-conformity with the FSC national standard and increases certificate holders' accountability to nature and society. To date, 15 recently registered branches have received updated certificates. That is part of the 84 branches certified as separate state forest sector enterprises within the State Forest Resources Agency.

With a focus on building support for responsible forest management during the war and post-war periods, a project was launched to develop national forestry indicators for excluding contaminated areas from the scope of FSC certification, as recognised by the interested parties representing the balance of environmental, social and economic interests. This should be an effective solution for those Ukrainian forest areas where compliance with the environmental protection requirements of the FSC standard cannot be ensured, because they are mined and contaminated by explosives.

The PEFC certification system was introduced in Ukraine in 2021. At present there are 5 PEFC-certified state forest holdings covering an area of 120.9 thousand hectares. These enterprises are located in the western part of Ukraine and have not been affected by the fighting. Given their remote location from the combat zone, these enterprises retained their status as PEFC-certified enterprises. Field or remote audits are already being carried out in them as branches of the state enterprise "Forests of Ukraine". In addition, as of 24 February 2022 eleven business units held PEFC chain of custody certificates. One of these enterprises declined to continue PEFC certification because of economic difficulties, while the remaining enterprises passed their audits and confirmed their PEFC-certified status.

One of the most significant problems with PEFC certification was that all the forestry enterprises and some of the supply chains were certified by the Ukrainian certification body Legallis LLC, but under the licence of a Russian audit company. The PEFC national office made every possible effort to accredit the Latvian company BM Certification and bring it in for Ukraine. As a result, the re-accreditation of certificate holders took place without losses. PEFC is also actively involved in preparing a standard for plantings and stands that fall outside forest land (rural shelterbelts, energy plantations, naturally afforested stands, green zones in cities). It is also important that the owners of these stands receive compensation for the ecosystem services they provide, by means of certification.

Illegal logging in Ukraine – problems and solutions

According to data from Ukraine's State Forest Resources Agency, in 2022 a total of 3,406 cases of illegal logging amounting to 20.6 thousand cubic metres were recorded in the unoccupied territories. This figure is 20% lower than the total volume recorded across the whole country in 2021 (25.8 thousand cubic metres). The largest volumes of illegal logging were found in the following regions: Dnipro oblast, 6,840 cubic metres (33.2% of the total); Kharkiv oblast, 3,496 m³ (17% of the total); Transcarpathia, 2,343 m³ (11.4% of the total); Kyiv oblast, 2,343 m³ (11.4% of the total). More detailed information on illegal logging in the de-occupied territories will only be available once they have been demined.

In the de-occupied territories that became accessible to local communities, an increased number of cases of illegal logging for firewood was reported. Forest staff confirmed this after receiving permission to access the more dangerous areas.

In the liberated territories that are mined, there are no fully accurate data on the illegal logging carried out by Russian troops. The only available data indicate 1.95 thousand m³ of illegally felled timber in the Kyiv region. Reports of illegal logging and timber exports by Russia are being collated.

There is no detailed information on the situation in the temporarily occupied territories in Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Donetsk and Kherson oblasts and in Crimea. Many breaches of forest legislation have occurred in these territories, including illegal logging.

A potential problem after the war could be the lack of regulation or legislation on logging carried out by the armed forces directly at their deployment sites, for example to build fortifications or to obtain fuel. A relevant government order (a draft version) regulating this timber harvesting was drawn up in Ukraine but was not adopted. It is possible that such forms of logging are regarded or classified as illegal, because the country has no regulatory measures in this field.

The damage done to forest monitoring

Forest monitoring work was halted in 2016 because of insufficient funding. At present none of the associated monitoring processes can be carried out in either the occupied or the liberated territories, owing to a lack of funding and/or contamination of the forests (unexploded ordnance, mined areas and so on). This constraint creates far-reaching problems for the international forest-related reporting system as it applies to Ukraine, because reliable and verifiable data are lacking (for example for the FOREST EUROPE/FAO/UNECE assessment cycle or the FRA).

Forest economics

Despite the war and its consequences, the forest sector in Ukraine continues to fulfil its obligations for the good of the national economy and society. It should be stressed that in 2023 twenty state forest enterprises were wholly or partly occupied and had suspended their operations.

It is important to emphasise that sustainable forest management cannot be carried out in 20% of Ukraine's forests because of military activity and contamination by unexploded ordnance. Ukraine's State Forest Resources Agency reported the following achievements and problems:

Achievements:

- In 2022 approximately 200 million trees were planted, although since the start of the war information about the planting sites is no longer publicly available.

- Despite the war, work continues on setting up container seedling growing facilities. Three of them were established in 2022 in Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk and Kirovohrad oblast.

In 2022 an administrative decision was issued on transferring 1,800 ha of naturally afforested agricultural fields to state forest enterprises. A total of 193 land management and/or technical documentation projects were drawn up, covering a combined area of 3,136.07 ha. Separate land cadastre numbers were assigned to an area of 3,122.27 ha.

- All timber on the domestic market continues to be sold at electronic auctions, including timber from the state forest enterprises.

- In the field of digitalisation, a pilot project was included within the "EkoSystema" analytical system, focusing on the electronic submission of the documents needed to apply for and issue logging permits. In addition, information on sanitary logging is now publicly available to the population. Since January 2022 all accompanying documents for sanitary felling have been collated on the official website of the State Forest Resources Agency.

Problems:

- In the period since the start of the war, Ukrainian exporters have faced considerable difficulties. Because of the blockade of the Black Sea ports, Asian markets were closed to Ukrainian exporters. The logistics of shipping timber to Asia by other supply routes proved extremely unprofitable. Further problems were caused by the ban on exporting roundwood (still in force in Ukraine since 2015) and by logistical difficulties in exporting timber and other wood products. All of this has led to a fall in the price of unprocessed wood (for example, in the second half of 2022 the price of pine timber fell by 20-30%). In 2023, however, the price situation slowly began to improve, both for firewood and for some roundwood assortments.

The volume of timber harvested in 2023 was 10% lower than in 2021. In 2022 it was 15.9 million m³ compared with 17.6 million m³. By contrast, the volume of firewood obtained rose by 15% (from 4 million m³ in 2021 to 4.6 million m³ in 2022). In the liberated territories the overall decline in the volume of timber harvested is greater still. In Kharkiv oblast timber production fell by 48%, in Chernihiv oblast by 30% and in Kyiv oblast by 33%.

- Overall, in 2022 the total volume of timber sales fell by 1.813 million m³, as a result of which the revenues of Ukraine's state forest enterprises fell by 80 million euros.

As a result of the drop in the price of the timber sold, the total amount of revenue forgone from timber sales reached 142 million euros. Consequently the forestry sector lost 57.5 million euros in taxes.

- According to last year's results, data from the Ukrainian Association of Woodworking Enterprises show that the fall in wood processing ranged from 35 to 55% depending on the type of wood. Approximately 40-50% of Ukraine's processors have halted production. To the negative factors must be added the frequent power cuts, which destabilise the work of processing enterprises and increase production costs, along with mobilisation and the war-induced fall in domestic demand for timber.

- In the 2022/2023/2024 hunting seasons no hunting is taking place in Ukraine because of the restrictions imposed by the regional administrations under wartime conditions. As a result, the owners of hunting grounds are losing income.

Firewood for heating

The supply of firewood in 2022 and 2023 was of decisive importance as the main source of energy because of the energy crisis. Ukraine's State Forest Resources Agency has developed a special online tool, "Firewood is available", intended to make it easier for the public to obtain firewood. The main aim of "Firewood is available" was to set a purchase quota of up to 15 m³ of firewood per person for each heating season. Use of the banking user authorisation system is compulsory in the online tool – it is a three-tier administration system designed to guarantee a high level of control. Since December 2022 the "Firewood is available" mobile app has formed part of a single nationwide ecological automated information and analysis system. In 2023 more than 58 thousand people were registered as users.

In 2022 the Ukrainian government allocated more than half a billion hryvnia (13.5 million euros) to 8 regions of the country to purchase firewood for free distribution to residents in front-line areas, such as the liberated Donetsk, Dnipro, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.

In the 2022-2023 season, 2.75 million cubic metres of firewood were delivered to the population, while 533 thousand cubic metres of firewood went to social needs (schools, care homes and so on).

According to data from Ukraine's State Forest Resources Agency, since the start of the war the state forest enterprises have supplied the army with 62 thousand cubic metres of firewood for heating, 142 thousand cubic metres of roundwood for building fortifications and 27.8 thousand cubic metres of processed timber.

Governance matters

Government decisions and plans in the process of national reconstruction

The Ukrainian government presented its first national recovery plan back on 4 and 5 July 2022 at the conference held in Lugano. This detailed document sets out the main directions for the post-war recovery of the national economy and also covers the legislative changes required.

The plan covers a ten-year period and includes 15 areas. Implementing the plan will require more than 750 billion dollars in total – some 250-300 billion USD is expected to come from partnership grants, 200-300 billion USD from loans or equity capital, and 250 billion USD from private investment.

Forest-related priorities are included in the chapter of Ukraine's recovery plan on ecological security. The deadline for implementing the forest-related priorities in the first national recovery plan is set for the period up to 2032. According to government estimates, implementation will require 427.19 million euros. Among the other forest-related priorities, the following measures are envisaged:

- Developing a methodology for, and assessing, the destruction and losses caused to forest nurseries as well as the damage caused to biological resources.

- Drawing up an action plan for implementing the national forest strategy and carrying out forest restoration projects in the territory affected by Russia's military aggression.

- Developing ecological tourism and the recreational use of forests.

- Restoring the work of the forest management planning institute and amending forest management plans in the affected areas.

- Improving the existing system of forest protection against fires.

- Improving forest infrastructure.

- Moving to a mechanised timber harvesting system.

- Restoring forest-related woodlands and restoring war-affected protected areas.

- Implementing projects aimed at adapting forests to climate change and moving towards close-to-nature forestry by creating forests of natural composition and structure.

Implementing the forest strategy

Following the adoption of the "State Forest Management Strategy of Ukraine up to 2035", an action plan focusing on its implementation was drawn up back in December 2021, but the work was postponed because of the ongoing war. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources is currently preparing amendments to the aforementioned strategy.

At the same time, appropriate ways of effectively reforming the institutional structure of the forestry sector were considered on the basis of the requirements of the national strategy. After lengthy debate, the Ukrainian government adopted decree No. 100376 on 7 September 2022.

Under this decree, the regional divisions of Ukraine's State Forest Resources Agency were closed and inter-regional divisions were created, which is a new format. Overall, the number of departments with policy implementation functions has been reduced from 24 to 9. Since February 2023 all the inter-regional divisions have been operating in the new format. It should be noted that the reorganisation of forest reserves, national parks and other forest protection arrangements is effectively complete. This sector, which before the reform came under the regional departments, has been placed under the direct authority of Ukraine's State Forest Resources Agency.

In implementing the aforementioned decree, a new specialised state forest enterprise, "Forests of Ukraine", has been created under Ukraine's State Forest Resources Agency. At present it comprises 9 inter-regional offices, which coordinate the practical work of 145 forest offices (the former state forest enterprises). In total, 164 forest offices are expected to be in operation. This work is still not finished, since part of Ukraine's territory is occupied. The newly created enterprises (forest offices) carry out all the tasks associated with forest management, such as planting, tending, harvesting and selling timber.

The decree provides for "Forests of Ukraine" (as the newly created state specialised forest enterprise) to be converted into a joint-stock company in which 100% of the shares are owned by the state. The relevant bill has already been drafted.

Regulatory and legal changes

The other decisions adopted since the start of the war are listed below:

- Law No. 2321-IX of 20 June 2022 provides for amendments to several laws already in force and is intended to protect naturally afforested land (previously unused agricultural land). According to expert estimates, Ukraine has approximately 500,000 hectares of forest that are not officially regarded as such. The following measures are currently being taken: identifying such areas and liaising with local authorities in order to support a change in the designated land use from agricultural to forest land, and determining the subsequent management measures.

- Presidential order No. 675/2022 pursuant to the decision of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council of 29 September 2022 on the protection, use and restoration of Ukraine's forests over a defined period. Specific changes to legislation are expected once they have been adopted; their aim will be to improve the ecological stability of the country's forests and to promote the financial stability of forestry enterprises.

- By Law No. 2132-IX of 15 March 2022, the "logging silence" period was suspended from 15 April to 15 June 2022.

- Order No. 414 of 05.10.2022 of Ukraine's Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources on approving the methodology for determining the losses and damage caused to forests by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. Experts will assess the destruction caused to forest land parcels, forest stands, protective stands, forest nurseries and hunting grounds. Account will also be taken of the losses arising from damage to and destruction of forest products, and the income forgone will be calculated. Calculations will cover forest users' income forgone, losses of hunting grounds, the destruction or damage of biotechnical facilities, and the destruction or damage of game animals, nests, spawning grounds and animal habitats.

- Government order No. 141084 of 20.12.2022 on amendments to the forest regeneration rules. Among other things, this order lays down a) a ban on regenerating forest using invasive tree species; b) uniform requirements for the forest regeneration cycle; c) an expanded list of planting material that may be used for forest regeneration, providing for the possibility of using container-grown planting material.

- Government order No. 133985 of 25.11.2022 banned the export of fuelwood in the form of roundwood, felling residues, branches, chips or shavings. The aim of the order was to help increase the volumes of wood available in Ukraine.

- Order No. 499 of 21.11.2022 of Ukraine's Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources on approving the procedure for issuing hunting licences and annual control cards in order to register game animals taken and breaches of hunting rules. Among other things, it provides that Ukrainian citizens will be able to obtain administrative services relating to hunting irrespective of their registered place of residence.

- Government order No. 10586 of 04.02.2023 sets out the procedure for carrying out logging, as well as for using timber obtained in cases involving a change of land use.

- Government order No. 11287 of 06.02.2023 on approving the forest management planning rules. It plans to introduce a new provision on creating an electronic database in order to involve the public in the preparation of forest management plans, taking the environmental impact assessment into account.

- Law No. 2952-IX of 24 February 2023 on amendments to certain Ukrainian legislative acts concerning the protection of forests at the state borders. Under this law, a defined part of the forests along the state borders will not be regarded as forest ecosystems (areas within 30-50 m of the border). At the borders with Russia and Belarus, a 2 km strip will be transferred to defence purposes rather than forestry. As a result of implementing this law, forest areas will decrease.

- Law No. 2973-IX of 20 March 2023 on amendments to certain Ukrainian legislative acts concerning the state environmental monitoring system, information on the state of the environment (environmental information) and information support for environmental management. The law provides for uniform requirements for the various types of environmental monitoring. The law will enter into force 6 months after the end of the war.

- Government order No. 38889 of 25.04.2023, focusing on changes to the procedure for carrying out the national forest inventory in wartime (for example, better use of satellite imagery).

- Order No. 695/39751 of 05.05.2023 of Ukraine's Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, which identifies 13 invasive species that may not be used for forest regeneration.

- Government order No. 49991 of 12.05.2023 on the procedure for establishing protective zones for conserving biological diversity in forests, and on the procedure for establishing protective zones for conserving the objects listed in Ukraine's Red Book.

- Government order No. 48392 of 12.05.2023 on implementing an experimental project relating to the issuing of felling permits (felling tickets) and timber origin certificates in electronic form.

Forest research and education

Forest education and research have been substantially affected by the war. Most of the researchers from the research institution URIF&FM, based in Kharkiv, were forced to move to the western part of the country or abroad. Because of the mined areas, it is impossible to carry out field work on the sample plots that URIF&FM had selected for research (for example in Kyiv, Sumy, Chernihiv and Kharkiv oblasts and other regions). Relocation and the conditions created by the war have also restricted access to the necessary scientific equipment and databases.

Forest research station, Sumy oblast

URIF&FM (located in the eastern part of Ukraine) has three structural units. One of them is in the Sumy region, and it was destroyed along with its laboratories – the Krasnotrostyanetz forest research station. A unique scientific library and valuable archive materials relating to the results of almost 90 years of scientific research were destroyed. The other two structural units, in Kyiv and Kharkiv oblasts, were damaged, and forest-related equipment was destroyed as well (based on URIF&FM data of 2 February 2023). The scientific work of these units is restricted because of the ongoing demining process.

Three URIF&FM branches remain in occupied territory and have suspended their operations, as has one branch in Crimea.

UMFRI, located in the western part of Ukraine, has so far seen no significant impact on its facilities or research work, apart from the budget restrictions imposed by the government on carrying out research.

Since the start of the war, all educational courses in the 2022 academic year were moved to an online format. Most educational institutions were forced to suspend teaching in 2022 and 2023, apart from the universities in the western regions.