The Crimean Platform, an international consultation and coordination format initiated by Ukraine, will take place on August 23. The main issues discussed at the forum of high representatives of more than forty countries are: de-occupation of Crimea, violation of human rights and international humanitarian law in Crimea, in particular, the environmental threats to the peninsula, caused by the barbaric “management” of the occupation government and local collaborators. This article is yet another proof of ecocide in Crimea.
World-famous parks are being encumbered with skyscrapers and cottages; shavings of cut Red Book junipers and pines fly; streams of shit and mountains of rubbish pour into the sea and rivers; traces of tank caterpillars and funnels from shells destroy protected landscapes; predatory trawls squeeze fish – this is what our Crimea looks like today. This is how the Russian occupiers manage in the pearl of Ukrainian nature.
Ecologists and “Crimea-SOS” public organization collected, analyzed and presented data on the ecocide of the occupation government on our peninsula. This is the peninsula, which we loved and love, and which will be difficult for us to recognize after its liberation – such terrible changes were caused by the occupiers and collaborators.
The work was difficult because the researchers did not have access to the occupied territory.
“We could not take any samples. We also had no starting point. Because there is no research as of the beginning of the occupation. We had to draw conclusions using other methods. We used satellite images, from which you cannot hide anything.
We spent several months. We also analyzed a large array of information from the Internet. By the way, the materials disappear from the web. Some are in the web archive, but not all of them. Therefore, by transferring the data to our report, we saved a lot for other researchers”, one of the authors of the report, Oleksiy Vasyliuk said.
The study will be a significant help in the work of the Ministry of Environment, the State Ecological Inspectorate and the National Security and Defense Council. The report is already being used by the Representation of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
UKRAINIAN RIVIERA? FORGET!
The southern coast of Crimea has a unique climate due to the combination of air from the sea and mountains. Conifers emit volatile phytoncids that are harmful to microbes. Descending from the mountains and passing through the forest, the air is purified and saturated with oxygen. In the coastal zone it mixes with the sea air. Hence, this area possesses unique healing properties. The revitalizing and therapeutic effects of climatic factors on the Southern Coast of Crimea are comparable to the resorts of the French Cote d’Azur, the Italian Riviera.
Crimea has saved the health of hundreds of thousands of patients with asthma, emphysema, chronic laryngitis, etc. But it is unlikely to be able to do so in the near future. It is possible to preserve such a healing climate on the SCC only if the forest in the Crimean Mountains is preserved. In particular, forests in the Yalta Nature Reserve which the occupation government of the Crimea now kills step by step.
The reserve stretches along a narrow strip of the southern slopes of the Crimean Mountains from Foros to Gurzuf for almost 50 km, surrounding the Great Yalta. Even before the occupation of Crimea by Russia, there were attempts to plunder its territory. But Ukrainian legislation and the active position of environmental experts, not only local but also from many other parts of Ukraine, got in the way. The last such attempt took place in 2013, when high-ranking split-up-makers prepared a draft presidential Decree on changing the boundaries of the reserve. In particular, according to this document 700 hectares of the most valuable forests located on the southern slopes should be eliminated.
The Revolution of Dignity prevented the signing of the Decree. It seemed that the reserve was saved. But the “green men” came and …
The occupiers did not change the borders (although they withdrew 36.5 hectares). Instead, they changed the Regulation on the Yalta Mountain and Forest Reserve (approved in July 2020 at the federal level). The document allows for jeep competitions on its territory (off-road vehicles drive anywhere and crush everything in its path), organize two routes for snowmobiles, three – for ATVs, two bike and motor paths, motorcycle route, rope jumping “Ai-Petri” and “Shaan-Kaya”, ski lift and tubing.
Both the Yalta and Crimean Reserves (which will be discussed below) are not only climate guards and formers of the resort features of the peninsula. They are serious important institutions, where long-term research and continuous monitoring were conducted. Now the plans of scientists have gone awry, and the data gained over the years are significantly devalued.
“Research has been conducted in the protected areas of the Crimea for over 150 years. For botanists, in particular, these are extremely interesting places. In the Yalta Mountain Forest Reserve there is an opportunity to study forests of downy oak with areas of tall juniper and pistachio, Crimean pine, Koch pine (near Gurzuf) in combination with Scotch pine and typical beech forests, as well as relict juniper forests. It is there that millennial juniper grows. In the Crimean Reserve, for example, there is a 700-year-old linden tree, etc. In Crimea, there is a large number of endemics (species with a very narrow range. – Ed.), many species from the Red Book. But because of Russian aggression, the opportunity for scientists (except of those who remained in the occupation) to continue the study of these complexes is now lost”, – Viktor Melnyk, Doctor of Biological Sciences, says.
Experts from the “Ecology and Peace” Crimean Association (before the occupation it was a regional Ukrainian NGO) said that the emergence of motor routes will lead to destruction of the very idea of the nature reserve management. Instead, it will create a misconception in the public consciousness about the reserve as a training area for extreme tourism. The members of the Association appealed to the Ministry of Environment of Russia, to the so-called Committee on Ecology and Natural Resources of the Crimean “parliament” and to the directorate of the managing organization “Crimea Under Protection”. But it didn’t help.
Most of the 76 sites of the Reserve, which are now open to extreme tourism, according to documents, are located in the Livadia and Gruzuf areas. It is clear that the forests will be cut over for all these race tracks routes, heavy machinery will enter the protected area for the construction of roads and infrastructure, and the roar of engines will scare the animals away. Although according to both Ukrainian and Russian legislation, even the mere presence of people on the territory of nature reserves is strictly limited.
“We can assume that the recreational development of the Yalta Mountain and Forest Reserve is a continuation of the efforts which were made by some Crimean officials on the eve of the occupation in 2011-2013 and were related to the person of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych,” – Oleksiy Vasyliuk says.
It is a sad story. After all, my colleagues from “Ecology and Peace” and I fought side by side for the preservation of Crimean reserves. Now the occupiers are brushing aside the now-Russian “Ecology and Peace” NGO like an annoying fly and will not listen to Ukrainian environmental organizations.
A special problem is the dumping of garbage on the territory of the Yalta Reserve. In 2016, after a video released by local activist Serhiy Psaryov, the media actively disseminated information about this threat. Now the information is removed from the Russian and Crimean web-sites.
LORD’S HUNTING FOR PUTIN & Co.
On June 4, 2014, the occupation Council of Ministers of the Crimea issued the so-called order No. 64-p “On the transfer of real estate to the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for free use”. The list includes sanatoriums, residences, and boarding houses. The Crimean Nature Reserve is also in the list. In proceeded to get worse. The occupiers lowered its protection status to the level of the national park.
These decisions nullified the titanic work of Ukrainian conservationists, who year by year repelled the encroachment of the authorities on the unique Crimean nature. Crimean Nature Reserve is one of the first reserves in Ukraine. It was founded in March 1918. as the “Crimean National Reserve”. In 1923, it was re-registered by the Decree of the Council of People’s Commissars on the area of 16,350 hectares as the “Crimean State Reserve”. In 1925 the area was expanded to 23,000 hectares. Well-known scientists such as Mikhail Rozanov, Vladimir Martino, Ivan Puzanov, and Franz Schillinger worked on the creation of the reserve and conducted research there.
In 1957, the Soviet authorities reorganized the “Crimean” into a hunting reserve. It was used for “lords” hunting of Khrushchev, Brezhnev, other Soviet and party bonzes and the reception of foreign guests. The status of the reserve was restored only in 1991 (Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the UkrSSR of June 29, №64). This happened thanks to a powerful campaign of Ukrainian conservationists.
The Resolution of the Russian government (September 2018) on reorganizing the “Crimean” in the national park, along with its transfer to the General Affairs Department of the RF President rejected the situation until the Khrushchev-Brezhnev era. After all, Russian legislation, in contrast to Ukrainian, allows hunting in national parks. And given the subordination of “Crimean” to the administration of the RF President, it becomes clear that there will be organized not just hunting, but lords’ safaris in violation of all norms and regulations, as is now happening in other residences of the Russian president.
In contrast to the category of nature reserve, which is the strictest and does not provide for any economic activity, only part of the territory is strictly protected in national parks, it is the protected area. In other areas, depending on their status, recreation, logging and even construction are allowed. According to “Ecology and Peace”, the reorganization will result in building development on 20% of the Reserve territory. It is planned to build four hotel complexes, parking lots, roads (35 pedestrian and nine auto routes, ATV and jeep routes), nine visit centers. And this is where wildlife has been strictly protected for the past 100 years. Hay harvesting, deforestation, herborization, mushroom collecting, cultivation of agricultural products will increase, hunting will become more frequent.
There was no in-depth public discussion of the project of reorganization of the Reserve into a national park. “Ecology and Peace” tried to fight against these plans, but in vain. On November 13, 2019, the Office of the RF President issued Order No. 442 “On Approval of the Regulation on the Crimean National Park”, which fixed the area of the new national park and zoning. The protected area will occupy less than 50% of the territory. And it will not be a solid massif, but individual islets, separated by economic and recreational zones.
The occupiers excluded the Swan Islands Reserve (wetlands of international importance in Karkinitsky Bay) from the Crimean Reserve and changed its status to the level of the individual reserve.
“According to our data, this new formation in Karkinitsky Bay has no security staff and therefore does not actually function. This means loss of control over hunting and fishing. Analysis of satellite images allowed us to identify the installation of stationary gear for catching living bioresources in the waters of Karkinitsky Bay, which previously was a part of the Reserve”, – Oleksiy Vasyliuk says.
The Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Anton Korynevych said that the international “Crimean Platform” initiated by Ukraine (international coordination mechanism for the protection of human rights in Crimea and promoting the de-occupation of the peninsula) will raise these issues. The mission itself constantly keeps the environmental problems of Crimea in sight.
“We monitor the situation. We give materials to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. We will definitely raise issues regarding the activities of the Crimean Titan and other chemical plants and facilities, as well as the pumping of groundwater. Destruction of protected areas on the Bakal sand bar (on the north-western coast of Crimea) and other locations; environmental losses as a result of Russia’s implementation of large-scale infrastructure projects – the bridge across the Kerch Strait, construction of the Tavryda highway, etc. are also in the focus of our attention”, – Anton Korynevych says.
On March 24, 2021, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine approved the Strategy for De-occupation and Reintegration of Crimea. It contains the “Environmental Policy” Section. Art. 64 of the Strategy states: “Ukraine prepares a register of damage caused to the state of Ukraine, its citizens and legal entities as a result of actions of the Russian Federation, its occupation administration, which caused pollution and other negative impact on the environment in the temporarily occupied territory, organizes and carries out activities in international judicial institutions and arbitrations on the issue of compensation for such damages and losses.”
“Preparation of a strategy implementation plan is underway. We have provided a number of proposals on international platforms, we initiate the development of procedures and methods for calculating losses, conducting the study on damages caused, updating the issue of systemic deterioration of the situation”, – Anton Korynevych said.
Oleg LYSTOPAD
P.S. Read the story about the loss of parks-monuments of garden and park art of the Crimea and other environmental problems created by the occupiers on the peninsula in the next issues of the “Svit”.
“Svit” newspaper, № 31 – 32, August 2021