FLEG II Program held a round table in Kyiv, devoted to the improvement of the legal liability for infringement of the forest legislation.

The report of FLEG II expert Oleg Storchous on this topic aroused great interest and marked the beginning of an intense discussion, with the participation of the representatives of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Goslesagentstvo, other departments, scientists and the public.

A study conducted by Oleg Storchous (http://www.fleg.org.ua/docs/1495 - in Ukrainian), showed that the current state of responsibility for violations in the forest sector requires a comprehensive compilation and analysis of practices, identification of specific ways to improve the legislation in the this area. A number of related draft laws have been brought to Parliament in recent years, but they offered only occasional or superficial changes in administrative and criminal penalties for violations. In addition, many of these laws have been rejected or remained pending because of poor quality or for other reasons.

The work conducted by FLEG II experts, as well as the proposals expressed during the round table can be directly used for the preparation of the relevant laws. This will update the existing forestry and related legislation, accelerate the analysis of questions of legal liability for violations in the field of forestry.

In the second part of the round table participants discussed the report of FLEG II program expert Mikhail Popkov: "Preparing the Interagency Action Plan for the Prevention of Illegal Logging and Timber Trafficking; Detection and Prevention of Corruption Offenses in the Forest Sector of Ukraine. "

Most forest countries have such plans by now. Ukraine committed itself to create this plan already a decade ago in the framework of the St. Petersburg Declaration of Europe and North Asia. According to the participants of the round table, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine should determine the person responsible for the creation of such a plan and start preparing it as soon as possible.