A whole waterfall was destroyed in Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine to convert it into a road for transporting timber. This and many other urgent issues were raised in articles submitted for FLEG II forest journalism contest in Ukraine.

The contest was launched in late February. The organizers will accept submissions till May 15. Employed journalists, freelancers, NGO activists, foresters and even normal citizens who feel passionately about forest issues can take part.

The problems that will be a priority in the contest:

• The forestry reform of Ukraine, the need to conduct it, its goals and objectives, content and methods;
• Development of the forest ownership;
• Problems and solutions in the forest management system;
• Forest legislation as part of forest policy: its structure, content, problems and solutions;
• Protection of forest biodiversity;
• The potential of forest sector of Ukraine and obstacles preventing its innovational development; trends of Ukrainian timber market;
• Openness of Ukrainian forest sector and ways to make it more transparent;
• Other existing problems of the forestry of Ukraine and possible solutions.

FLEG II Program is organizing the contest in partnership with the leading Ukrainian media, NGO Telekritika, for the 5^th time. On average, each contests receives about 70 submissions: articles, TV and radio stories, and online publications.

The details about the contest requirements (in Ukrainian): http://www.fleg.org.ua/news/1285