In the last three years, courts in Ukraine have improved their performance on illegal logging proceedings

The State Judicial Administration of Ukraine has provided a response to the NGO "ForestCom" regarding the results of court proceedings and the prosecution of guilty persons for illegal logging (under Article 246 of the Criminal Code) over the past three years (2019-2021).

Thus, according to the data provided by the DDAU, in 2019, the number of prosecutions for illegal timber logging that was under consideration by the courts amounted to 454 cases. Of these, 300 cases were decided (which is 66% of the proceedings), of which verdicts were issued in 164 cases (which is 55% of the number of missed proceedings), within which 177 perpetrators were convicted - for illegal cutting of trees.

In 2020, the number of proceedings that were under consideration by the courts increased and already amounted to 653, of which 407 cases were received (which is 62% of the proceedings) and in general, tw 

Twice as many cases were issued than in the previous year (357) (which is 88% of the number of partial proceedings) and 388 people were convicted.

In 2021, the number of proceedings under consideration by the courts was 923, of which 540 were considered (which is 58% of the proceedings) and 471 verdicts were issued (which is 87% of the number of present proceedings), in connection with which 497 criminals were convicted.

Summarizing the information on the consideration by the courts of criminal proceedings for prosecution for illegal logging, it can be concluded that over the past three years, on average, about 60% of the criminal proceedings that are in the courts are considered, and in the majority of cases, verdicts are issued. It should be noted that there is a trend toward an increase in the number of sentences issued from the number of criminal proceedings from 55% in 2019 to 87% in 2021. Also, the number of people prosecuted for illegal logging will increase from 177 criminals in 2019 to 388 people in 2020 and to 497 people in 2021.

Taking into account the several above indicators of the judicial system, we can draw a conclusion about the increase in the number of cases in which verdicts were issued with the prosecution of guilty persons for illegal logging and the increase in the number of persons prosecuted, which indicates the almost inevitability of punishment for illegal logging if the case came to court and was expressed, but we can hope that the improvement of the effectiveness of the judicial system will give the opportunity to inform the society and "all lovers of illegal logging" about the significant improvement of the judicial system for the rule of law for crimes against forest destruction. The only problem we consider is the possible problems related to the timely consideration of all cases that have come to the court (because every year about a third of the proceedings are not considered and this indicator decreases from 66 to 58% due to the increase in the number of cases from 454 to 923), which can be explained by understaffing and significant workload of local courts.

Along with this, it is worth paying attention to the fact that today the main need to improve the efficiency of pre-trial investigation bodies will remain. If only 10-20% of recorded cases of illegal logging over the past three years were sent to court. However, the good news is that both the number of detected cases (from 3,347 to 4,383) and the percentage of cases referred to court (from 10% to 20.1%) are increasing every year. This is contradicted by the statistics provided by the Prosecutor General's Office, which we learned about on May 31.

In order to increase the effectiveness of investigations of detected cases of illegal logging of our forest, the public organization "Forest Initiatives and Society" created and implements a relevant online training course, which the US Forest Service supports as part of the implementation of the program to combat illegal logging in Ukraine.

You can find out more about training opportunities (both online and practical) for law enforcement officers of the National Police, SBU, SBU, prosecutor's office and other services by writing to us by e-mail (info@forestcom.org.ua) or by contacting us at any other way.