At the initiative of the Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management and with the support of the German-Ukrainian project ‘Promotion of multifunctional sustainable forest management planning and implementation in Ukraine’ (SFI), a working meeting on ‘German experience in the legal regulation of forest reproductive resources for implementation in Ukraine’ was held.
The event was attended by the Head of the Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management, Deputy of Ukraine Oleh Bondarenko, the Head of the Subcommittee, Deputy of Ukraine Yulia Ovchynnykova, the Head of the German-Ukrainian SFI Project Volker Sasse, the Head of the Saxony Forestry Competence Centre Dirk-Roger Eisenhauer, representatives of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”, the State Organisation ‘Ukrainian Forestry Breeding Centre’, SFI project, employees of the Committee’s secretariat, assistant consultants of the Members of Parliament of Ukraine, and the public.
Head of the Committee Oleh Bondarenko noted that the reason for the working meeting was the draft law on forest reproductive resources (Reg. No. 9116), which is being prepared for the second reading in the Committee. The adoption of this draft law will define the basic legal and organisational principles and conditions for the use of forest reproductive resources in Ukraine, their import and export, bring the provisions of national legislation as close as possible to European requirements on forest reproductive resources, and will also allow attracting investments and new technologies to this area.
Ihor Budzinskyi, Head of the Forestry and Forest Reproduction Department of the State Forest Resources Agency, focused on the importance and necessity of legislative regulation of forest reproductive resources for the forest industry. He noted that the adoption of the draft law (Reg. No. 9116) will facilitate: the establishment of classification and alignment with EU standards of terms applied to forest reproductive material; establishment of requirements for the production of forest reproductive material and its use; formation of a register of territories of origin of forest reproductive material and preparation of relevant maps; establishment of requirements for the procedure for labelling, storage and movement of forest reproductive material.
Dirk-Roger Eisenhauer, international consultant of the SFI project, head of the Saxony Forestry and Forestry Competence Centre, spoke about the main points of legal regulation of forest reproductive resources in the Federal Republic of Germany and commented on some of the provisions of the draft law (Reg. No. 9116), taking into account the legislation, administrative and operational regulations of Germany (Forest Reproductive Material Act FoVG) and the EU, as well as the Federal State of Saxony.
SFI Project Leader Volker Sasse noted that he supports Ukrainian partners in developing forest policy and legislative frameworks to ensure sustainable multifunctional forest management in the process of EU accession. The implementation of the procedures and rules established by EU Regulation 2023/415 on forest reproductive material is an important step in bringing national forestry legislation in line with EU legislation.
The participants of the working meeting also asked Mr Dirk-Roger Eisenhauer a number of questions regarding the legal regulation of forest reproductive resources in the Federal Republic of Germany, in particular, regarding the controlling bodies and liability for violation of legislation in the field of forest reproductive resources, import and export of forest reproductive material and the certification system.
The Head of the Committee, Oleg Bondarenko, thanked the German side for participating in the working meeting, for their support in bringing the national forestry legislation in line with the EU standards and noted that the information and experience of German colleagues will be taken into account when drafting the bill (Reg. No. 9116), the adoption of which will allow building a new European-integrated system of transparent market relations and state regulation in the activities of obtaining and selling forest reproductive material, improving the forms and methods of control over entities conducting economic activities.
