Destroyed a poaching ambush – saved a moose, deer or ordinary tourist

Kyiv activists dismantled a so-called «seat» illegally built on a tree in the capital’s Holosiivskyi National Nature Park. From this «seat» animal hunters practiced shooting at live targets. Now – will not be. And a week earlier, environmentalists destroyed a similar poaching ambush in the Mizhrichynsky regional landscape park (Chernihiv region).

Dismantling of an ambush in Holosiivskyi National Park

Dismantling of an ambush in Mezhyrichinsky regional park

I did not take part in these raids, but I have seen such poaching hideouts more than once. In particular, in that part of the «Hutsulshchyna» National Nature Park, which remains under the management of the Kutsky State Forestry. Foresters then dismantled these hiding places only after articles in the central press and a good beating from the Kyiv authorities.

These ambushes are made as follows: a high strong ladder is fastened to the tree, knocked down from two fallen trunks of young trees, and on the tree itself the platform from boards from which the poacher kills animals is knocked down. Such ambushes are very difficult to notice in the thicket of leaves, so it is better to detect them in early spring, when the snow has fallen, but the trees are still bare.

Poaching «seat» in the Kutsky state forestry

Towers of death

But often shooters do not hide their ambushes. On the contrary, they are built in the form of capital wooden or even metal towers. As a rule, they are placed in the woods on the hills in the middle of small meadows, or on the border of fields and forests, near the paths by which animals move. The height of such structures is 4-8 meters. Feeding troughs or salt pans are often laid next to the towers. Near some towers there are lanterns for hunting at night.

If such a structure stands in an ordinary forest – then someone may not like it, but – legally. But if the tower is in a protected area, it is a gross violation. Environmentalists call such structures towers of death, because the animal has almost no chance to escape from the shelling, which is carried out with modern weapons from such a structure.

Hunting has been banned in national parks, biosphere reserves and regional landscape parks since 2010, and in nature reserves and monuments since 2017 (thanks to the Virgin Forest Act). This allowed the animals to find shelter from the firing squads in at least six percent (so much is occupied by all protected sites combined) of the territory of Ukraine, because the rest (except for settlements) are hunting grounds (covering 80% of our country).

But even at these unfortunate six-percent percentages, the animals are often not given rest. Heads of state and municipal forestries, owners of hunting farms sabotage the implementation of environmental laws. In many reserves, regional landscape parks and even national parks, even after the adoption of new laws, old hunting towers remained/remain and new towers were/are being built. Yes, in the reserve «Rzhyshchivsky» in the Kyiv region six months ago there were more than 50. Now there are none, but to achieve their demolition was not easy.

One of the towers in the reserve «Rzhishchevsky»

«According to Art. 20 of the Law of Ukraine «On Hunting and Hunting» hunting in prohibited places is not allowed, and therefore is poaching. That is why any hunting tower in PZF facilities is poaching, so it is subject to dismantling, «EcoPravo-Kyiv» expert Halyna Levina told «Active Citizens». – An important factor that forced lawmakers to ban hunting in national and regional parks is the safety of visitors to these recreational facilities. Vacationers, tourists hunters can simply confuse with game and kill. Statistics show that every year Ukrainian hunters kill more than 30 people on their hunts – both participants in the hunt and complete strangers.

With the State Coinspection – cooperation, with regional administrations – courts, with foresters – off and on

Despite the bold and necessary decisions of the Verkhovna Rada to ban hunting in the nature reserve fund, the executive branch was in no hurry to comply with the law. As is often the case, the initiative had to be shown to the public. NGOs (Public organizations)  “Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center”, Ukrainian Society for the Protection of Birds, «EcoPravo-Kyiv», Nature Conservation Team «Zubr» and «Zhyva planeta» initiated the All-Ukrainian public campaign to combat hunting towers in NRF (Nature Reserve Fund). The activists managed to persuade the leadership of the SEI (State Ecological Inspectorate) to get involved in this work. Activists began to find hunting towers in the reserves and report it to the environmental inspectorate. Inspectors are forcing forestries and hunting farms to dismantle such structures.

In 2018, the State Ecological Inspectorate of Ukraine dismantled 350 hunting towers in national parks, regional landscape parks, protected tracts and reserves. Environmentalists from Volyn, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Chernivtsi, Kharkiv and Zaporizhia regions did a good job. Although the resistance was often just crazy. Instead of obeying the law, officials sheltered lordly hunts in protected areas.

Halyna Levina told Active Citizens that the director of the Kirovohrad Regional State Administration’s Ecology Department, Oleksandr Kovtunov, refused to bring the provisions on the «Holoche» Reserve into line with the Law on Nature Reserves and remove items that allow hunting from the document. Public activists had to go to court, after which the Kirovohrad Regional State Administration made the necessary changes to the regulations on the «Holoche» Nature Reserve. We also had to fight with officials of the Chernivtsi and Ternopil Regional State Administration’s, who also did not want to change the provisions on the Zubrovytsia reserve and the Seretsky and Semikivsky reserves, respectively. However, this time the environmentalists defeated the bureaucrats.

Activists also tried to work directly with the State Agency of Forest Resources and its units. There are few examples of understanding so far, but they are there. For more than six months, activists have been flooding with letters and telling personal meetings to Oleksiy Boyko, head of the Kyiv Regional Forestry Department, about the sabotage of hunting legislation in protected areas located in the state forests of Kyiv Region. Mr. Oleksiy’s subordinates, in turn, said that they had complied with all the instructions and removed all the towers. In the end, the activists agreed to organize a trip with the head of the department and personally showed him a few critical points. I also had to take part in this event. We saw towers in the reserves «Rzhyshchivsky» and «Urochishche Mutvytske». Some of them were dismantled by foresters on our orders by the order of the chief, and some were promised to be demolished or moved within a month.

Elimination of towers in the reserve «Mutvytske tract»

Subsequent inspections by activists showed that this time everything was done properly. Subsequently, the towers in the Chernensky Reserve were liquidated. But Kyiv region is still the only one where protected areas are completely cleared of hunting towers. There is still a lot of work to be done, in particular, according to activists, there is a serious problem in the Mizhrichensky regional landscape park (Chernihiv region).

This year, cooperation with SEI (State Ecological Inspectorate) continues. On January 16, the Cherkasy Ecological Inspectorate, together with the public, destroyed two hunting poaching towers in the Stepankivskyi Nature Reserve. «I consider one of the main priorities in the work of the State Ecoinspection to prevent the commission of offenses on the territory of the nature reserve fund», said Oleksandr Poznyakov, head of the department of ecological supervision (control) in Cherkasy region. – The main thing is illegal hunting with the use of specially equipped places (hunting towers, perches, etc.). Therefore, the State Coinspection of the Central District is constantly taking preventive measures to detect and destroy such devices and devices. To achieve this goal, not only ongoing raids are carried out, but also preventive outreach work with the local population. To this end, we enlist the help of united territorial communities of citizens who are not indifferent to environmental issues, who help us to identify offenses in the territory of the NRF (Nature Reserve Fund). Order will always be where there is a desire to lead and maintain it. Nobody will do it for us».

Fire and ax as the last argument

In parallel with those activists who used mainly persuasion and persuasion, there is a group of citizens who call themselves «people’s avengers» and who simply burn towers illegally erected in protected areas.

Calculate these structures in the footsteps – modern hunters are lazy and go hunting usually in some jeeps. And the need to bring hay and roots to the tower (this, of course, is done by servants – hunters, guards), shows the tower rolled in any weather track. Towers are also calculated through nearby hunting lodges, forest borders and other poaching huts, where shooters drink vodka and soar in the bath after killing wild animals.

Experienced eco-activists know how best to do their job and be aware that a photo or video camera can hang on the tower. And never, never tell anyone, when, where and why they are going. But photos of the tidy tower will still be made in memory.

Oleh Lystopad

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