Another scandal is brewing in the capital: archival documents on nearly two hundred protected areas of the city cannot be found. Deputies say this could lead to construction in parks and forests. Environmentalists estimate that approximately 12 hectares of green space could be affected. The Kyiv City Council is also concerned about the loss and has decided to contact the prosecutor's office, believing the disappearance of the documents is no accident.
KV learned of this from a message on the Glavkom publishing house website.
"The situation is critical, as the lack of such documents could lead to the disappearance of green spaces in Kyiv. They could simply be built over, as developers have become increasingly active recently. We will contact the prosecutor's office to find out where the documents are," said Ruslan Andriyko, head of the Kyiv City Council's environmental commission.
"After the liquidation of the Ministry of Natural Resources' territorial office, the archive of protected areas was not transferred to the Kyiv City State Administration. So where is it? Folders containing original maps, regulations, conservation orders, and other documents for nearly 200 protected areas in Kyiv have disappeared!" laments Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleksandr Bryhynets.
The Kyiv City State Administration claims that the Ministry of Natural Resources' Department of Environmental Protection, where the archive was located, has not been liquidated, but exists only on paper. "The department has not been completely liquidated, as there was a decision to suspend the liquidation, but it exists only on paper. The documents have not been handed over to us. Whether they actually exist or have been lost is unknown, as we've been trying to find out from the Ministry of Natural Resources for over a year," said Danylo Mavlyanov, head of the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Ecology and Natural Resources Protection.
Environmentalists are sounding the alarm, claiming that protected areas, including public gardens and parks, are at risk of deforestation and development. "The archive has been created since 1968, and that includes parks, forests, and Kyiv's islands.
Some of the most controversial were: part of the Belichansky Forest and Zhukov Island. The archives indicated which agency was responsible for each nature conservation area, and these documents precluded the possibility of development there. All the documents were in a single copy," said Alexey Vasilyuk, deputy head of the National Environmental Center.
The Department of Urban Development and Architecture reassures us: there's a General Plan, and it contains all the data (the old version had thousands of changes and exclusions of this or that area from the list of green zones, but the new version of the document hasn't yet been submitted to the Kyiv City Council for review).
"All protected areas and sites requiring protection were recorded in various levels of environmental documentation, including the General Plan. Of course, it's possible we won't be able to find the information on the basis of which certain protection restrictions were established, but that doesn't mean they can't be restored," reassures Andrey Vavrysh, Deputy Director of the Department of Urban Development and Architecture.
Experts disagree with the official. "The General Plan only shows the outline. And if construction begins in a park, it will be impossible to prove that it's in a restricted area, since there's nowhere to look up the data. Over the past 10 years, the General Plan has been violated more than 6 times. Now no one can guarantee the integrity of nature conservation areas," says Alexey Vasilyuk.
However, the Kyiv City State Administration's ecology department made no denials. "The Kyiv City State Administration received office equipment from the Ministry of Natural Resources' territorial administration, but no information. There are no databases or archives! If a developer wants to build something now, we won't be able to verify whether the site is within the protected area," notes Danila Mavlyanov.
Kristina Shevchenko, KyivVlast
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