Last spring, to provide access to equipment for the construction of 30 wind power plants in the Transcarpathian Runa Valley, 10 hectares of beech forest in the Carpathians were cut down. Currently, 10 foundations for wind generators have been erected on this site.. In February, the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture gave a positive conclusion on the environmental impact assessment for the Turyansky Wind Park LLC project.. The Ministry, when issuing a construction permit, ignored more than five thousand official requests from citizens, the decision of two committees of the Verkhovna Rada and the appeal of 17 people’s deputies, noted Bohdan Kuchenko, an ecosystem conservation specialist at the NGO “Ekodiya”, in the article “Wind generators in the Carpathians: what is really happening in the mountains?

The expert notes that our country needs generating capacity, and that wind energy provides an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. However, the author of the article points out that the question is not what is being built, but where exactly and how.

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Kuchenko notes that even before the completion of the environmental impact assessment procedure, the construction of access roads and foundations began. Without a final EIA conclusion, the construction of ten foundations for wind turbines began.

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The expert notes that the law provides for the following sequence: first, a comprehensive study and public discussion are carried out, and only after that a decision is made. He adds that otherwise the EIA procedure loses its meaning as a prevention tool..

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The author of the article points out that the Runa valley, where they plan to install 30 wind turbines, is located at an altitude of 1100-1480 meters above sea level in the subalpine highlands of the Carpathians. Kuchenko draws attention to the fact that this is a very rare type of landscape, which occupies less than 0.3% of the area of \u200b\u200bUkraine.

The international organization Energy Community, according to the results of the analysis of Spatial input layers for Renewables Acceleration Areas development, does not recommend installing wind power plants in high mountain areas. At the same time, the company advises businesses to give preference to anthropogenically transformed lands for construction.

The ecosystem conservation specialist notes that representatives of Wind Parks of Ukraine LLC have plans not only to install wind turbines in the Runa meadow, but also to implement similar projects on other high-mountain ridges: the Krasnaya and Apetskaya meadows, the Ostraya and Lyutyanska Golitsa mountains, the Vodorazdelny ridge and on Svydovets. He emphasizes that we are already talking about a potentially scalable model for the development of high mountains.

The expert noted that the above-mentioned territories of Transcarpathia have a high level of biodiversity.

“Some of them are already included or proposed in the Emerald Network and are surrounded by natural reserves and primary forests,” he adds.

Kuchenko points out that environmentalists are concerned for two reasons:.

the practice of implementing parts of a project before completing the environmental impact assessment procedure, which undermines the very logic of this procedure as a preventive tool;

creating a precedent for the construction of industrial facilities in the subalpine highlands. This construction could potentially be extended to other Carpathian ridges.

Due to the development of windmills in the highlands of the Carpathians, activists over the past month have submitted four petitions to the President of Ukraine, calling for urgent measures to be taken to preserve the nature and cultural heritage of the Carpathians.

Activists proposed at the legislative level to limit large-scale construction and placement of engineering infrastructure in the highlands, regulate the conditions for sustainable development of the Carpathians, strengthen the protection of natural areas, create and expand environmental areas in the highlands of the Carpathians. However, the expert indicates that all petitions were rejected (allegedly due to the fact that they do not meet the established requirements). The authors were advised to address this issue to the government.

After a month of being ignored, the fifth petition calling for urgent action to preserve the nature of the Carpathians was finally published on the president’s website on March 20. To support the preservation of the Carpathians, you can sign the petition here.

“Without clear rules of spatial planning and strict compliance with environmental legislation, even “green” generation can create long-term environmental risks. That is why the question is not only about creating new energy capacities, but also about identifying territories where their construction is environmentally acceptable,” notes Kuchenko.

How state mechanisms allow you to bypass environmental procedures, read the article by Georgy Mogilny “GIAG Corruption Scheme”. Whose side is the state on when the peaks of the Carpathians are built up with wind turbines