Effort of citizens and National Natural Park "Hutsulshchyna" in identifying illegal logging | Environmental Crimes 2026 Workshop

This poster was presented at the Environmental Crimes Joint Workshop with ESA-JRC-UNODC (29 September – 1 October 2026, Frascati, Italy) within the more4nature project. In Ukraine’s Carpathians, the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine (NECU) works with local residents, authorities and the National Nature Park “Hutsulshchyna” to tackle illegal logging, which has caused more than €5.0 million in estimated damage to the park.

NECU analysed forest cover change at three sites with different types of forest use, using PlanetScope imagery, expert verification and field surveys. Compared with the JRC’s automated method, the NECU method is more labour-intensive but more accurate. The JRC method is faster and suits areas where fieldwork is impossible, such as combat zones.

Through the SMART mobile application, more than 50 citizens and students recorded 116 environmental violations, including 52 cases of illegal logging. Based on these records, park staff drew up 13 reports between 2023 and 2025, with total damages of about €38,700.

Between 2016 and 2025, 419 ha of forest were lost across the three sites, more than 200 ha of them in communal forests, where logging appeared to be illegal. The study shows how satellite monitoring and citizen-generated data can work together to support environmental compliance. more4nature is funded by Horizon Europe (grant No. 101133983) and UKRI. More information: www.more4nature.eu