A budget of hundreds of drones: how much the country spends on maintaining national parks during the war

There are more than 50 national parks in Ukraine, each of which covers a large area. Some of them are still occupied. Others are engaged in everyday activities, but what kind of activities and what budgets of public funds are spent on them - in the exclusive material of UNN.

One of the most scandalous national parks in Ukraine is the Tuzly Estuaries in Odesa region. UNN has already written about the fact that the management has been unchanged for almost 10 years, and the Ministry of Ecology has been unable to hold a competition, so two people have been actually replacing each other in the position and managing the park as acting managers. Numerous scandals with locals lead to clashes and criminal proceedings. Neighboring communities are demanding that the ministry hold a competition and replace the acting management, but so far to no avail. Locals also complain about the terror of this acting management, noting that they are forbidden to cultivate historically owned areas and freely visit the park - allegedly, the park management puts up fences and allows visitors to enter for a fee, while they and the entire park are funded exclusively by the state and people's taxes. The park officials, in turn, are expanding the territory by absorbing adjacent land plots, but all of them will remain controversial until they are allocated in kind.

UNN found out what kind of budget is needed for one such national park. Using the example of the Tuzly Estuaries, it turned out that its annual expenses amount to UAH 5,565,380, 97% of which are spent on salaries. The park has a staff of 45 people, a platoon of employees who are supposedly engaged in environmental protection activities.

In response to a request by UNN, the national park said that many environmental activities were carried out in 2023, such as 500 photographs for the archive, herbarium specimens of some plants, new species of mantis and brown bullfrogs, and participation in numerous conferences/seminars and meetings. A lot of environmental and educational events took place last year, the national park added, such as the Wetlands Day and the Day of Captive Dolphins.

The budget of the Tuzly Estuaries includes 300 drones, which are in dire need of the military on the front line and which people will donate to. If we assume that every national park has such budgets, and there are more than 50 of them, then limiting their funding and freeing up budgetary funds would be enough for 15,000 drones.

Ukrainian environmentalists suggest conducting audits of national parks to find out whether they really have such a large number of employees. "To be honest, I'm surprised because I've never paid attention to this, and I usually hear from similar institutions that either they don't have funding or they can't increase their staff by more than 10 people. This includes a director, a deputy, a researcher, and a few inspectors, for example. And here it turns out that the total number of employees on the territory of 278 square kilometers is 45 people. Maybe I don't understand something, but it's too much. For example, I don't understand what 45 people do. It's just that in my practice, it was a different industry, not a nature reserve fund, but I encountered the fact that one of the environmental institutes had 25 "dead souls" in its budget. The director received money for these people who did not work on the territory of the institute. I hope that this is not a true story and that these people actually perform some functions. I would, for example, start checking what functions 45 people perform on the territory of the national park," said ecologist Tetiana Lampika.

The editorial board of UNN draws the attention of law enforcement officers to the possible misappropriation of state budget funds on a particularly large scale if numerous park employees turn out to be "dead souls." It also draws the attention of members of the Verkhovna Rada and the leadership of the Ministry of Ecology responsible for the rational use of the budget. On behalf of the communities , UNN appeals to the Ministry of Ecology to finally hold an open competition for the position of the head of the Tuzly Estuaries National Park in order to reduce the degree of tension and resolve disputes between residents of the neighboring villages and officials of the park itself.