Цей веб-сайт зберігає файли cookie на вашому комп'ютері illegal logging and extraction of groundwater without a permit EcoPolitic has collected the 7 most significant cases of environmental damage that were made public during the week of November 16-22 The information was published by the press services of prosecutors' offices and units of the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine on the territory of the Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park state environmental inspectors of the Southwestern District together with inspectors of the Odesa Fisheries Patrol water police officers of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District Police and the Kurortne Border Guard Service detained an offender who was engaged in illegal fishing the offender caught 420 flounders without permission on Lake Alibey The inspectors calculated over UAH 18 million in damage to Ukraine's fish stocks The Economic Court of Rivne region upheld the claim of the State Ecological Inspectorate of Polissia District and ruled to recover from Dubrovytsia City Council UAH 4.9 million of damage caused to the environment by illegal felling of 840 trees of different species on forestry land plots owned by Dubrovytsia City Council near Shakhy and Velyki Ozera villages 3. In the Rivne region, the Varaska District Prosecutor's Office went to court and ordered the Zarichne village council to return to state ownership a 40.4-hectare land plot within the Nobel National Nature Park worth more than UAH 1 billion the local community had registered its communal ownership of the disputed land without any legal grounds 4. In Ivano-Frankivsk region, prosecutors served a notice of suspicion to an engineer at a Kalush enterprise He is charged with illegal extraction of minerals of national importance – groundwater The amount of environmental damage amounted to over UAH 4.9 million 5. A 50-year-old resident of Kosiv district, who illegally cut down trees in the territory of the nature reserve fund in October 2024, was also suspected he caused more than UAH 1 million in damage to the state 6. Prosecutors of the Voznesensk District Prosecutor's Office in Mykolaiv region succeeded in court in stopping the illegal use of the lands of the Buzky Gard National Nature Park which is part of the Emerald Network of Ukraine and belongs to the lands of the nature reserve fund The investigation found that Oleksandrivka village council illegally transferred 5 land plots with a total area of 10 hectares and a value of over UAH 180 million into private ownership for private farming 7. The Pidvolochysk village council in Ternopil region will pay UAH 4.7 million to the state budget for environmental damage caused by illegal landfills – the relevant court decision has entered into force Prosecutors proved that this local government body failed to properly fulfill its statutory obligations in the field of environmental protection and the relevant orders of the State Environmental Inspectorate in Ternopil Oblast to eliminate illegal landfills of household waste in the community for 2 years This led to land pollution and contamination and Earlier, EcoPolitic prepared an infographic about the environmental damage in Ukraine over 1000 days of full-scale war They warned against excessive pressure on enterprises under martial law He can receive a prison term of 2 to 5 years Works are underway despite the negative conclusion on the EIA report there were several illegal logging operations and two cases of illegal mineral water extraction The use of materials posted on the EcoPolicy media platform is permitted only if the link to the EcoPolicy is provided and for online publications - the placement of a direct hyperlink to the page where the original material is posted The editors may not share the point of view stated in the author's material The advertiser is responsible for the accuracy of information published in promotional materials The dates displayed for an article provide information on when various publication milestones were reached at the journal that has published the article activities on preceding journals at which the article was previously under consideration are not shown (for instance submission Journal of Environmental RadioactivityCitation Excerpt :Taking biodilution into account the radiological efficiency (reduction factor) of the countermeasure in reducing activity concentrations of 137Cs in fish muscle tissues was a factor of 7–16 and 12–27 for the application of clean feed containing 0.1% ((kf + kw) = 3.1 ± 0.6 day−1) and 1% ((kf + kw) = 2.3 ± 0.5 day−1) KFCF compared to the control groups without additional clean feeding (cages 1 and 2) and native carp compared to fish with additional clean feed without KFCF (cages 3 and 4) (Table 1) Implementation of the present countermeasure would increase feeding costs by 1% and 10% due to the addition of 0.1% and 1% of KFCF to feed as the cost of KFCF is about 10 Euro per kg (Ulanovsky et al. compared to present costs of fish feed in Ukraine of about 1 Euro per kg (https://skaliaria.rv.ua/) But given the high reduction factors obtainable the countermeasure could certainly be economically justified in terms of radiation protection and fish food production Ecotoxicology and Environmental SafetyCitation Excerpt :Source data indicate that the increased 137Cs accumulation in some species occurs during suckling period Such cases were noticed with cows from Ukraine (Labunska et al. the consumption of offspring meat and mother’s milk should be treated with caution (Nesterenko et al. Collected data do not allow such conclusions to be drawn in the case of suckling from the Opole Anomaly Environment InternationalCitation Excerpt :In 2019 the second round of sampling was conducted at the same twelve locations as described above resulting in a further sixty samples that also were analysed as twelve composites The measurement of 137Cs activity concentration in soil grain and wood samples was performed as previously reported (Labunska et al. utilising a low-level gamma-spectrometer with a high-purity germanium detector (GEM-30185 USA) equipped with a multichannel analyzer (ASPEC-927) and a passive protection device This instrument was operated using the GammaVision software (ORTEC All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V. The deep scars of recent amber mining can be seen in Dubrovytsya despite government restrictions on the practice A chaotic scene in Ukraine has miners pitted against each other and the government often with deadly consequences and significant environmental harm Dubrovytsya — Vlad’s black SUV softly crunched through the gravel in front of Dubrovytsya’s faded Polish Catholic church The sound of circular saws echoed from inside where workmen were restoring the 300-year-old rococo cathedral to its pre-Soviet glory—allegedly with money from the illicit amber trade The former cops popped the trunk of Vlad’s 4x4 and he pulled out a shotgun He grabbed a few shells and put the gun in the back of our truck “We’re always armed when we go out,” said the illegal amber miner assailants armed with machine guns and grenades attacked young men in a coffee shop in the town of Olevsk killing one and seriously wounding around a dozen others Pictures from the scene show blood and handguns splashed across the snow Men mine for amber in western Ukraine in November The rush is built on the backs of tens of thousands of poor villagers as they illegally blast apart the landscape with pressure hoses, digging from the loose earth of northwest Ukraine the brown lumps of fossilized tree resin made famous in Jurassic Park On our way out of town we passed a modest showroom selling legal jewelry and Orthodox icons encrusted in the finished product—polished bits of amber gleaming from buttery yellow to clear dark honey a row of shops sold home furnishings and construction supplies as people rush to use the money from the bonanza to fix up their small homes or build new ones The banditry is so widespread it has become a sort of dark joke—a wink “We will be your roof,” a play on “krysha,” Russian for “roof,” but slang for “protection racket.” Ivanna Yurkevich arranges an amber necklace in her shop in Dubrovytsya which sells products produced by the legal government-operated factory Amber Ukraine in Rivne cruising through open farmland and old villages The influx of amber money means that every other cottage has been repaired or was being modernized Soon we entered a dark forest of green pine and white birch that hid thousands of shallow amber pits—what locals call a Klondike A woman mines for amber in Obyshche, Ukraine, in May. Although members of the Zhytomyrska regional branch of the National Guard were patrolling the site they did not stop her, they said because she was not using any pumps or other professional equipment. When amber is mined on a large scale, the visible impact is industrial. Acres upon acres of forest are clear cut and backhoes are used to dig a channel to a water source—usually a river. Then thousands of miners descend on the Klondike and use water pumps made of old Mercedes van engines to blast into the ground, sucking water from the canal in huge tangles of pipe. “This is a really major environmental issue,” said Ostap Semerak, Ukraine’s minister of ecology and natural resources. “Politicians now have to choose between money today and the protection of the environment,” he said in an interview this summer, “and politicians often make environmentally immature decisions.” It is not clear how many thousands of hectares of land have been destroyed by the illegal mining of amber. And the minister acknowledged that the problem is multifaceted and will not be solved overnight. Amber miner Sanya Pavlyuk, 24, of Osova shows a site where he used to work in Hrytsky. Since a recent government crackdown on the practice, Pavlyuk has stopped mining. On our visit, there were no miners around, and the trashed woods were eerie. We stopped and Vlad grabbed his shotgun. Stas stalked purposefully through the trees, leading us to one pit that looked like all the others. But this was a famous pit, because it was here that a team of eight wildcatters had dug four meters through topsoil and loose sand and hit the jackpot. “The guys working here pulled $50,000 worth of amber from this one pit in one day,” said Stas. It’s the Wild East here. People have gone crazy.Stepan Tsaryuk, Police ChiefIn a country where most people make around $2,100 a year, this $6,250 windfall per miner would mean a completely different life. “I have a boy and girl, six and seven years old,” said Vlad, standing next to the hole—now collapsed in and covered in fallen pine needles. “I needed to feed my family. Now, if I’m lucky, I can get a house and a car in one day.” Stas quit working as a cop four years ago and started mining, but he remained friends with Vlad. And Vlad sometimes went out on police raids against his friends. “I was making $150 a month as a cop and then the currency fell against the dollar. How was I supposed to feed my family?” said Vlad. So he quit and joined his friends in the amber fields earlier this year. “When I began, my wife said I should have started five years ago!” he said. Within a few months he saved around $25,000 and bought his black Toyota Land Cruiser. Men pick over a previously mined site in search of loose amber. The stakes are enormous. To show me, Stas pulled out his phone and showed me a text message from an illegal Chinese wholesale buyer in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital. A rare, 100-gram stone is worth $4,800, it read. An intact, 50-gram piece pays out $3,800. Even a 2-gram piece is worth $150. “Right now the Chinese are paying about $2,000 to $3,000 per kilogram, if you have big stones,” said Stas. The amber is then made into jewelry and other products, much of which is sold in China. “Fights happen all the time, every day,” Stas added. Amber miners block the road on May 30 to confront special police sent to crackdown on their activities. And it is not just fists and shovels. At one point two crews got in a fight at this Klondike. To settle it “someone threw a grenade into the yard of a house as a warning,” Stas said. “It’s like Chicago in the 1920s. It’s a small town, but the mafia is even worse here,” said Stepan Tsaryuk, the 28-year-old chief of police in Dubrovytsya. He is a former special forces soldier and bears the scars of a machete strike on one arm, a wound received while fighting in hand-to-hand combat in Ukraine’s war on its border with Russia. “We have an open war in the east and a secret war here,” he said. A man was recently arrested on suspicion of transporting a 26.5-pound sack of amber stones worth around $20,700. He allegedly assaulted two officers and tried to escape and was only subdued when more officers arrived on the scene. Another was arrested on suspicion of transporting a 200-pound bag of stones. No one wants to legalize the amber trade because there is too much money to be made from bribes.Oleksandr Zadorozhniy, City Councilman“It’s not a little bit dangerous, it’s very dangerous,” Tsaryuk said. “Last January a guy was killed. There was a fight over money in a village nearby and one guy beat another to death with his fists.” Just then his phone rang and a relieved smile crossed his face when a deputy said a drunken farmer had driven his tractor into a pond and needed to be pulled out. Since the bonanza began a few years ago a local trauma doctor said he has treated miners for grenade wounds, gunshots, and stabbings. He whispered to me that anyone can buy a Kalashnikov for $750, or a grenade for $150. A home-made pump said to have been used by illegal amber miners was confiscated by police in Dubrovytsya.Photograph by Brendan Hoffman, National Geographic (Top) (Left) and Photograph by Brendan Hoffman, National Geographic (Bottom) (Right)Hoses are used to blast water into holes to free up amber from the sandy soil. It is not only the fighting that puts people at risk. In the past five or six years the doctor has personally treated 500 or 600 people injured in pit collapses. “They dig down five meters and the dirt and sand slips and collapses, burying the men alive,” he said. “I’ve seen three or four guys who have been crushed completely. You can have two tons of sand falling in on you.” “And people drink, drink, drink,” said the doctor. “Mostly its drunk driving that gets them. Or drunk digging,” he said. “It’s the Wild East here. People have gone crazy.” Broader legalization of the estimated $500 million a year amber mining activities might help, said Tsaryuk. But getting there could be a challenge in a country struggling to contain violence and corruption. Government officials and police disagree on how it should be done, and many miners remain opposed. The town of Dubrovytsya has recently seen a spate of violence that can be linked back to amber mining. “If they legalized the trade, a sack worth $1,000 now would drop to around $500, and the government would skim off the remainder for themselves,” said Stas as we climbed back into the 4x4. Even two years after the revolution in Kiev that was meant to end the rule of a kleptocratic government, corruption continues to be a monumental issue. Many believe the government will not be able to satisfy requirements by the International Monetary Fund that the country enact stronger anti-corruption laws. Because of this, Ukraine has only received around $7.7 billion of the IMF’s $17.5 billion loan. Amber miner Vanya Predyuk married Vika Predyuk on May 29 in Dubrovytsya. Some of the confusion comes from the gemstone’s history in the region. In Soviet times, locals “used amber like we use coal today,” says Tamara Yakovenko, 83, sitting on a bench in front of her picturesque cottage, situated on the banks of the shady Gorin River below the Polish church. She has lived her entire life in Dubrovytsya. Since common people couldn’t accrue wealth in the USSR like they can today, amber was not valued. “No one needed laws on amber 25 years ago. It would be like a law on apples or a law on peanuts, there was no need for it at the time,” said Colonel Sergey Knyazev, the former provincial commander of the police. At the Rivne Amber Factory, a government run enterprise nearby, they specialize in polished stones and gaudy, amber encrusted religious icons and portraits. In Ukraine, they are highly coveted. The company has made and delivered portraits to everyone from U.S. presidents to popes to dictators. (Gaddafi’s men ordered a portrait of the leader, then would not buy the finished product until the factory upped the price from $3,000 to $30,000.) A local family enjoys a picnic along the Sluch River in Dubrovytsya, despite recent tensions in the area. Sergey Martyniuk, the deputy director, has a bit of perspective on the situation. He said the amber mined in the area is made illegal because the wildcatters mine it illegally. “It’s like you buy a car and get in and you’re ready to drive off and the guy stops you and says you need a license,” says Martyniuk. “These guys have a car, but they don’t have the right to drive it.” Back in Dubrovytsya, Yuri and Ivanna Yurkevich, who run the legal jewelry shop, said their neighbors in town do not care about licenses. They have money right under their feet and nothing will stop them from making their lives a little bit better. But a crackdown this spring by the new government in Kiev confused the situation. “At least under Yanukovych (the former president) there was one hand to pay. It was better. Now it’s like an octopus,” said Yuri, standing in front of a jewelry counter filled with amber pendants, earrings and rings—and small bags of powdered amber that he says helps with rheumatism when mixed with moonshine. Before the revolution, the protection rackets for illegal mining were allegedly run by the Ukrainian successor to the Soviet KGB. “But right now it’s not clear who the roof is,” said Yuri. “That’s why there are so many problems,” he said, “it’s not clear who is the boss.” Students celebrate the last day of school at the Dubrovytsya Lyceum School in May. However, job opportunities remain slim in the region, causing many graduates to consider illegal amber mining. The convoy forced its way through, but the miners had stalled the police long enough to have a chance to hide their expensive pumps. The raid got lost in the woods and was tracked by a gang of young, shirtless men on motorcycles. Finally, all momentum was lost when the masked police were stopped by the main body of miners. More than 200 angry men blocked the road. Ruslana Fedchuk, who has worked for 17 years at the government-operated Ukraine Amber factory, makes a necklace. Most of the miners, furious, refused to talk. Sitting in the grass while the police commander negotiated with the head of the village nearby, the anger of one miner overflowed. “I have eight children. How am I supposed to feed them?” asked Sasha, 42, from the nearby village of Netrebe. “The land here is bad. What can we grow? We can’t grow corn or anything. We can grow a bit of hay and some wheat.” His words were met with laughter and angry agreement from the rest of the miners, sitting in the grass, their clothes spattered with dried sand. “If I didn’t have a cow and some pigs and mining I would have to chew on a board.” National Geographic","envNme":"prod","flags":{"hideTitle":true,"hideAssetSource":true},"qryStr":"userab=ng_pw_copy-287*variant_b-1127&forceMode=fitt","mrkup":"","placement":"inline"},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html8","cntnt":{"mrkup":"When amber is mined on a large scale Acres upon acres of forest are clear cut and backhoes are used to dig a channel to a water source—usually a river Then thousands of miners descend on the Klondike and use water pumps made of old Mercedes van engines to blast into the ground sucking water from the canal in huge tangles of pipe."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html9","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Across the region hardware stores are packed with the tools for amber mining—coils of giant rubber tubes and the evil-looking snouts of the pressure hoses: handmade steel bores outfitted with spikes and teeth to cut into the ground As the wildcatters pump water into the earth NG STAFF SOURCE: ATLAS: “GEOLOGY AND MINERALS OF UKRAINE” Kiev Ukraine’s minister of ecology and natural resources “Politicians now have to choose between money today and the protection of the environment,” he said in an interview this summer “and politicians often make environmentally immature decisions.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html11","cntnt":{"mrkup":"It is not clear how many thousands of hectares of land have been destroyed by the illegal mining of amber And the minister acknowledged that the problem is multifaceted and will not be solved overnight."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html12","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“Amber is really a very serious not only in the context of ecology,” Semerak said in a November interview “There are at least four components—environmental “On this stretch of road at the beginning of the year there were 10,000 people working in the forest here,” said Stas “Miners’ cars were parked along the roadside for three miles in each direction but they couldn’t do anything,” says the former cop highlighting the lawlessness of the region."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-5","cntnt":{"cmsType":"image","ariaLabel":"image","align":"pageWidth","belowParagraph":true,"credit":"Photograph by Brendan Hoffman National Geographic","envNme":"prod","flags":{"hideTitle":true,"hideAssetSource":true},"qryStr":"userab=ng_pw_copy-287*variant_b-1127&forceMode=fitt","mrkup":"","placement":"inline"},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html13","cntnt":{"mrkup":"On our visit Stas stalked purposefully through the trees leading us to one pit that looked like all the others because it was here that a team of eight wildcatters had dug four meters through topsoil and loose sand and hit the jackpot."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html14","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“The guys working here pulled $50,000 worth of amber from this one pit in one day,” said Stas."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-6","cntnt":{"cmsType":"pullquote","id":"inline-6","quote":"It’s the Wild East here People have gone crazy.","theme":"light","type":"pull","icon":"quote","byLineProps":{"authors":[{"displayName":"Stepan Tsaryuk","authorDesc":"Police Chief"}],"mode":"richtext"}},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html15","cntnt":{"mrkup":"In a country where most people make around $2,100 a year this $6,250 windfall per miner would mean a completely different life."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html16","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“I have a boy and girl standing next to the hole—now collapsed in and covered in fallen pine needles I can get a house and a car in one day.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html17","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Stas quit working as a cop four years ago and started mining And Vlad sometimes went out on police raids against his friends “I was making $150 a month as a cop and then the currency fell against the dollar How was I supposed to feed my family?” said Vlad."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html18","cntnt":{"mrkup":"So he quit and joined his friends in the amber fields earlier this year my wife said I should have started five years ago!” he said Within a few months he saved around $25,000 and bought his black Toyota Land Cruiser."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-7","cntnt":{"cmsType":"image","ariaLabel":"image","align":"pageWidth","belowParagraph":true,"credit":"Photograph by Brendan Hoffman National Geographic","envNme":"prod","flags":{"hideTitle":true,"hideAssetSource":true},"qryStr":"userab=ng_pw_copy-287*variant_b-1127&forceMode=fitt","mrkup":"","placement":"inline"},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html19","cntnt":{"mrkup":"The stakes are enormous Stas pulled out his phone and showed me a text message from an illegal Chinese wholesale buyer in Kiev Even a 2-gram piece is worth $150."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html20","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“Right now the Chinese are paying about $2,000 to $3,000 per kilogram if you have big stones,” said Stas."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html21","cntnt":{"mrkup":"The amber is then made into jewelry and other products much of which is sold in China."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html22","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“Fights happen all the time every day,” Stas added."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-8","cntnt":{"cmsType":"image","ariaLabel":"image","align":"pageWidth","belowParagraph":true,"credit":"Photograph by Brendan Hoffman National Geographic","envNme":"prod","flags":{"hideTitle":true,"hideAssetSource":true},"qryStr":"userab=ng_pw_copy-287*variant_b-1127&forceMode=fitt","mrkup":"","placement":"inline"},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html23","cntnt":{"mrkup":"And it is not just fists and shovels At one point two crews got in a fight at this Klondike To settle it “someone threw a grenade into the yard of a house as a warning,” Stas said."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html24","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“It’s like Chicago in the 1920s but the mafia is even worse here,” said Stepan Tsaryuk the 28-year-old chief of police in Dubrovytsya He is a former special forces soldier and bears the scars of a machete strike on one arm a wound received while fighting in hand-to-hand combat in Ukraine’s war on its border with Russia."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html25","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“We have an open war in the east and a secret war here,” he said A man was recently arrested on suspicion of transporting a 26.5-pound sack of amber stones worth around $20,700 He allegedly assaulted two officers and tried to escape and was only subdued when more officers arrived on the scene There was a fight over money in a village nearby and one guy beat another to death with his fists.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html27","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Just then his phone rang and a relieved smile crossed his face when a deputy said a drunken farmer had driven his tractor into a pond and needed to be pulled out."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html28","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Since the bonanza began a few years ago a local trauma doctor said he has treated miners for grenade wounds He whispered to me that anyone can buy a Kalashnikov for $750 or a grenade for $150."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-10","cntnt":{"cmsType":"imagegroup","hasCopyright":true,"id":"inline-10","align":"pageWidth","groupCaption":"A home-made pump said to have been used by illegal amber miners was confiscated by police in Dubrovytsya.","groupCredit":"Photographs by Brendan Hoffman National Geographic","dsc":"A home-made pump used by illegal amber miners and confiscated by police is kept behind the local police station on Sunday 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drink People have gone crazy.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html31","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Although there are a few government-controlled mines—the process to get a license to operate a legal mine can take years and is fraught with corruption—most of the operations proceed without much “They are destroying the forest,” said Tsaryuk “But people do it because they want to eat They want to feed their kids.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html32","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Broader legalization of the estimated $500 million a year amber mining activities might help But getting there could be a challenge in a country struggling to contain violence and corruption Government officials and police disagree on how it should be done and many miners remain opposed."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-12","cntnt":{"cmsType":"image","ariaLabel":"image","align":"pageWidth","belowParagraph":true,"credit":"Photograph by Brendan Hoffman National Geographic","envNme":"prod","flags":{"hideTitle":true,"hideAssetSource":true},"qryStr":"userab=ng_pw_copy-287*variant_b-1127&forceMode=fitt","mrkup":"","placement":"inline"},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html33","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“If they legalized the trade a sack worth $1,000 now would drop to around $500 and the government would skim off the remainder for themselves,” said Stas as we climbed back into the 4x4."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html34","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Even two years after the revolution in Kiev that was meant to end the rule of a kleptocratic government corruption continues to be a monumental issue Many believe the government will not be able to satisfy requirements by the International Monetary Fund that the country enact stronger anti-corruption laws Ukraine has only received around $7.7 billion of the IMF’s $17.5 billion loan."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html35","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“After the revolution do we pay you now?’” said Oleksandr Zadorozhniy a young member of the city council who participated in the protests and fighting to overthrow the former government in the winter of 2013-2014 We would now operate legally and pay taxes No one wants to legalize the amber trade because there is too much money to be made from bribes,” said the councilman “Everything can be decided on the political level but there is no will to change anything.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html36","cntnt":{"mrkup":"A Rich History of Amber"},"type":"h2","style":{}},{"id":"inline-13","cntnt":{"cmsType":"image","ariaLabel":"image","align":"pageWidth","belowHeader":true,"credit":"Photograph by Brendan Hoffman National Geographic","envNme":"prod","flags":{"hideTitle":true,"hideAssetSource":true},"qryStr":"userab=ng_pw_copy-287*variant_b-1127&forceMode=fitt","mrkup":"","placement":"inline"},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html37","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Some of the confusion comes from the gemstone’s history in the region locals “used amber like we use coal today,” says Tamara Yakovenko sitting on a bench in front of her picturesque cottage situated on the banks of the shady Gorin River below the Polish church She has lived her entire life in Dubrovytsya Since common people couldn’t accrue wealth in the USSR like they can today amber was not valued."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html38","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“No one needed laws on amber 25 years ago It would be like a law on apples or a law on peanuts there was no need for it at the time,” said Colonel Sergey Knyazev the former provincial commander of the police."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html39","cntnt":{"mrkup":"At the Rivne Amber Factory they specialize in polished stones and gaudy amber encrusted religious icons and portraits The company has made and delivered portraits to everyone from U.S (Gaddafi’s men ordered a portrait of the leader then would not buy the finished product until the factory upped the price from $3,000 to $30,000.)"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-14","cntnt":{"cmsType":"image","ariaLabel":"image","align":"pageWidth","belowParagraph":true,"credit":"Photograph by Brendan Hoffman National Geographic","envNme":"prod","flags":{"hideTitle":true,"hideAssetSource":true},"qryStr":"userab=ng_pw_copy-287*variant_b-1127&forceMode=fitt","mrkup":"","placement":"inline"},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html40","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Sergey Martyniuk He said the amber mined in the area is made illegal because the wildcatters mine it illegally “It’s like you buy a car and get in and you’re ready to drive off and the guy stops you and says you need a license,” says Martyniuk but they don’t have the right to drive it.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html41","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Back in Dubrovytsya said their neighbors in town do not care about licenses They have money right under their feet and nothing will stop them from making their lives a little bit better But a crackdown this spring by the new government in Kiev confused the situation."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html42","cntnt":{"mrkup":"“At least under Yanukovych (the former president) there was one hand to pay standing in front of a jewelry counter filled with amber pendants earrings and rings—and small bags of powdered amber that he says helps with rheumatism when mixed with moonshine."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html43","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Before the revolution the protection rackets for illegal mining were allegedly run by the Ukrainian successor to the Soviet KGB “But right now it’s not clear who the roof is,” said Yuri “That’s why there are so many problems,” he said “it’s not clear who is the boss.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-15","cntnt":{"cmsType":"image","ariaLabel":"image","align":"pageWidth","belowParagraph":true,"credit":"Photograph by Brendan Hoffman National Geographic","envNme":"prod","flags":{"hideTitle":true,"hideAssetSource":true},"qryStr":"userab=ng_pw_copy-287*variant_b-1127&forceMode=fitt","mrkup":"","placement":"inline"},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html44","cntnt":{"mrkup":"A raid by the special police this spring threw these and other problems into stark relief A convoy of ten old Soviet-era 4x4s and newer trucks stuffed with masked and armed special police blasted into the forest near Dubrovytsya But a spotter on a moped half hidden by a roadside tree called the miners on his mobile phone and warned them By the time the raiding party found the right track through the woods They angrily faced off against the armed police saying they had no right to deprive them of their livelihoods."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html45","cntnt":{"mrkup":"The convoy forced its way through but the miners had stalled the police long enough to have a chance to hide their expensive pumps The raid got lost in the woods and was tracked by a gang of young all momentum was lost when the masked police were stopped by the main body of miners More than 200 angry men blocked the road."},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"inline-16","cntnt":{"cmsType":"image","ariaLabel":"image","align":"pageWidth","belowParagraph":true,"credit":"Photograph by Brendan Hoffman National Geographic","envNme":"prod","flags":{"hideTitle":true,"hideAssetSource":true},"qryStr":"userab=ng_pw_copy-287*variant_b-1127&forceMode=fitt","mrkup":"","placement":"inline"},"type":"inline","style":{}},{"id":"html46","cntnt":{"mrkup":"Most of the miners Sitting in the grass while the police commander negotiated with the head of the village nearby How am I supposed to feed them?” asked Sasha We can grow a bit of hay and some wheat.”"},"type":"p","style":{}},{"id":"html47","cntnt":{"mrkup":"His words were met with laughter and angry agreement from the rest of the miners often with deadly consequences and significant environmental harm.","enableAds":true,"endbug":true,"isMetered":false,"isUserAuthed":false,"isTruncated":false,"isEntitled":false,"freemiumContentGatingEnabled":true,"premiumContentGatingEnabled":false,"ldMda":{"cmsType":"image","hasCopyright":true,"id":"90e965b3-5212-4264-99fa-e8bc483157a8","lines":3,"positionMetaBottom":true,"showMore":true,"caption":"The deep scars of recent amber mining can be seen in Dubrovytsya Although members of the Zhytomyrska regional branch of the National Guard were patrolling the site they did not stop her they said because she was not using any pumps or other professional equipment of Osova shows a site where he used to work in Hrytsky Since a recent government crackdown on the practice Men pick over a previously mined site in search of loose amber Amber miners block the road on May 30 to confront special police sent to crackdown on their activities A home-made pump said to have been used by illegal amber miners was confiscated by police in Dubrovytsya Hoses are used to blast water into holes to free up amber from the sandy soil The town of Dubrovytsya has recently seen a spate of violence that can be linked back to amber mining Amber miner Vanya Predyuk married Vika Predyuk on May 29 in Dubrovytsya A local family enjoys a picnic along the Sluch River in Dubrovytsya Students celebrate the last day of school at the Dubrovytsya Lyceum School in May job opportunities remain slim in the region causing many graduates to consider illegal amber mining who has worked for 17 years at the government-operated Ukraine Amber factory An eelpout swims by a tower of tubeworms at the Tica Vent a site on the East Pacific Rise 2,500 meters deep We have the address for the funeral home & the family on file If you're not happy with your card we'll send a replacement or refund your money Pavel Martinovich Yaromich 74, of Chaumont, New York passed away on December 24th at Albany Medical Center after a brief illness. He was born in Dubrovytsia in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine on May 2, 1948. He was the son of the late Martin and Nadezhda... View Obituary & Service Information The family of Pavel Yaromich created this Life Tributes page to make it easy to share your memories