The executive authorities are guilty of destroying trees

Baku/16.08.21/Turan: The Turan news agency receives appeals from residents of Baku who report with indignation about the felling of trees and bushes in various parts of the capital. At various times, citizens reported on the destruction of green spaces on Gara Garayev Avenue, Nizami district; on Vung Tau Street in Khatai district, as well as in other districts of Baku. Most numerous letters of citizens inform about  the felling of trees in Yasamal district of the city.

Turan sent a written request to the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR), with a request to explain why green spaces are disappearing in the capital, who is to blame for this and what measures the Ministry is taking against it.

The letter that came from the 11th regional department of ecology and natural resources of the MENR focuses on the structure of responsibility distribution in accounting and monitoring, planting, cultivation, cutting and control over this across the country. The legislation provides for the distribution of responsibility between the central, district executive and municipal authorities while the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources is responsible of monitoring the situation.

The letter explains that the "withdrawal" (i.e. cutting down) and transfer of green spaces across the country are carried out after contacting the central and local authorities (executive and municipal) but after the receipt of an opinion (not consent!) of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources.Note that the withdrawal and transfer on the subordinate territories are carried out by the decision of local, district and municipal authorities only.

Thus, the MENR makes it clear that the legislation assigns limited powers to this state department. Otherwise stated, the MENR is not to blame for the cutting down of green areas in Baku.

At the same time, the Ministry informed the agency about the administrative measures taken by the MENR against the perpetrators for the destruction of vegetation in the capital. In each case, the perpetrators are fined for appropriate amounts of money.

In the seven months of 2021, adequate decisions were made in Baku against 49 individuals and legal entities. In 34 cases, the decisions were sent to law enforcement agencies, according to the 11th department of the MENR.

The media, citing the head of the state environmental safety service of the MENR, Hikmet Alizadeh, report that 55.000 cubic meters of forests were illegally cut down in Azerbaijan in 2017; 28.000 cubic meters in 2018; 18.000 cubic meters in 2019; however, in 2020 this figure dropped to 10.000 cubic meters.

As you can see, the executive authorities ignore the ban of President Ilham Aliyev on cutting down trees in Baku.

"I've got information that the trees in the city are fenced off, then they are cut down. I am giving a final warning to the executive authorities and entrepreneurs: stop this. I forbid cutting down trees in Baku," he said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan dedicated to the results of the social-economic development of the country in the first quarter on April 22, 2009.

Sometimes he personally has to restore order after the local executive power ignores his ban as was the case in in April 2017 when he suspended the construction of a residential building on the territory of the" Hunter's House" on Metbuat Avenue in the Yasamal district of Baku where 54 trees were illegally cut down. -0—