Fish caught in nature reserves will be sold through “Prozorro”: how it will work
2 June 05:54
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has adopted a resolution launching a pilot project that introduces a unified digital mechanism for the commercial harvesting of aquatic biological resources within the territories of the Nature Reserve Fund (NRF).
This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture, according to "Komersant Ukrainian"
The decision does not apply to all nature reserves without exception, but only to those territories and objects within the Nature Reserve Fund where such activities are explicitly permitted by the current protection regime and special permits.
The Prozorro.Sales documents already include references to the procedure for the special use of natural resources within the NPF and to government regulations regarding the special use of aquatic biological resources.
What exactly is the government changing?
The main innovation is the transfer of the allocation of rights for commercial fishing and other aquatic biological resources in permitted protected areas to a public electronic system. In other words, the right to such fishing will no longer be granted through closed or semi-closed procedures, but through open auctions on Prozorro.Sales. This is intended to reduce corruption risks and make the mechanism itself more transparent for businesses and the public.
In essence, the government aims to create a unified digital system for these permits: from setting catch limits to selling fishing rights and subsequently tracking the actual resources harvested.
How the new model will work:
- Sale of rights through Prozorro: The right to special use of aquatic biological resources in nature reserves will be put up for electronic auction on the “Prozorro.Sales” system.
- Coordination of limits: Permitted catch volumes will be approved by the Ministry of Economy in consultation with the State Fisheries Agency. The latter will also be responsible for conducting auctions and concluding contracts with the winners.
- Digital monitoring in “eFishing”: All operations will be recorded in the electronic system—from maintaining catch logs to generating accounting receipts with daily reporting.
- Payments to Local Budgets: For the first time, a mandatory fee for the special use of water resources in the Nature Reserve Fund is being introduced, which will go directly to community budgets for each unit of resource harvested.
“For the first time, we are creating a unified digital system for the special use of aquatic biological resources in the nature reserve fund. This means transparent rules for business, minimization of corruption risks, and real control over the preservation of biodiversity,” commented Deputy Minister Taras Vysotsky.
The experiment is expected to fully systematize data on catch volumes, put an end to poaching under the guise of protected status, and establish clear European conditions for the operation of the legal fishing industry.
