Feature: Illegal amber mining boom in NW Ukraine threatens environment

Fallen trees, huge holes in the ground and the boundless terrain denuded of greenery -- the village Klesiv in northwest Ukraine, once a green oasis surrounded by an age-old forest, now looks like the surface of the moon.

The village, with some 5000 residents, has turned into an apocalyptic landscape as illegal miners dig into its soil in search of amber -- the petrified tree resin valued for its beauty and healing power.

Klesiv, a major granite mining center in Ukraine before the collapse of the Soviet Union, was plunged into poverty in the 1990s after the closure of its granite producing enterprises.

Illegal amber mining is the only source of income for residents of Klesiv, known as the "amber capital of Ukraine." Apart from the retired villagers, most of residents are miners.

A 70-year-old resident, who gave his name as Vladimir, has been feeding his family throughout the past decade by digging amber.

Before his retirement last year, Vladimir earned up to 1,500 hryvnyas (about 60.45 U.S. dollars) per day working as a miner in the amber pits.

"We have worked in a group of 10 miners. At first, we were paid 400-500 hryvnyas (16.12 U.S. dollars to 20.15 U.S. dollars) per shift, then about 1,000 hryvnyas (40.3 U.S. dollars) and sometimes even 1,500 hryvnyas (60.45 U.S. dollars)," Vladimir told Xinhua.

Although the payment of the amber mining workers is huge by local standards, where the average monthly salary stands at about 160 dollars, it is incomparable to the incomes of illegal mine owners.

The price of one kilogram of unprocessed amber on the black market reaches about 2,000 dollars. Local experts estimate that between 120 tons and 300 tons of amber is illegally extracted in Ukraine each year. The country's annual illegal amber trade is estimated at 300 million dollars.

Large-scale amber mining is banned in Ukraine as it causes significant damage to the environment. Meanwhile, illegal mining, which is controlled by the so-called "amber mafia," is booming.

In April, the Ukrainian authorities dispatched a group of officers from the National Guard to Klesiv to crack down on illegal amber extraction. However, the officers failed to stop the unlawful activities after meeting strong resistance from the mine owners and workers.

Government attempts to put an end to illegal amber mining in northwest Ukraine were unsuccessful as locals, who depend on illegal mining for a living, managed to prevent the officers from entering the mining areas.

In Klesiv, just like anywhere in northwest Ukraine, the amber is extracted mostly by hydraulic methods, when miners cut down the trees, make pits on the top layers of soil and inject water underground to wash away amber on the land surface.

"The water, which is routed into the pit from the quarry, is under huge pressure. It forces everything underground to the surface," Vladimir said.

Local ecologists warn that such method of extraction is very dangerous for the environment, because together with amber, the high-pressured water brings to the surface soil as well as roots of trees and plants.

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, some 400 hectares of forests were irretrievably damaged in Rovno region in the northwestern part of the country due to illegal amber mining. In addition, about 150 hectares of land has become unsuitable for farming.

"Of course, it is an ecological disaster. Currently, neither authorities nor local residents recognize the scale of this disaster. But in future, they will pay for it," Denis Vyshnevsky, an ecologist, told Xinhua.

According to Vyshnevsky, the hydraulic extraction method can seriously contaminate the air and even cause dirty whirlwinds, which could make the mining sites in northwest Ukraine a dangerous place to live.

"This territory has light-textured soils, so in the near future dust storms could start in this area. It means a drop in harvests, respiratory diseases and other health problems," the ecologist said.

He also warned that amber extraction may lead to a major water crisis in the region as wells would dry up due to lack of groundwater. Endi