These plots were identified during the inventory, which is currently being conducted by the Ministry of Environment together with the State Forest Resources Agency and the State Geocadastre all over Ukraine. The work is carried out in accordance with the Law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Forest Protection”.
This document was approved in the summer of 2022 to protect self-seeded forests and increase the forest cover of Ukraine.
As a result of the analysis, out of more than 716 thousand hectares of land in the Kyiv region covered with forest vegetation, almost 102 thousand hectares of self-afforested lands were identified that can potentially be used for forestry.
“Due to the military aggression of the Russian Federation, Ukraine is losing its forests. Since February 24, almost 3 million hectares of forests have been destroyed by war. There are currently about half a million hectares of forests under occupation and hostilities, which we can lose. So today there is an understanding that we must use every opportunity to restore our forests. One of the ways is to preserve the self-sown forests that have grown over the past few decades on lands withdrawn from agricultural use,” commented Ruslan Strilets, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.
The inventory of self-afforested areas in Ukraine is currently being carried out in digital format.
For this purpose, orthophotomaps with the boundaries of forest vegetation in a certain area are used. The boundaries of forestry enterprises of this territory are superimposed on them and land plots that are not included in their composition are determined.
Further, they exclude lands of nature reserve and other nature protection purposes, as well as historical and cultural, forestry, water, industry, transport, communications, energy, defense, etc.
Those areas that remain after such analysis are potential areas for forestry.
Ministrу of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine
