During his working trip to Ukraine on 10.06.2022, Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), Cem Özdemir, visited the Ukrainian State Forest Management Planning Association (SFMPA) in Irpin, close to Kyiv. SFMPA is a partner and the main beneficiary of the BMEL project ‘Technical Support to Forest Policy Development and National Forest Inventory Implementation’ (SFI project) implemented by unique land use GmbH and IAK Agrarconsulting. The SFI project was installed among others to support implementation of National Forest Inventory (NFI) in Ukraine.
During the visit Vitatly Storozhuk, National Project Coordinator of SFI Project, introduced German delegation to the current SFI project activities and pointed out that further successful implementation of the project depends significantly on the sustainability of SFMPA, being the responsible organization for NFI. But SFMPA suffered heavily from war activities as administrative buildings have been destroyed and essential equipment demolished. The possibility of financing NFI activities from the state budget in 2022 is very restricted, and thus conducting NFI now depends on international support.
In his statement, Minister Özdemir strongly condemned Russia’s aggression and acknowledged that Ukrainian foresters continue their work under very difficult conditions. He assured that German government will further support sustainable forestry implementation in Ukraine on the base of the SFI project.
