Within the International conference “Modern Environmental Policy of Ukraine: Transparency, Efficiency and Security in Conditions of the Military Aggression” (November 4–5, 2025), the fifth thematic block was devoted to biodiversity conservation during the full-scale war.
The problems of preserving phytodiversity during military operations were highlighted by Yakiv Didukh, academician of the NAS of Ukraine. He spoke about the synergistic impact of many factors on the natural complexes of Ukraine, fluctuation, successional and evolutionary changes, research methodologies and damage calculation, assessment of ecosystem services to calculate the damage caused, taking into account the costs of restoring ecosystems to their native state, monitoring the state of damaged and destroyed ecosystems in order to develop forecasts and implement measures to restore them (primarily in the Kakhovka reservoir).
EPL environmental scientist Kateryna Polyanska spoke about cumulative and multifactorial impact of military actions on the fauna and flora of Ukraine, irreversible changes in ecosystems, destruction of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, the scale of the impact on natural complexes and the study of the consequences for thousands of living creatures, the impact of the Kakhovka reservoir disaster on the ecosystems of the bed, the areas below the dam, and the Black Sea.
Anatoliy Pavelko, lawyer and environmental scientist of EPL, presented on the current policy of the State Forestry Agency and the forest industry to ensure European standards of transparency and accountability in forestry management, problems of the forest industry, and “grey” and “black” timber exports.
The important issues of indirect impact of military operations and conservation of biodiversity in the Ukrainian Carpathians were highlighted by the head of “Save Pikuy” NGO Natalia Vyshnevska. She spoke about construction of wind farms and related violations of environmental legislation, destruction of rare Red Book plants, and destruction of relict high-mountain ecosystems sensitive to anthropogenic impact.
Oleksiy Vasylyuk and Yelyzaveta Temchenko from “Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group” NGO presented results of a geospatial analysis of the territories of protected areas damaged by military actions, outlined the “Scorched Earth Zone” and talked about the zoning methodology.
Oleh Lystopad, ANTS environmental expert, highlighted the issue of saving nature from fires and the need for the government to approve the Strategy for Preventing Fires in Natural Ecosystems. To solve the problem of fires in natural ecosystems (landscapes), it is necessary to adopt a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on approving the “Strategy for Preventing Fires in Natural Ecosystems”, develop fire prevention plans for settlements located in close proximity to fire-hazardous landscapes. To combat fires in peatlands, it is necessary to adopt a Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers “On the Special Status of Peatlands”, which should, among other things, include a program for watering peatlands and special monitoring of peat territories
The team of the National Nature Park “Tuzlivski Lymany” consisting of Iryna Vykhrystyuk, Ivan Rusiev and Vladyslav Balinsky highlighted specific details of the work of the state security service of protected areas in wartime in the territories of probable hostilities; documenting the impact of military operations on the environment, the capacity and effectiveness of administrations of protected areas; regional environmental programs of the war period using the example of Odesa region. Because of the destructive impact of the russian war against Ukraine on the population of the Black Sea cetaceans and the need for their reproduction, there was a discussion of the initiative of the National Nature Park “Tuzlivski Lymany” aimed to establish a marine reserve in the territorial waters of Ukraine in the North-Western part of the Black Sea, to establish a rehabilitation (readaptation) center for cetaceans. The work of the National Nature Park during the full-scale invasion, and results of scientific research were presented.
