The next part of EPL’s study of the lost territories of natural reserve fund (NRF) is devoted to the Sumy region. Natural reserve fund of Sumy region is represented by very diverse network of protected sites and areas of almost all categories. As of 01.01.2016, their number reached 261 and they cover 181823.8556 ha or 7.6% of the total territory of the region. As we found out, in the past on the territory of Sumy region there were created much more protected areas than state the current statistics.
In general, we have found information on 189 areas and protected areas created in the Sumy region that are not present in the current list of protected areas. They cover the area of 32,645.45 hectares, which is 17.9% of the total area of protected areas in the region. This is 1.3% of the total area of Sumy region.
Investigating the causes of the disappearance of protected objects from official lists of the department of environment and natural resources in the Sumy region, we found out about cancellation of protected status for 47 objects with total area of 11,140.65 hectares, which is 6.1% of the total area of all protected areas in the region. From the available information it is known that 8 objects (S = 102,11 hectares) were canceled because they were included into new large protected units, such as Nature Monument “250-year-old spruce” and “Spruce” became part of the landscape park “Velykobobrytskyy”; reserved tract “Standard plantations» (n = 2) was included into reserved tract “Lithuanian forest”; park-monument of landscape art “Park agrobiostation of Sumy Makarenko Pedagogical Institute” became part of the Arboretum “Sumskyi”; reserved tract “Dubina” became part of the botanical reserve “Voronezhskyi”. We found botanical nature monument “Apple-colony”, local hydrological reserve “Clementivskkyi” was canceled because there was created the same reserve of national importance. There is an interesting situation with tracts “Starogutska dacha” and “Forest area” that are part of the state landscape reserve “Starogutskiy” but it itself is not present in the list of protected areas. 10 objects (S = 41,08 hectares) were cancelled because of drying out and contamination with stem infection and other diseases. 5 hydrological natural monuments (S = 1,08 ha) were canceled due to drying up of water bodies. 7 objects (S = 117 ha) were cancelled because they do not fit the status of protected areas and natural monument “Klen hostrolystiy” was decommissioned because of construction of a multi-storey building. There were interesting reasons for cancellation of natural monuments “Ice boulder” because of transfer of the boulder to the museum of local history in Romny. “Dubovychskyy” reserve lost its purpose because its territory is occupied by a military unit. In general, the current situation is not critical because most objects were included to other conservation units or they died and their status has no sense any more.
For 142 objects (S = 21504,8 hectares), representing 11.8% of the total area of natural reserves and 0.9% of the area of the Sumy region there is no information on dates of and reasons for their cancellation. The total area of lost natural reserves , the reasons for cancellation of which are not known and protected areas that are not eliminated by joining other objects but for other reasons is 32,543.34 hectares, which is 17.8% of the area of natural reserves of the region. Compared with the total area of the region, it is 1.3%. This is real area of protected areas that have been lost.
Previous publication of the cycle:
Volyn region: http://epl.org.ua/en/events/2409-lost-sites-and-areas-of-nature-and-reserve-fund-part-1-volyn-region
Ivano-Frankivsk region: http://epl.org.ua/en/events/2360-lost-objects-in-the-territory-of-protected-areas-part-2-ivano-frankivsk-region
Chernivtsi region: http://epl.org.ua/en/events/2411-lost-sites-and-areas-of-nature-and-reserve-fund-part-1-volyn-region-2
Khmelnytsk region: http://epl.org.ua/en/events/2401-lost-sites-and-territories-of-nature-and-reserve-fund-part-4-khmelnytsk-region
Mykolayiv region: http://epl.org.ua/en/events/2489-lost-objects-of-natural-reserve-fund-1972-2016-part-5-mykolaiv-region
Contact details:
Oleksiy Vasyliuk, EPL environmentalist
Oleksandr Oskirko, EPL volunteer
Email: office@epl.org.ua; vasyliuk@gmail.com
tel.: (032) 225 – 76 – 82; 097 – 1000 – 473
