The summer school “Mechanisms of nature protection in conditions of war” was held on July 3-6, 2023 in the village of Korotyshche, Drohobytsky district, Lviv region.
The summer school began with an expedition to places of violation of environmental legislation. The expedition was aimed to illustrate indirect impact of military actions on natural complexes on the examples of illegal destruction of the coastal protection strip of the Stryi River, the state of unregistered and self-seeded forests on the banks of the Stryi River. Moreover, the students of the summer school inspected meadow plots on the banks of the Dniester River, both those that were saved from destruction as a result of the adoption of the draft law No. 5650, and those that could not be saved and were plowed although they were located within the Emerald Network. Illegal drainage ditches as well as inspected destructed source of the Pryrva River served as an illustration of the need for legislative changes to preserve the sources and floodplains of small rivers.
After the expedition, the participants received practical tasks based on the results of the expedition.
The school began with welcome speeched from the Chair of the EPL Executive Board Professor John Bonine, EPL Director Olena Kravchenko, MP Yulia Ovchinnikova.
We hope that EPL summer school will help to train dedicated, motivated environmental defenders because the organization shares its experience and mechanisms of nature protection in wartime, and also helps to master the tools of environmental law as an effective protection of our planet as a whole.
