In 2018, 109 new territories and objects of the nature protection fund were created in Ukraine in 16 regions. The total area of new protected areas was 6765.77 hectares. However, these figures for the increase of protected areas in 2018 amounted to only 1/200 of the declared state intentions.
By the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (hereinafter – the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine) of August 6, 2014, No. 385, the State Strategy of Regional Development of Ukraine for the period up to 2020 was approved, indicating that by 2017, 6733 thousand hectares of protected areas should be created in Ukraine, and by 2021 – 9095 thousand hectares of protected areas and objects. The share of protected area should have been 11% as of January 1, 2017 and it should reach 15% of the country’s territory by the beginning of January 2021, thus bringing the share of protected areas in compliance with the EU standards. These indicators are detailed by regions and by years.
However, these correct and ambitious intentions are not properly implemented. In 2015 Ukraine created 1.3% of what should have been created in accordance with the Strategy for 2015-2016 1. In 2016, the figures increased significantly but not become much closer to the desired ones: 3.4% of the required norm was created2. However, 2017 brought much fewer results in this area: only 3278,041 ha of new protected areas were created in the regions, which is 0.05% (that is 1/200) of what was to be created that year.
Almost the same indicators were the result of the creation of a nature reserve fund in 2018. In total, 109 reserves and natural monuments with a total area of 6765.77 hectares were created in 16 regions.
Name of the region | Share of protected areas planned for 2018, % | Area of protected areas, planned for 2018, ha | Share of protected areas actually created in 2018, % | Area of protected areas actually created in 2018, ha | Share of the actually created protected areas in 2018 in relation to the planned indicator planned indicator, % |
Ukraine | 2,1 | 1267454 | 0,01121 | 6765,7755 | 0,533808291 |
Volyn’ | 3,05 | 61441,46 | 0,005441 | 109,6 | 0,178381187 |
Donetsk** | 1,35 | 35797,95 | 0,146664 | 3889,082 | 10,86397964 |
Zhytomyr | 4,11 | 122589 | 0,010829 | 323 | 0,263482106 |
Zakarpattia | 3,5 | 44635,5 | 0,015126 | 192,9 | 0,432167221 |
Zaporizhzhia | 1,85 | 50288,55 | 0,003495 | 95 | 0,188909802 |
Ivano-Frankivsk | 3,32 | 46237,64 | 0,004617 | 64,3 | 0,139064191 |
Kyiv | 0,35 | 9842,35 | 0,043102 | 1212,067 | 12,31481303 |
Kirovohrad | 0,77 | 18932,76 | 0,000134 | 3,2826 | 0,017338201 |
Lviv | 3,09 | 67457,79 | 0,008656 | 188,97 | 0,280130731 |
Poltava | 2,14 | 61525 | 0,000907 | 26,082 | 0,042392523 |
Rivne | 2,86 | 57345,86 | 0,00018 | 3,6034 | 0,006283627 |
Sumy | 2,65 | 63154,8 | 0,009213 | 219,569 | 0,347667952 |
Ternopil | 2,52 | 34836,48 | 4,34 | 0,06 | 0,000172233 |
Kharkiv | 1,66 | 52153,88 | 0,01294 | 406,5595 | 0,779538358 |
Chernihiv | 2,89 | 92199,67 | 0,000502 | 16 | 0,017353641 |
The city of Kyiv | 0 | 0 | 0,01878 | 15,7 | ” – “ |
Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Luhansk, Kherson, Khmelnytsk, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi regions did not create any protected territories. Because of annexation, no protected areas were created in the Crimean Autonomous Republic and in the city of Sevastopol.
At the same time, in 2017, 1/3 of all areas of new protected territories were created in the Donetsk region, and in 2018 – 3/5 of the area of all newly created protected territories. This situation is not accidental and, of course, is caused by a simplified procedure and special possibilities for the creation of new protected areas because of special status of the region and functioning of the military-civilian administration. In other words, for the period of functioning of the military civilian administration, the decision on the creation of new protected areas requires only signatures of their heads and does not require voting at the sessions of the regional councils (by the way, in the Luhansk region such activities are not conducted, although possibilities are the same).
It is also worth noting that such a slight increase in the share of protected areas in 2018 is due to the fact that during the year nine draft Presidential Decrees on the creation and expansion of the existing national natural parks with a total area of 85,000 hectares were not signed. If these decrees had been signed by the President Poroshenko, the indicators for increasing the protected areas in 2018 would have been by 92% larger and amount to more than 91,000 hectares. However, these plans are now shifted to 2019.
Contacts:
Oleksiy Vasyliuk, EPL environmental scientist
Victor Skorobahatov, EPL volunteer
Email: vasyliuk@gmail.com
Tel.: (032) 225 – 76 – 82
1 URL: https://goo.gl/zbjCsp