ukrainian news - 17.04.2006
State programme "Forests of Ukraine 2002-2015"
In Ukraine forest management is organized on the basis the State Programme, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in Resolution “On State Programme Forests of Ukraine 2002-2015”, 29.04.02 ¹581.
The State Programme “Forests of Ukraine” defines the guidelines in forest management:
The legal basis for the State Programme “Forests of Ukraine” is made of the Land Code, Forest Code, Water Code, the Ukrainian Law "On Environmental Protection", the Ukrainian Law “On National Ukrainian Program of National Ecological Network for 2000-2015” (2000), the Ukrainian Law “On State Programme of Water Management Development”, “Primary Actions in Planting Protective Forests on Degraded Lands and River Basins”, “Flood Preventing Programme in Tisa River Basin in Transcarpathia Oblast 2002-2006 and Forecast till 2015” and other.
In the first stage the activities aimed to improve forest condition and quality, ecological and protective functions and their productivity. The expected outcome of this stage is to finalize regulative and legal basis in forest conservation and regeneration, to elaborate the regulative system for the sustainable forest management and forest resource exploitation with special emphasis to social, ecological and economical requirements.
The second stage is to introduce new environmentally-friendly harvesting technologies of selective and gradual felling methods, water and landscape protective functions, harmonization of forest management according to the natural zones and the intended forest use, introduction of IT and GIS in forest management. That is to improve forest management in organizations under the administration of the State Committee of Forestry and other users, to develop social issues, forest research and education, to enhance international collaboration. As a result the Ukrainian forests will be management according to the principles of sustainable development.
As a scenario analysis shows, the Programme being implemented is to improve characteristics of the Ukrainian forests and to increase the volume of timber harvested. The programme provides for 2,4 million m3 more to be harvested in industrial felling in forests managed by the State Committee of Forestry. In general the programme is expected to improve social, ecological and economical forest functions and to promote successful social and economical development of Ukrainian regions.
The output of the Programme is the increase in forest covered area of 0,5 million ha, in the forest cover from 15,6% to 16,1%, in the growing stock of 16,7%. Along with the increase in forest harvesting activities (of 15%-20%), it will improve biological diversity in forests, have a positive influence at the local, regional and global levels, reduce land degradation and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, therefore it would mitigate global climate change.
According to the Programme, the calculation of CÎ2 sequestration shows that on average 1 hectare of ten-year-old plantation would absorb around 0,7 ton of carbon, and next ten years about one ton would be sequestered annually. That proves the important contribution the Programme would make to the implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and UN Convention on Biodiversity.
– to increase the percentage of forest cover to the optimum level in all natural zones;
– to improve the productivity and quality of forests;
– to enhance nature-protective functions of forests, to conserve the biological diversity;
– to improve the resistance of forest ecosystems to negative factors and climate change;
– to encourage the introduction of sustainable forest management;
– to intensify the activities in protective afforestation and forest agro-melioration;
– to elaborate regulative and legal basis in forest management and to harmonize it with the international principles of sustainable forest management;
– to intensify the state control in protection, conservation, exploitation and regeneration of forests.
– to develop research and education in forestry;
– to improve social protection of forestry workers.
See also:
- — Ukraine: Pulp and paper industry reports Q1 results
- — Ukraine: Rivne region wishes to ban timber export
- — Ukrainian prosecutor’s office filed a suit against privatization violations on Rubezhansky
- — By June, 1 2005 forest usage examination in Kiev region, Ukraine to be carried out
- — Ukrainian International Foreign Exchange VS Rubezhansky lawsuit postponed for an indetermined term