Kyiv is rapidly losing its green areas: minus 700 hectares in 10 years

Kyiv is rapidly losing its green areas: minus 700 hectares in 10 years shutterstock
Hanna Velyka

Active citizens lose to developers

Over the past 10 years, the area of parks, squares and other green recreational areas in the capital has decreased by more than 700 hectares.

This is reported by the KyivVlada portal, citing a comment by the head of the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office of the Prosecutor General's Office, Borys Indychenko.

The official said that according to research, 26 out of 63 large parks in Kyiv have seen a reduction in area. One of the most illustrative examples is Natalka Park, which has shrunk from 118 to 42 hectares.

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According to the prosecutor, formally, the city is still green, as Kyiv's greenery ranges from 19 to 27% of the total area, depending on the calculation methodology.

At the same time, the official noted that the reality looks different: more and more often, green areas available to the public “are surrounded by fences, change their purpose and become ‘future’ residential complexes.”

Borys Indychenko said that the best situation with greenery is in Holosiivskyi district. There are still forests and the Rylsky Park there. The situation is also good in Obolon and Dniprovsky districts. Instead, in Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts, the situation with green areas is critical: they are mostly either not formalized or have long been under threat of construction.

In early June, EcoPolitic told you where new mini-gardens have appeared in Kyiv. We also gave 5 examples of how the capital is greening in response to the heat.

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