There are forests in Ukraine that have no owner. They are owned by communities, and the land on which they grow is often used for agricultural purposes. Therefore, work is currently underway in the country to transfer such territories to the state forest fund under the management of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine." In two months, the enterprise has registered property rights to 1,600 hectares of such forests.
According to "Forests of Ukraine," these are self-forested land plots and reserve lands for forestry purposes. They were owned by regional and district administrations but had no tenant or owner.
Registration of plots by region
In Cherkasy region, 51 land plots with a total area of 681 hectares were transferred to foresters. The largest areas of such plots are located in the communities of Zvenyhorod and Cherkasy districts. They will be managed by the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi Forestry. The Cherkasy Regional State Administration also transferred land in the communities of Zolotonosha district to the management of the Cherkasy Forestry.
The state-owned enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" received a self-forested area in Rivne region with an area of 611 hectares. The land previously belonged to the agricultural cooperative "Zhadenske," which was created on the basis of a Soviet collective farm.
Further work
The formalization of proprietary rights to land plots is only an intermediate step toward effective management and protection of forest areas. The institution stated that it is necessary next to carry out initial forestry planning and the environmental impact assessment (EIA). Only after this will the quarter-allotment network be established and an operational plan be created.
At the national level, the area of transferred land is extremely small, so this work continues. In the first two months of 2026, the state enterprise submitted petitions to transfer another 4,700 ha of land. During the same period, foresters received positive responses for the transfer of over 2,000 ha of territory.
State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" has called upon local communities and administrations to transfer self-forested plots or lands suitable for tree cultivation to the state forest fund.
“Existing forests and those to be planted in the future will remain under the constant supervision of the state forest protection service to prevent illegal logging, fires, and damage,” the state enterprise emphasized.
The problem of preserving self-sustaining forests
According to estimates of experts, Ukraine is home to hundreds of thousands of hectares of 'no-man's' forests or those that have arisen on unused agricultural lands.
The state can protect them from logging only by transferring them to the forest fund and thus under the management of State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" and its subdivisions. Communities may also create their own municipal forestry enterprise and transfer these areas to it.
In practice, however, the transfer of lands encounters resistance from local councils. If a plot is classified as agricultural land, the community may lease it to farmers and receive budget revenues. Therefore, lacking sufficient incentives, local councils choose financial gain over forest preservation.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote about a rather telling example from the Volyn region. There, an entrepreneur leased 12 ha of self-forested agricultural land. Consequently, he set about putting them in order and cut down forest worth 10 million UAH.
