Around 1.3 million hectares of forest land managed by the State Forestry Agency have protected status. This comprises nearly 3,400 national nature parks, regional landscape parks, nature reserves and other types of protected areas.
This was reported by the State Forestry Agency of Ukraine.
To illustrate the scale of conservation, the figure is cited that around 50 years ago, this area covered 300,000 hectares. This indicates that the territory of the nature reserve fund has increased more than fourfold.
New protected lands
During 2025, a change of land use was approved for almost 19,000 hectares of forest. This was done to transfer the land to the management of nature conservation bodies.
Thanks to additional conservation measures, the territory of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve has increased, as have the national parks of Synevyr, Vyzhnytskyi, Karmelyukove Podillia, Derman-Ostrozkyi and Cheremoskyi.
“We pay special attention to the creation of the ‘Chornyi Lis’ National Nature Park in Kirovohrad region, where Chornyi Lis has particular conservation value. The project to create the park is entering its final phase and is one of the priorities for the State Forest Resources Agency’s work for 2026,” – said the head of the State Forest Resources Agency, Viktor Smal.
The head of the agency emphasized that in this activity, it is necessary to find a balance between preserving valuable natural complexes and the demand for timber. The latter is increasing, particularly due to the needs of the front and the woodworking industry.
The Ukrainian government has approved a new procedure for financing forest protection and restoration measures. As EcoPolitic reported, up to 50% compensation for reforestation is provided for frontline territories, and a national forest inventory is also planned.
We also prepared for our readers an analytical article on how much State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" loses on fines for improper forest management. The funds lost due to employee negligence could have been used to build five new forest seed centers or provide video monitoring for 225,000 ha of territory.
