Today, the presidential project "Green Country" has been completed. It was launched in 2021 with a short-term goal of planting one billion trees in three years.
According to Viktor Smal, head of the State Forestry Agency, the anniversary oak seedling was planted by military forester Oleksandr Kotseruba and Daria Nazarova, a student at the Vyshedubets School Forestry.
Photo: Victor Smal on Facebook
A unified solution to combat the crisis
At the time the program was launched, Ukraine's forestry sector was experiencing an acute crisis. Among the factors that led to it, the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" named the following:
- massive fires in 2020 destroyed forest areas spanning almost 75,000 ha;
- the “activity” of the bark beetle caused widespread tree die-off;
- illegal logging reached a critical scale. According to the state enterprise, this was linked to the lack of centralised management in the forestry sector at the time;
- the forestry sector had no resources for its own development and remained dependent on subsidies.
“Solutions were needed that would unite Ukrainians around the issue of saving forests and reforming forest management,” the state enterprise notes.
Scale of the initiative
Seedlings were planted on 95,900 hectares within the Green Country initiative. According to the head of the State Forestry Agency, Zhytomyr region leads in terms of planting area, with almost 30,000 hectares of new forests. The top five also includes Volyn (14,400 hectares), Rivne region (11,300 hectares), Lviv region (7,800 hectares), and Chernihiv region (6,900 hectares).
Areas affected by illegal logging, forest fires, and military operations were selected for reforestation. New forests also appeared where there were no trees before.
Mixed forests were formed by planting young oaks, pines, and birches.
“Combining coniferous and deciduous species reduces the risk of spreading fires and pests. For planting, seedlings with closed root systems grown using modern technologies at seed centers are also used. Such seedlings have almost 100% survival rate,” comments Viktor Smal.
The rest of the program is currently being implemented. The plan is to increase forest area by 2 million hectares of natural vegetation. To this end, communities are being encouraged to transfer these lands to the forest fund.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, Ukrainian delegates at the COP30 climate conference called on partners to help restore forests damaged by the war. Overall, Ukraine's forest fund has shrunk by 20%.
Illegal logging in areas under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Forestry Agency is a systemic problem. Violations are reported weekly in EcoPolitics' digest of environmental crimes.
Environmental activists have appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office regarding the destruction of trees in national parks.
In Chernihiv region, foresters destroyed a section of steppe while expanding forest plantations.
