In the autumn of 2023, they plan to plant them manually in the Rivne region 50 hectares of forest in areas damaged by illegal amber mining.
On another 150 hectares, foresters will carry out supplementary and maintenance measures, EkoRaion reports.
It is noted that in the spring of 2023, foresters conducted a detailed monitoring of the areas damaged in 2015-2017.
A forest destroyed by illegal amber mining. Photo of the Polissky Forestry Office
The report emphasized that in the region, illegal amber diggers damaged more than 4,500 hectares of forest, namely in the territory of Sarnenska, Rafalivska and Klesivska branches.
"All areas of different categories of damage. Natural restoration has already taken place in some of them. There are areas where it is possible to mineralize the soil and afforestation. And there are areas where the so-called lunar landscapes will remain for decades – those where the soil damage is the deepest and not timely reclamation has been carried out", said Oleksandr Kvatyrko, director of the Polissky Forestry Office.
He emphasized that there is an opportunity to carry out various restoration works on 250 hectares. For this, the branches have all the necessary resources.
"The condition of the plots is radically different. But this work is definitely and will remain our priority until the last destroyed area turns into a young forest," Kvatyrko emphasized.
He added that similar initiatives have already been implemented in Volyn. However, only 16 hectares of forest were damaged in the region, and restoration work began almost immediately. This process is just beginning in Rivne region. According to him, the damage caused by illegal amber mining does not have a critical scale.
Kvatyrko said that security has been strengthened and camera traps have been installed in the areas of greatest risk. This is already giving positive results.
He noted that industrial extraction of amber is carried out in some forest areas. The contract for such activity provides for mandatory soil reclamation and the return of the land to the disposal of the branch for forest restoration.
In his opinion, it is possible to save forests from repeated similar damage only by joint efforts, namely to:
- foresters provided protection;
- law enforcement officers – fair punishment of violators;
- local government – carrying out appropriate work with the population.
We remind you that within the limits of the Rivne Nature Reserve, they plan to start amber extraction in the area of the largest swamp massifs of Ukraine, Syr Pogon. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources agreed to put the site up for auction, although it had previously agreed to bequeath this territory.
As previously reported by EcoPolitics, 180,000 saplings of pines and birches were planted in the Volodymyretsk community in the Rivne Region on the site of the "Sonyachne Remeslo" enterprise for legal amber extraction.
