The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine granted nearly 17,000 hectares of forestry territories in Zhytomyr region, in the Korosten district, the status of lands of nature reserve fund.
They will become part of the Drevlyanskyi nature reserve, the Ministry of Environment reports on Facebook.
The Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, Ruslan Strilets, noted that it is important for Ukraine to preserve its national heritage – unique nature.
"We not only did not abandon the pre-war plans, but made them even more ambitious. Today, we need to protect and restore war-torn areas. And we also continue to increase the percentage of protected lands of our lands, taking unique natural complexes and ecosystems under the protection of the state," he said.
The message noted that the Drevlyanskyi nature reserve was created in 2009. Its feature is the territory that was heavily contaminated with radionuclides as a result of the Chernobyl disaster.
Currently, the reserve is home to 913 species of vascular plants, 22 of which are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine), 150 species of lichens and lychenoid fungi, and 125 species of mosses. In addition, 516 species of animals live on its territory, of which 45 species are listed in the Red Book.
"The main task of the reserve today is to protect natural complexes, conduct scientific research and observations, carry out restoration work, and maintain the overall ecological balance," the message said.
This is how the experts of this reserve described two species of lichens new to science – Lecanora Orlova and Rusavskya Drevlyanska.
As EcoPolitic reported before, in the Zhytomyr region, the fires caused by rocket-bomb attacks on the Drevlyanskyi nature reserve caused damage to the environment amounting to 14.5 billion hryvnias. The fire destroyed 2,100 hectares of forest.
