On June 22, the Ministry of environmental protection and natural resources of Ukraine passed a bill prescribing state instruments for the restoration of forests that have been destroyed and the protection of forests that may be destroyed during the war. The program includes measures to increase the area of green cover in Ukraine and preserve biodiversity in non-forest areas that appeared after the cessation of use and reservation of agricultural land.
Terrible figures: almost 3 million hectares of forest were destroyed during Russia's war against Ukraine. Another 500.000 hectares of forests are under Russian occupation and could be destroyed not only by war but also by illegal logging and export to Russia.
"Adoption of the bill will legalize self-seeding forests on agricultural lands. This can increase Ukraine's forest cover by 500.000 hectares and save hundreds of millions of hryvnias of state funds, as the creation and maintenance of a hectare of forest costs tens of thousands of hryvnias," Ruslan Strelets, environmental protection and natural resources of Ukraine.
Implementation of this project will contribute to the restoration of empty degraded lands, improve the quality of steppes and meadows of Ukraine, green pastures, and hayfields. In addition, the bill resonates with the president's Green Country program and will help plant nearly 1 billion trees by 2025.
We remind you that on 20 of June, the parliament of Ukraine passed the bill on waste recycling.
On the cover of this article, you see Ukrainian Carpathians.
