The following forest species of wood are of industrial importance in Ukraine: pine, European spruce, oak, birch, beech, alder, and others. Ukrainian forests currently occupy about a fifth of the territory of Ukraine. The total area of the country's forest fund is 107.8 thousand km2. The most significant forests are located in the north of the country in Polesie and the western part — in the Carpathians.
About half of Ukrainian forests are young forests, and they're not used for industrial development. The area of potentially industrial forests is about 86 thousand km2, and their timber reserves are estimated at 2 billion m3. Due to ongoing measures to restore forest reserves, the forest area gradually increases.
The main elements of the timber industry in Ukraine are:
- Forestry;
- Woodworking;
- Pulp and paper;
- Timber industry.
Forestry reform and development concept
The forestry sector needs a large-scale reform that will fundamentally change the forest management system, introduce the best European practices and make the industry transparent
The State forest management strategy until 2035 provides for:
- Adaptation of forests to climate change;
- Conservation of biodiversity;
- Increase in forest cover;
- Fire prevention;
- Digital transformation of the forestry industry.
At the same time, a number of steps have already been taken, in particular:
- Ukraine abandoned clear felling in the Carpathians and introduced protection zones for rare species during felling;
- The ministry is working on granting the status of a nature reserve fund to the most valuable forests — in 2020, it has already received an agreement to create two national parks on more than 30.000 hectares;
- Ukraine, for the first time, will conduct a full-fledged forest inventory;
- Measures are being implemented to improve enterprises' material and technical support;
- Considerable attention is paid to combating forest fires, not repeating the experience when Ukraine lost a large area of forests. A forest fire prevention strategy has been developed, already being partially implemented. Today, state-owned enterprises of the forestry industry are constantly provided with new equipment for fire-prevention monitoring of forests and prompt detection and prevention of fires.
