The state forest fund of Ukraine is 10.4 million hectares, of which 9.6 million hectares are covered with forest, and about 2 million hectares are occupied by self-forested territories, the head of the State Forestry Agency Viktor Smal said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He specified that the State Forestry Agency manages 73% of the forest fund, 13% are communal forests, 1% are defense forests, and 6% are in the use of other agencies. “About 7% of forests are historically not provided for use, and we seek their transfer to state enterprises. We have already received positive decisions on about half of the 45,000 hectares of submitted applications,” he said.
The State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine is a central executive body coordinating the management, protection, reproduction and rational use of forest resources of the country. The agency supervises more than 70 state enterprises, including the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”, as well as scientific, environmental and inventory institutions.
