The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is asking to transfer self-seeded forests to state control in order to organize their fire protection, proper control and, if necessary, to quickly restore them, the CEO of the state enterprise Yuriy Bolokhovets said on Facebook. Bolokhovets reminded that the function of foresters is to detect and initially extinguish fires. However, only the State Emergency Service, which has a large number of powerful equipment, can cope with a large-scale natural disaster.
“In many cases, foresters begged the local authorities to transfer the forested areas to the state enterprise so that our farms could organize firefighting and proper control. But they were refused, and now we have the unfortunate consequences of irresponsibility. Self-seeded forests need to be urgently transferred under state control,” the Forests of Ukraine believe.
The state enterprise is currently considering the prospect of restoring the forest areas destroyed by fires. However, it runs into a procedure that takes a lot of time and money.
“The speed of restoration of burnt forests depends solely on the deregulation of the regulatory framework,” emphasized Bolokhovets.
The Forests of Ukraine intends to work on coordination and communication between units from different regions, increase the number of fire reservoirs, and establish cooperation with local authorities to create voluntary fire brigades.
“It is important that the conclusions are drawn not only by foresters,” urged the director general of the Forests of Ukraine.
As reported, in September 2024, record drought and lack of precipitation in a number of regions provoked large-scale forest fires. We are talking about a forest fire in Poltava region that covered almost 1000 hectares. A large fire in the Vyshedubechansky forestry on the area of 145 hectares has been localized near Kyiv. Significant fires in Kharkiv region in Zhovtnevyi and Chuhuiv-Vovchanskyi forestries have been stopped. The fire is no longer spreading, but the detonation of ammunition continues inside the forests.
According to the Forests of Ukraine, the situation has been stabilized thanks to the actions of foresters and units of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. But for another week, foresters will have to fight large-scale forest fires.
