The state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” will plant 86 million new trees on the territory of 13.9 thousand hectares in the fall of 2023, the company’s director general Yuriy Bolokhovets said.
“We started the forest cultivation campaign in the fall. Our priorities: forests of new quality, more resistant to climate change, less vulnerable to pests and fires. The areas of monoculture creation are being reduced, predominantly mixed forest crops are being designed,” Bolokhovets noted.
Among the priorities of the enterprise is also afforestation of all clear-cuts in the forests of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”, as well as afforestation of degraded areas transferred to the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” by local communities.
“We are significantly increasing the share of seedlings with closed root system (CRS). By this indicator we are gradually catching up with Poland. Five modern breeding centers have been opened and are already working. Opening of four more will increase the planting material with CLS up to 25 million units. Such seedlings give better survival rate, higher growth. The duration of the silvicultural campaign increases”, – said the Director General.
According to his information, instead of dying artificial spruce plantations in the Carpathian region will be planted natural beech and spruce forests, which have decorated the mountainsides for centuries. Large-scale forest planting in southern Ukraine is also planned.
“In the past, only 100-200 hectares of forest were planted there annually in the south. This year at the expense of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” carried out a huge preparatory work and we will plant about 5.4 thousand hectares”, – emphasized Bolokhovets and added that the reproduction of forests in the South of Ukraine will be carried out exclusively taking into account the results of scientific research to preserve natural ecosystems.
As reported, the State Specialized Economic Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is one of the largest forest users in Europe and the largest forest user in Ukraine. It is under the management of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine. The enterprise manages 6.6 million hectares of the state forest fund.
In Ukraine, the forestry reform started in 2016. Within its framework, the sale of untreated timber at electronic auctions has already been introduced. Since 2021, an interactive map of timber processing facilities location has been in test mode in a number of regions.
The industry has introduced the project “Forest in a smartphone”, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows to check the legality of logging on the online map of the department.
Since June 1, 2023 Ukraine has launched a pilot of electronic issuance of logging tickets and certificates of origin of timber. In addition, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” started a pilot project for the procurement of timber harvesting services through the electronic platform Prozorro.
To date, Forests of Ukraine has harvested more than 130 thousand cubic meters of firewood for the heating season 2023/2024.
