The area affected by forest fires in Ukraine has decreased fourfold this year. The area affected by fires in the forests of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” (excluding the Izyum Forestry) amounted to only 1.5 thousand hectares, compared to 6 thousand hectares in 2024. This was reported by the head of the enterprise, Yuriy Bolokhovets.
According to him, since the beginning of the year, forest fires in the European Union have destroyed more than a million hectares of forest, which is a record for the last twenty years. For example, in Ukraine’s neighbor Romania, 126,000 hectares of forest land have burned down. In Ukraine, military factors are added to the negative climatic factors – a significant proportion of fires are associated with rocket and drone strikes. However, the percentage of forest loss due to fires is an order of magnitude lower than in the EU.
The most problematic remains the Izyum Forestry, which this year included three de-occupied forestries in the Kharkiv region. Last year, almost 13,000 hectares of forest burned down here. After joining the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine,” the company notes that new firefighting equipment and tools were transferred to the forestry enterprises, and the salaries of forest protection workers were increased. As a result, the area affected by fires in the Izyum Forestry was reduced by almost 8 times to 1,800 hectares.
The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” explains that the reduction in the area affected by fires was achieved thanks to the purchase of new firefighting equipment. This year, dozens of new forest firefighting modules were sent to most of the company’s branches, which are capable of reaching places that large fire trucks cannot access. Recently, new tenders were announced for the purchase of 50 modules to be installed in pickup truck beds and 20 trailer platforms with pre-installed forest firefighting modules.
The salaries of forest protection workers have also been increased by an average of 20%.
Over the past two years, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has set up more than 100 new modern recreation centers, the presence of which significantly reduces the risk of fires caused by human factors. Another 50 have been opened this year. According to the company, these are full-fledged complexes for safe leisure in the forest with all the necessary infrastructure (children’s and sports grounds, water, electricity, changing rooms, barbecues, etc.).
In addition, foresters continue to make large-scale investments in firefighting infrastructure. This year, 38,800 km of mineralized strips were installed and 183,400 km of existing ones were maintained. The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” maintains 3,500 fire reservoirs, equips them with piers, and installs water storage tanks so that even in hot weather, each reservoir has the necessary water supply.
Work is continuing on the purchase and installation of 30 new television surveillance systems and the construction of 24 new observation towers. The goal is to completely cover forest areas with a high risk of fire with a video surveillance system. In total, the company operates almost 500 such towers.
To prevent large-scale fires in the future, Lisy Ukrainy has refused to plant pure coniferous stands, creating exclusively mixed forests of coniferous and deciduous species, which are more resistant to climate change and less vulnerable to fires.
Head of Rivne Regional Military Administration Vitaliy Koval signed on Wednesday a decree banning civilians from visiting forest areas in the region for the duration of martial law. “From now on, it is forbidden to visit the forest in Rivne region! The corresponding decree was signed yesterday. It is valid for the period of the war. The exception is the Armed Forces of Ukraine, security forces, representatives of executive authorities, local self-government and those working with the forest,” Koval wrote in Telegram on Thursday.
He urged to treat such restrictions with understanding. “Your safety is the most important!” Koval said.
The national forest inventory with a total budget of about UAH 60 million and the publication of data on the state of the forest fund will last until 2027 with the publication of an interim total in 2023, head of the production association Ukrderzhslisproekt Viktor Melnychenko said during a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Tuesday.
Melnychenko said that the inventory being carried out would provide generalized information for strategic planning in various sectors, including forestry.
He clarified that the State Agency for Forest Resources had appointed Ukrderzhslisproekt to be responsible for the inventory of forests in Ukraine.
The inventory will be carried out in the next five years, after which the information received will be analyzed and the final report prepared for another year. At the same time, the expert noted that the national forest inventory is the only method for determining the currently unknown indicators of natural growth (loss) of forest vegetation, as well as their qualitative and quantitative indicators, which are the main ones in discussions about the intensity of forest use.
“During the period of independence, only two state forest registrations were carried out: in 1996 and in 2011. Conceptually, it is the Research Laboratory that is designed to change the principles of the national forest inventory,” Melnychenko said.
The head of Ukrderzhslisproekt said that during the inventory, 30 specialists from 15 teams would collect more than 50 items of indicators from 18,000 forest plots, where trees have important ecological and economic characteristics. To record all changes occurring in the forest, the control plots will be regularly studied over two five-year cycles, which will make it possible to prepare an array of more than 70 types of reporting data with generalized information about the forests of Ukraine.
According to him, at the moment the project staff numbers 19 people, of which seven teams have been formed, and five more employees will check the objectivity of the information already collected.
The inventory budget for 2021 will amount to UAH 12 million, 90% of which will be used to pay the salaries of workers collecting information in the field. Accordingly, the total budget of the National Forest Inventory for the entire duration of the program is planned at about UAH 60 million.
Melnychenko clarified that data on the state of forests would be made public on a publicly accessible specialized website with information about the national forest inventory. In this case, the maximum statistical error during research will be no more than 3%.
“The inventory data will be a significant source for scientific research, which will contribute to the further improvement of forest inventory characteristics. In the future, the research laboratory will play a key role in the state system of information on forests,” Melnychenko said.
FOREST, FOREST INVENTORY, MELNYCHENKO, PROJECT, UKRDERZHLISPROEKT
Ukrainian woodworkers have proposed that 50% of unprocessed timber is sold at electronic auctions and 50% is sold under long-term contracts on the term of the offer, aiming at stable development of forestry and support of deep processing of wood.
The concept, proposed for amending a bill on the wood market, was announced by Director General of Kronospan Ukraine LLC Natalia Pokinska at a press conference organized by the InvestRivne agency in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to her, industry representatives are proposing a “cascade” principle of holding auctions on electronic platforms, i.e. they can be of four types: basic, additional, repeated and additional repeated.
At the same time, the participants in the main auctions should be woodworking enterprises that have submitted a declaration on the relevant activity and are included in the register of wood processing entities, and the participants in the additional ones – buyers of wood for needs not related to processing and production of products from it, as well as manufacturers of wood chips and companies that use timber as an alternative source of energy, biofuel producers and nonresidents.
“If we compare an entity that buys raw materials for the production of chipboard and a buyer for biofuel production, they are also in different categories for government support, since the energy industry provides for certain subsidies, and such buyers can pay more for raw materials and compete with the real sector which deeply processes wood,” Pokinska said.
Regarding the conclusion of contracts for the sale of timber on the term of the offer, industry representatives also propose to conduct them on a transparent electronic platform (“forest portal”), and publish the results automatically after the offer was approved to avoid accusations of non-transparency or behind-the-scenes of the process.
“We have analyzed the laws of other states, EU directives, and we can say that such a cascade is a guarantee of deeper processing of raw materials with high added value,” the director general of the company said.
Forest Innovation and Analytical Center has begun the creation of the Forestry Startup Fund on behalf of Head of the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine Vasyl Kuzovych.
“The main task of the Fund will be the development of a special platform (project exchange) designed to streamline contacts between startup developers and potential investors interested in creating modern high technologies in the timber industry,” the press service of the State Forest Resources Agency said on Saturday.
According to the press service, in the future, the Forestry Startup Fund may become the founder of the first industrial park in the forestry industry, arranged according to the classic three-module scheme, which has proven itself in Silicon Valley and other global centers of innovation.
Ukrainian Sawmills LLC (Kostopil, Rivne region), which produces sawn timber, furniture panels and semifinished products, declares a critical situation in connection with the failure to deliver the full volume of logs by state-run forestry enterprises legally acquired by the company at open auctions, the company has said on its Facebook page.
“We, the newest sawmill, launched at the end of 2017, are now on the brink of survival. The most important problem is providing raw materials in full, or rather begging legally acquired raw materials from state-owned forestry enterprises. According to the results of the third quarter of 2020 (left only three days before it ends), the forestry enterprises of Zhytomyr and Volyn regions, as well as some forestry enterprises of Rivne region supplied us with less than 50% of the purchased wood,” the company said on Monday, September 28.
Ukrainian Sawmills said that they participate in all auctions for the purchase of coniferous sawlogs, since this year they decided to fully utilize the existing design capacities.
“We will demand additional supplies of logs. But who will compensate us for the forced downtime, loss of business reputation due to unshipped products to buyers and possible penalties for our failure to fulfill obligations?” the company said.
In addition, the company drew attention to the fact that some auctions are announced in such a way and at such a time that only those “for whom the auction is specially held” can learn about them.
“It turns out that we already have a system of shadow auctions so that the right raw materials go to the right people, and not to those who want to buy. Formally, everything seems to be honest: there is an official announcement and an auction is being held (print screen is attached). But the problem is the one for whom this auction is specially held, without providing for other participants, can only know about it,” the company said.
Ukrainian Sawmills appeal to the Office of the President, the Cabinet of Ministers, the State Forest Resources Agency and the regional forestry and hunting departments with questions about holding such auctions, at what prices they buy raw materials, whether there are any abuses and unlawful benefits.
Ukrainian Sawmills LLC was registered in September 2014 in Kostopil. According to the public register, 100% of the charter capital is owned by the company Ukresta Holdings Limited, registered in Cyprus.
