Strengthening Forest Monitoring and Alignment with EU Standards: Ukrainian Experts Trained in the Czech Republic

Specialists from Ukrderzhlisproekt, the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Research Institute of Forestry and Forest Melioration, together with colleagues from the Czech National Forest Institute (NIL) and IFER – Monitoring and Mapping Solutions, worked on strengthening Ukraine’s forest monitoring system and ensuring its maximum compatibility with European Union standards.

In particular, the Ukrainian-Czech team addressed:

• the full cycle of office-based data processing in the UkrTax/Field-Map system using real projects;
• strengthening quality control of field data and planned forestry operations;
• accounting for protected areas (Nature Reserve Fund) in the office-based processing stage;
• preparation of data for export and its integration with the central repository;
• simplification and refinement of the UkrTax interface to maximize usability for Ukrainian users.

Ukrainian specialists also agreed with their Czech partners on key areas for further cooperation:

EUDR implementation: Development of tools for automated geolocation data collection, analysis of logging activities, and effective use of satellite data.

UkrTax development: Creation of a “Harvesting Site Allocation” module and preparation of a comprehensive, process-oriented user manual.

NFI analysis using EO: Support for analyzing National Forest Inventory data using Earth Observation and the development of national maps of key forest indicators.

Centralization and web services: Development of QGIS plugins and creation of a centralized GIS database of Ukraine’s forests for automated map generation and data publication via web services.

Thanks to these efforts, Ukraine’s forest monitoring system is becoming modern, transparent, and aligned with European Union standards.