Ukraine at COP30 Offered International Partners to Join Forest Restoration Projects

During a presentation at the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 30th UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Brazil, the Head of the State Forest Resources Agency, Viktor Smal, informed international experts about the consequences of Russian military aggression for Ukrainian forests and offered them to join projects for their conservation and restoration.

Due to the full-scale war, about 1 million hectares of forests are under temporary occupation, 0.5 million hectares are densely mined, 100 thousand hectares are a combat zone, and overall, approximately 3 million hectares of forest have been negatively affected, causing the forestry sector to lose 20% of its resources.

«But this is not just a story of losses. It is also a story about how, in the context of a full-scale war, we are reforming and developing the forestry sector and achieving significant economic growth, adhering to our international climate commitments, making significant progress on the European integration track, and conserving and restoring our forests», - Viktor Smal noted.

He added that Ukraine has offered international partners several areas of cooperation. First and foremost, this concerns demining.

«At current rates, it will take us decades to clear Ukrainian forests of mines and explosives. But we cannot wait that long: we need timber for the military, and ahead of us is the global rebuilding of the country, which will also require a large amount of timber. So we have a proposal on how to speed up the process», - the Head of the State Forest Resources Agency said.

According to him, one option is to use armored, remotely controlled harvesters that can perform clearcutting in mined forests. This will allow for the retrieval of timber and will also significantly speed up the work of sappers, who will work after the harvesters. Foresters will then be able to immediately plant new forests in these areas.

The second area for international cooperation is the conservation of naturally regenerated forests (self-seeding forests), of which there are about 2 million hectares in Ukraine.

«Communities that have naturally regenerated forests on their territory are reluctant to transfer them to forest fund lands, as these forests grow on agricultural lands that can be plowed and used for growing agricultural products. Financial compensation for their transfer to forest fund lands can be an incentive for communities to preserve naturally regenerated forests. Therefore, we propose considering the possibility of creating a separate global fund that will accumulate funds for this purpose», - Viktor Smal explained.

He added that work in these two areas is already beginning, and Ukraine hopes to attract as many international partners as possible.

«I am grateful for the support to everyone who visited our presentation: representatives of the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Swedish Ministry of Climate and Industry, as well as experts from the World Bank, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Environment, and other specialists. I hope that next year at COP31, we will talk together about the achievements of the forestry sector in a peaceful Ukraine», - Viktor Smal concluded.