0667-C1
V.P. Tkach and I.F. Buksha[1]
The current status of forest science in Ukraine and the contribution of scientific investigations into forest national policy development are described. Recent changes connected with transformation of the political and economic situation in Ukraine and transition require the development of new forest policy, adequate to new conditions. This policy must be based on the principles of sustainable development and be coordinated in international context. In these conditions the role of forest science increases as a source of informational and analytical support for development of modern forest policy in Ukraine. Cooperative international research projects play an important role, offering the possibility of obtaining new knowledge and technologies as well as promoting harmonization of national and international approaches to forest policy creation. The recently adopted state program “Forests of Ukraine 2002-2015” was developed on the basis of results of long-term and large-scale forest investigations and respects international requirements for national forest programs.
Forests of Ukraine grow in five natural zones - zone of mixed forests, forest-steppe, steppe, mountain Crimea and Carpathians. The total area of forest lands is 10.8 mln ha, or 15.6% of the Ukraine territory, forests covered area is 9.4 million ha. Coniferous and deciduous trees species dominate in forests (Scotch pine, oak, spruce, maple, sycamore maple, ash). Coniferous stands cover 42 per cent of the total forest area, including Pines - 33 %; deciduous forests amount 43 %. Age structure of forest stands is follows: young - 32 %, middle aged - 44, premature - 13, mature - 11 %. Artificial stands amount about 50 per cent. Average growing stock of forest lands is 186 m3/ha, average growing stock increment is 3.8 m3/ha. Total growing stock exceeds 1.7 milliard m3.
Forests in Ukraine are in the State ownership, 66% of forest fund are managed by the State Committee of Forest Management, 26 - by Ministry of Agricultural Policy, and 2% - by Ministry of Defense. Another part of forests fund are managed by 50 other Ministries and agencies. Private forests amount less then 1% of forest fund. According to Land Code, ratified by Parliament in autumn, 2002, the forest plots with area up to 5 ha can become private, as well as private forests can be planted on lands with low productivity.
According to recent conception, the main roles of Ukrainian forests are their recreational and nature protective functions; their exploitation role is limited. National parks, other conservancy territories and protected forests cover about 14 % of forest lands managed by State Committee of Forestry.
The share of forest production in the total production in Ukraine is about 0,3%. After 1990, wood production in Ukrainian forests decreased because of general fall of purchasing capacity in internal market, however wood production export recently has increased. The total level of forest production sales has increased. Liquid wood logging essentially decreased in yearly 90-th, but then gradually increased and recent years they have amounted 10-11 mln. m3.
The legislative base of forest policy in Ukraine is stated in Forest Code of Ukraine (1994) and set of other legislative documents and acts. The new edition of Forest Code is developed now, because of changes in legal system of Ukraine, in particular connecting to new Land Code, adopted by Parliament in October, 2001.
Several legislative aspects limiting forest management activity are stated in Land Code (2001) and Water resources Code (1995), Ukrainian Lows “On environment protection” (1991); “On conservancy areas fund of Ukraine” (1992); “On animals” (1993), “On plants” (2000); “On hunting management and hunting” (2000); “On moratorium on banded cuttings in spruce-beech forest stands on mountain sides of Carpathians region” (2000). These documents declare as to forests:
in preference state ownership on forests;
dominating of natural-conservation role and limited exploitation role of forest;
necessity of continuous sustainable and rational use of forest resources;
necessity of enlarged reproduction and improvement of tree species composition of forests.
National forest strategy is implemented in the set of national and state programs, such as “State program on forest management and forest industry complex development by 2015” (1993); “National program on perspective development of nature conservation in Ukraine” (1994); “National program on Dnipro basin sanitation and improvement of drinking water quality” (1997); “State program on development of national ecological network in Ukraine in 2000-2015” (2000).
In February 2001, the Government of Ukraine adopted the act “On high-priority measures on forest shelter stands creation on badlands and in watersheds”. In April 2002, the Government of Ukraine adopted the State Program “Forests of Ukraine on 2002-2015”.
There are following priorities in National Forest strategy of Ukraine before 2015:
increase of forest coverage in the country up to optimal scientifically-founded level;
increase of productivity and improvement of tree species composition of forest stands;
increase of nature-conservation potential of forests, preservation of their biodiversity;
increase of forest ecosystems sustainability to negative environment factors and climate changes;
increase of rational forest resources use level;
increase of scale of protective forest cultivation and forest melioration;
improvement of legislative base for forest management and its harmonization with international principles of sustainable forest management;
magnification of state control for forest conservation and protection, forest resources usage and renewal;
development of forest science and education;
magnification of socio-economical role of forest management.
The prognosis of main parameters dynamics of Program “Forests of Ukraine” implementation are presented in Table 1.
Table 1 Main prognostic parameters of Program “Forests of Ukraine” implementation
|
Parameters |
Units |
Years |
|||
|
2002 |
2005 |
2010 |
2015 |
||
|
Total area of forest lands |
mln. Ha |
10,8 |
10,9 |
11,1 |
11,3 |
|
Including forest coverage area |
mln. Ha |
9,4 |
9,4 |
9,5 |
9,7 |
|
Total growing stock |
mlrd. m3 |
1,74 |
1,86 |
1,97 |
2,03 |
|
Average growing stock |
m3 ha-1 |
186 |
200 |
205 |
210 |
|
Average changes in growing stock |
m3 ha-1 |
3,8 |
3,8 |
3,9 |
4 |
|
Forest coverage |
% |
15,6 |
15,6 |
15,8 |
16,1 |
Main conceptual statements on forest management which are put in the base of the State program “Forests of Ukraine 2002-2015”, are presented below.
The Program foresees the measures on increase of forest productivity on the base of forest renewal and balanced & stable forest use. The ways of forest cultivation (sowing, planting, reconstruction and natural renewal) according to natural & climatic conditions of regions. Enlargement of the net of breeding & seed centers and green houses complexes, replacement of stands of low value by tree species of high productivity, promoting to natural forest regeneration, biodiversity conservation, increase of resistant stands of high productivity is also foreseen.
Creation of protective forest stands and shelter belts is planned to protect environment, to prevent soil erosion and river exhausting. Protective forest cultivation will be carried out chiefly on the lands which are of low productivity, degraded and polluted.
The measures directed to prevent and protect forest from fires are foreseen by program. These are particularly creation of fire-preventing breaks, mineralized fire-preventing belts, creation and reconstruction of the net of observation towers, renewal of means of communication and fire-preventing equipment. To improve forest protection from fires, it is foreseen to carry out additional fire-preventing measures in coniferous stands of the steppe zone by creation wide fire-preventing breaks and step by step introduction of television laser distant observation complexes.
Priority of forest protection is the development and implementation to forest practice the ecologically safe means and methods to control pests and diseases.
Main felling and thinning
Program is foresee the decrease of the part of total felling and increase the part of gradual and selective felling with simultaneous measures which promote to natural regeneration as well as partial plantations creation.
In the base of the main felling there is the observance of the principles of continuous, sustainable and rational use of forest resources, reconstruction of the stable stands of high productivity, which will promote forest biodiversity conservation at complete use of possibilities of natural regeneration of the valuable forest forming species and more wide use of ecologically safe technologies of logging.
The main directions of forest management in mountain conditions are:
replacement of secondary spruce stands in the belt of beech and oak forests on the primary types of stands;
creation and restoration of protective tree & bush groups on the upper border of forest in the mountains;
creation of protective forest stands along small rivers;
afforestation of eroded sites on the steep slopes, stony looses;
reconstruction of forest stands, destroyed by element and biotic factors, forming of mixed stands of many layers;
improvement of felling system for the account of the part of gradual and selective felling, nature protective technology of logging;
forest roads network development (till 2010 it is planned to increase the net of the timber carrying vessels with a firm covering up to 10 km/1000 ha of forest fund in the region).
For effective implementation of forest policy, the measures are foreseen to increase the system of information maintenance for forest management. These measures must promote the increase accuracy and efficiency of the information on resources and ecological forest condition, further implementation of forest monitoring, improvement of forest inventory and planning of forest management activity, improvement of methods of forecasting of forest growth and condition dynamics, development of multialternative strategy of forest usage.
Forest researches in Ukraine are carried out mainly by state research and educational establishments, non-governmental forest research organizations occupy the limited segment of the scientific development market. The main research and educational organizations of the forest field are as follows:
1. Ukrainian Research Institute of Forestry & Forest Melioration (URIFFM, Kharkiv), which includes two branches and 8 regional research stations;
2. Ukrainian Research Institute of Mountain Forestry (URIMF, Ivano-Frankivsk) and its Forest Experimental Station;
3. Education & Research Institute of Foresty and Landscape Architecture of Ukrainian National Agrarian University (Kyiv):
4. Ukrainian State University of Forestry and Wood Technology (USUFWT) (Lviv);
5. Forest Management Department of Kharkov National Agrarian University;
6. Research Center of Forest Management.
URIFFM belong to the structure of the State Committee of Forest Management of Ukraine. Therefore the forming of prior directions of their researches are closely connected with by scientific maintenance and information &analytical support of forest national policy. Priority directions of scientific researches of URIFFM are the following:
1. Elaboration and improvement of forest management systems, technologies of forest restoration.
2. Forest ecology, forest monitoring and certification.
3. New informational technologies application in forestry.
4. Forest melioration.
5. Forest defense and protection.
6. Forest breeding, gene potential & biodiversity study and conservation in Ukrainian forests.
7. Forest radiology.
URIFFM, besides preparation of recommendations on listed directions, also takes part in projects development (as a rule, on preparation stage) on forestry. This activity promotes the including of new elements to the forest national policy, which are necessary according to adopted international principles.
To elaborate forest policy coordinated on the national and international levels, international cooperation of research, particularly international research projects have large meaning. The most part of projects started last years. URIFFM was accepted in IUFRO members since 1997 and has become the collective member of EFI since 2000. From the beginning of 90-th, URIFFM takes part in international projects on forest monitoring. Since 1989 URIFFM takes part in International Cooperative program of forest monitoring of UNECE - ICP Forests, where approximately 40 countries take part. Since 1995 URIFFM participates in international program of Union States Forest Service - US “Forest Health Monitoring” (FHM). In result of it, multilevel network of permanent monitoring plots has been created in Ukraine, which gives the possibility to obtain information about forest condition dynamics after coordinated international methods. Due to participation in international monitoring programs, URIFFM regularly gets the literature on the problems of forest monitoring, modern methodical and reference editions, standards and technologies of forest monitoring. It gives the possibility to develop national program of forest monitoring according to coordinated principles and standards. Necessity of taking into account the wide spectrum of anthropogenic changes impact on the forests and their condition dynamics prediction have become the new factors that must be taken into account at development of national forest strategy.
Essential contribution to development of modern methods of informational & analytical support of national forest policy was done by cooperative international project “Scenario analysis of sustainable forest growing at different regimes of forest management - SCEFORMA”, which was carried out in the frame of program INCO-Copernicus. It promotes the development of fundamental methods of long-term planning of forestry in Ukraine. Quantitative estimations of sustainable forest use potential were obtained, and different alternatives of forest management were examined taking into account the effects of forest condition and climate changes on forest management. By this, different information from various sources (on forest management systems, forest inventory, monitoring, forest growth and productivity models, data on climate change impact on forests) were joined to uniform strategic decision making system. Model EFISCEN, developed in EFI, was given to URIFFM to analyze possible scenario of forests development and to develop forest management strategy on the level of State or region. Long-term prediction was created in URIFFM for forest resources condition estimation in result of climate change, defoliation and different regimes of forest use up to 2050 after methodology, coordinated on European level. Evaluations obtained by modeling have large value for forest policy forming, these results used by development of the program “Forests of Ukraine 2002-2015”.
On the problem of climate change URIIFM closely cooperates with Ukrainian-American Climate Changes Initiatives in the field of preparation of national strategy for activity in forest management taking into account climate changes and increase the possibilities of carbon sequestration by the forests of Ukraine.
For improvement of national forest policy, the most perspective directions of researches are follows:
scientific ground for the base statements of new Forest Code of Ukraine and respective standard documentation on forest management according to international requirements on sustainable forest management;
development of national system of criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management;
development of technical manuals on implementation of the principles of sustainable forest management in practice, development of national scheme, principles and criteries of Ukrainian forests certification;
Perfection of system of information maintenance forest management on the basis of introduction of modern technologies of forest management, forest monitoring and GIS;
Development of strategy and methods of biodiversity conservation;
Study of forest ecosystems vulnerability, development of strategy and methods of forest sector reaction on climate changes;
Study of forestry potential as a source of renewed energy;
Perfection of models of a complex ecological & economic estimation of forests and forest resources for informational & analytical support of the administrative decisions.
The main problems of forest researches organization and realization are connected, first of all, to decrease of a level of forest science financing. As a consequence - there were problems of maintenance of research establishments by the qualified staff, and also the problems of maintenance of researches by modern devices and equipment have appeared. Last years receipts of the special literature in libraries of research establishments essentially have decreased. Thus the significant part of the new information became accessible due to Internet.
In connection with radical changes in system of the public relations connected with transition economy in the country, it is necessary to improve the mechanisms of development, implementation and overlooking of national forest programs. For improvement of scientific research status it is necessary to improve organizational, financial, administrative mechanisms adequately to conditions, in which forest science is now and which will be in the long term. It is necessary to use foreign experience of scientific researches organization, to cooperate with the foreign researchers within the framework of the joint international projects. Important is the exchange by experience of national forest programs development. Necessary elements are the training - programs of adequate methods development for public involving in process of forest problems discussion (external estimation of the national forest programs), and also mechanisms of interested parties involving in process of preparation and acceptance of the decisions (participation in development and application of the national forest programs). Organization of wide public access to the information on modern forest policy of the country, plans and prospects of its development, information distribution on the main results of the projects connected with national forest programs. In connection with it the extremely important task is the improvement of informational system of forest branch, forming of informational resources net on forests and forest management in Internet. It is necessary to create in the Internet information resources about forest researches, which will be accessible to a wide public. It will provide a simple data access connected with forest branch. Such work - preparation of WEB page “Forests and forestry of Ukraine” has been begun by URIFFM within the framework of the project of the European Forest Institute (FINE).
The role of forest international research organizations, such as IUFRO and EFI is important. The information support from these organizations, and also participation in the joint research projects enables the Ukrainian scientists to be integrated in the international scientific space, to exchange new ideas and approaches to realization of forest researches, to receive access to bases to the world data and knowledge. Such cooperation should promote (Romanovsky et al. 2002):
increase the level of an information exchange on forestry problems, improvement of system of the accumulation, analysis and distribution of forest management information, creation of electronic databases, expansion of access to Internet;
development of modern instruments of forest police and forest legislation improvement, harmonization of forest management standards system with international ones;
expansion of cooperation between scientific institutions on sustainable forest management and perfection of forest management systems, development of modern means of modeling and forecast of forest condition dynamics in conditions of anthropogenous influence growth and environment change, forest monitoring and certification, perfection of models for ecological & economical and social estimation of forest resources;
carrying out the programs on experience and technologies exchange, experts training;
informational & consultative support and technical assistance obtaining for carrying out Pan-European programs (such as international common program of forest monitoring ICP Forests);
development of modern technologies of forest inventory, integrated forest monitoring, forest GIS creation;
carrying out join international projects on forest management;
development of programs on forest use as renewal energy source.
To increase the effectiveness of forest science contribution into forest national programs development one can recommend follows:
to help Ukraine to evaluate competently the institution potential of forest management and directions of forest branch reforming
to elaborate the mechanisms of public attraction on the principles of partnership to the processes of forest policy development
to evaluate the requirements in training programs for scientists and experts, to find the sources of financial support for such programs
to promote the increase of informational exchange, increase the part of national informational resources in Internet, preparation of specialized forest WEB-sites.
to promote the wide dissemination of forest scientific investigations results (assistance in symposium, conference, seminars organizing).
1. Basic Principles and Operational Guidelines for the Formulation, Execution and Revision of National Forestry Programmers, FAO, 1996
2. Practitioner’s Guide to the Implementation of the IPF Proposals for Action, FAO, UNDP, 1999, 44 p.p.
3. Romanovskyy V., Buksha I., Kravets P. Country report - Ukraine. - Proceedings of the International Workshop “Forests and Forestry in Central and Eastern European Countries: The Transition Process and Challenges Ahead”, MCPFE, Vienna, Austria, 2002, Vol. 2., P.103-108.
| [1] Ukrainian Research Institute
of Forestry and Forest Melioration, Pushkinska str., 86, Kharkiv 61024,
Ukraine. Tel: +380572 431549; Fax: +380572 432520; Email: [email protected] |