Throughout 2024, Ukraine saw the establishment of 88 new territories and sites within its Protected Areas Fund (Pryrodno-Zapovidnyi Fond, PZF) across 13 regions. The total area of these new protected areas is 2,936.9977 hectares. The area of 12 existing protected sites was also expanded (by 547.7221 ha), while the status of 8 sites was canceled in the Kyiv region (27.5 ha). The area of 7 protected territories was reduced by a total of 949.7279 hectares.
Some regions did not create new protected areas due to russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, specifically in the temporarily occupied territories of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk regions. Similarly, no protected areas were established in the occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.
Meanwhile, the Zakarpattia, Khmelnytskyi, Dnipropetrovsk, and Chernivtsi regions did not establish any new protected sites, despite having the opportunity to do so. The Kharkiv, Volyn, and Ternopil regions also failed to establish new protected areas, only slightly expanding existing ones. Unfortunately, these were minimal additions of only a few hectares, which do not significantly contribute to increasing the overall area of protected lands or preserving valuable biodiversity sites.
For instance, in the Kharkiv region, 162 hectares were removed from the “Malynivskyi” landscape reserve, while only 173.1 hectares were added, resulting in a negligible net increase.
By the number of protected areas established in 2024, the Kyiv region is the leader with 23 sites, but these total only 98.333 hectares. By area, the leaders are the Lviv region (12 protected areas, 704.55 ha), the Odesa region (3 protected sites, 635.3934 ha), and the Kirovohrad region (4 protected areas, 473.1 ha).
We are proud that our efforts contributed to this statistic. Based on our petitions, 10 protected sites were established in 5 regions in 2024:
- Mykolaiv region: “Chortalski Obriyi” landscape reserve (143.1 ha), “Lukianivskyi” (27.2 ha), and “Barativskyi” botanical reserve (62.37 ha).
- Odesa region: “Chyhrynska Balka” landscape reserve (579.18 ha), “Kolo Hleya” (45 ha), and “Skhyly do Lunha” (11.2134 ha).
- Kyiv region: “Vikove Sosnove Lis” botanical reserve (30.8 ha).
- Sumy region: “Urochyshche Sontsevykiv” entomological reserve (6.6948 ha) and “Pampurivka” hydrological reserve (22.6 ha).
- Kirovohrad region: Expansion of the “Kaskady” complex nature monument (72.4521 ha).
The total area of protected territories established based on our research and justification is over 1,000 hectares, representing 34% of the total area of all newly established protected sites in 2024. On the other hand, this is still only a small fraction of what could have been established.
Despite the clear results of our own work, it must be acknowledged, without exaggeration, that the “success” of establishing protected areas in Ukraine in 2024 is the worst in the last 10 years.
The Road Ahead: Overcoming Challenges to Conservation
According to the European Biodiversity Strategy, Ukraine should increase the area of its protected sites from 6.7% to 30% of the country’s total area by 2030. This means that Ukraine has currently established only one-fifth of the necessary amount. The National Sustainable Development Strategy aims for 15% by 2030.
The rate of nature’s destruction significantly surpasses its conservation. The war is not the only cause of environmental destruction; a significant portion of the damage to natural territories is due to economic activities.
Therefore, increasing the area of protected sites is crucial. Some territories designated for establishment are currently under temporary occupation, but legally, this is not an obstacle to declaring them as protected.
The timely adoption of several resolutions to establish or expand new protected areas is urgently needed. These include: the “Dolina Kurhaniv” reserve in the Kherson region; “Kalmiuskyi”, “Kryvolutskyi”, “Sidorivskyi”, and “Zakytnianskyi” reserves in the Donetsk region; reserves in the Donetsk Ridge area of the Luhansk region; the “Chornyi Lis” National Nature Park (NNP) in the Kirovohrad region; the “Pryirpinnya and Chernechyi Lis” NNP and “Nivetskyi” reserve in the Kyiv region; the “Irdynskyi” NNP in the Cherkasy region; the “Skhidnyi Svydovets” and “Skhyly Borzhavy” reserves in the Zakarpattia region; the expansion of the “Verkhovynskyi” and “Hutsulshchyna” NNPs in the Ivano-Frankivsk region; the “Slobozhanskyi” and “Dvorichanskyi” NNPs in the Kharkiv region; the “Skolivski Beskydy” and “Pivnichne Podillya” NNPs in the Lviv region; the “Yelanetskyi Step” reserve, “Biloberezhzhia Svyatoslava” NNP, and “Buzkyi Hard” NNP in the Mykolaiv region; and protected areas on the territory of the Great Meadow (Velykyi Luh), the former Kakhovka Reservoir.
