Support to public participation in the establishment of biodiversity monitoring system in Ukraine

Ukraine is a Contracting Party of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and endorses the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS).

But there is still no a national system of biodiversity monitoring in Ukraine that is an important part in conservation of animal and plant species. Nowadays monitoring of state of animal and plant populations is realized only in some areas of natural reserves of Ukraine and just for some of taxonometric animal or plant species.

In developed countries, thousands volunteers take part in the monitoring of biodiversity state. Unlike this, public participation in monitoring in Ukraine is at a very low level. In this connection, the objective of the project is to strengthen biodiversity monitoring capacity in Ukraine by means of widening of public participation.

Public participation in biodiversity monitoring is important for different reasons:

Carrying out of animals and plants counts couldn’t be automated and demands participation of many people;
Quantity of time and efforts needed is very expensive, so the country couldn’t fund them in full measure;
Stimulation of public participation means rising of public awareness and support to biodiversity conservation.

Project activities include:

Creation of database on organizations, institutions and key experts studying biodiversity in general and its monitoring in Ukraine;
Collection of information on existing animal and plant monitoring programs in Ukraine and prepare the review;
Conducting a National biodiversity monitoring workshop;
Determination of biodiversity monitoring needs of different groups of users;
Drawing up a draft Program of National Biodiversity Monitoring;
Carrying out pilot monitoring for some animal or plant species at a regional level involving public participation.

Results:

Partners:

European Centre for Nature Conservation
National Ecological Centre of Ukraine
I. I. Schmalhauzen Institute of Zoology of National Academy of Sciences of Ukrainian
M. G. Kholodny Institute of Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Implementation of the project will be in close co-operation with the Ministry for Environmental Protection of Ukraine.

Donor:

The project is supported by BBI-Matra Fund of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands

European Centre for Nature Conservation

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: