On September 28, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine hosted a roundtable dedicated to the current situation in the forest sector of the country.

The Education and Research Institute of Forestry and Park Gardening of the University and FLEG II organized the event. Over 100 experts took part, including national deputies, scientists, forest practitioners, FLEG II experts, and teachers.

The roundtable participants discussed the problems arising from the lack of state support for the forest industry in 2016, which among other things, led to a catastrophic deterioration of economic indicators in the forestry enterprises in southern and eastern Ukraine.

The Head of the Department of Dendrology and Forest Breeding of the University, national coordinator of the FLEG program Yuri Marchuk spoke at the meeting. FLEG consultant Mikhail Popkov presented a report on sustainable multi-purpose forest management and the most recent results of the FLEG program in this field. In particular, Mr. Popkov suggested, as a means of saving Ukrainian forestry, creating a central forestry fund or including forestry in the State Agriculture Support Program.

The participants of the round table addressed the prime minister of Ukraine, the chairperson of the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada), the minister of agrarian policy and food, and public deputies, urging them to resume the funding for the state program “Forest and wildlife service, safeguarding and protection of the forests” and allocate 700 million hryvna (approximately 27,000,000 US dollars) for these purposes (including saving the south-eastern forests of the country).

The roundtable participants recommended the Ministry of Agrarian Policy to develop and submit draft amendments to the Tax and Budget Codes, in order to create a "State Forest Management Trust Fund", where to send 5% of the funds received from the sale of products by resource forestries (Carpathians and Polesie) and a portion of contributions from the forest rent. The heads of regional state administrations must also contribute to saving the forests of these areas with the help of regional environmental funds.

Materials of Irina Belous, of National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, were used in the preparation of this article. http://www.lesovod.org.ua/node/30767