Dynamics of the volumes of felling and forest renewal in Ukraine

Abstract

Introduction

Since the beginning of the 21^st century, a positive trend in the dynamics of forest areas has been observed in EU countries. Thus, during 2000–2021, the increase in the area of forests in the EU amounted to approximately 8 million ha, and their standing volume increased by 31.2 % According to Global Forest Watch, during this period, Ukraine lost 1.26 million ha of forests, which is equivalent to 11 % decrease in forest cover. According to research by scientists of URIFFM, in recent decades, the total volume of forest renewal in Ukraine exceeds the area of legal clear-felling. Therefore, the study aimed to assess the trends in reforestation and afforestation in Ukraine over the past five years on a regional basis and compare the identified trends with the European ones.

Materials and Methods

The research used methods of deduction, quantitative methods of statistics, tabular and graphical modeling, economic analysis and synthesis, as well as methods of field forest research. The sources of information were data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (https://www.ukrstat.gov.ua/), the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine (https://forest.gov.ua/), legislative and regulatory documentation of Ukraine (https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/), European statistics data (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/), international monitoring internet platforms (https://www.globalforestwatch.org/map/) and scientific publications on the research subject.

Results

It was found that reforestation in Ukraine is the main component of forest renewal in terms of volume making 83.9–95.5 %. During 2018–2020, the area of legal felling has been reduced in the whole country (by 2.0–12.5 % per year), as well as within its natural zones (Polissya (forest zone in Ukraine), Forest-Steppe, Steppe and Carpathians). In this period, according to statistical data, Ukraine's actual area of reforestation exceeded the total area of clear-felling and burned areas by 1.6–8.0 %. However, the areas of reforestation in Ukraine significantly decreased during martial law: by 25.9 % in 2022 and 24.2 % in 2023 compared to 2021. The share of clear-felling in the total volume of forest felling in Ukraine was calculated, which does not exceed 10 %. However, in the system of principal fellings, their proportion already reaches 74.5–85.0 %.

Conclusions

In recent years, according to statistics, both the total area of deforestation and the area of clear-felling have been decreasing in Ukraine, which is in line with the European trend of increasing forested areas. However, the volume of partial (gradual, selective, and combined) principal felling decreased. The data provided by the national statistics on the felling volume are incomplete due to the presence of illegal felling, the volume of which is recorded by the stocks of illegally obtained timber without taking into account the area of the plots. The volume of illegal logging has increased significantly in Ukraine since 2022 during the military actions. Also, under martial law, since 2022, there has been a certain decrease in the area of forest regeneration compared to previous years. At the same time, there has been a significant increase in the volume of afforestation activities as part of the implementation of the President of Ukraine’s initiative “Large-scale afforestation of Ukraine”.

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