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Dear
Friends!
At
this week’s G20 summit, Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskii set out his ten-point plan to
end the war. In addition to the issues of nuclear,
food, and energy security, he touched on the
issues of ecocide and environmental protection.
Finding solutions to all these challenges can
facilitate an end to the war and while also
contributing to the solution of other global
problems, including, for example, biodiversity
losses and climate change adaptation challenges.
Achieving
these goals requires coordinated and
sustainability-oriented action by all states. In
this regard, Ukraine’s legislation is still far
from optimal, especially as it relates to forest
protection. Illegal logging in the country is
ongoing, and Ukraine is experiencing year over
year declines of its main “green” resources.
Unfortunately, no optimal legal solution has yet
been adopted, and the war has even made further
negative adjustments. For example, the wartime
government abolished the practice of
“off-seasons,” when all logging activities are
forbidden. In this issue, we team up with experts
from the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group to
explore current events in Ukraine’s forestry
industry and how the war affects those ecosystems.
Ukrainian
government plans to launch a number of
controversial projects highlight the issue of food
security from a new angle, including the use of
the environmentally important Danube River delta
as a shipping artery. UWEC expert Valeria
Kolodezhna examines the project’s inefficiencies
and failures from both economic and environmental
perspectives.
Rebuilding
Ukraine cannot take place without resolving the
most important question: returning occupied
territories to Ukraine. Many of these contain
unique biodiversity and have significant
conservation value. And one place at the top of
that list is Crimea. Beginning in this issue, UWEC
Work Group is launching a series of expert
articles studying the war’s impact on the
peninsula. In today’s issue of our newsletter, a
new infographic clearly demonstrates the
consequences of occupation and militarization for
Crimea’s unique nature.
Of
course these ten goals cannot be achieved without
active engagement by civil society and
environmental communities, including Russian civil
society. How do Russian environmental activists
work today? What do they do? Do they have the
tools and ability to successfully defend their
lands in the face of growing authoritarianism?
What is their position on the war? Learn more in
an interview with Vitaly Servetnik, Co-Chair of
the Russian Social-Ecological Union.
The
gas leak resulting from damage to the Nord Stream
pipeline was a clear demonstration of how events
related to the war in Ukraine can directly affect
the ecology of other regions. Methane emissions
over just a few days is roughly equivalent to half
of Denmark's annual emissions or the greenhouse
gas emissions of one of Europe's largest coal
plants. We publish a transcript of a conversation
with Sascha Müller-Kroener, director of Deutsche
Umwelthilfe e.V. (Environmental Action Germany and
Eco-action Germany), which first appeared in the
Eurasian Climate Brief podcast series.
You
can read more news about the environmental
consequences of the war in Ukraine on our website, on Twitter and Facebook.
Wishing
you strength and peace!
Aleksei
Ovchinnikov
Editor, UWEC Work
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