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Dear
Friends!
Today,
fires caused by military operations are one of
the main drivers of ecosystem destruction and
biodiversity losses in Ukraine. Moreover,
comprehensive impact monitoring is impossible in
wartime, and there is no quantitative data
regarding the burning of forests and steppes
since the full-scale invasion began over two
years ago. Damage resulting from the last decade
of fires has yet to be calculated as well.
Generally less forested, agricultural and steppe
landscapes in eastern Ukraine are especially
affected by the fighting. Burned forests
in those areas will be more difficult to
restore, and their role in mitigating climate
change in the region will be almost impossible
to replace. This month, Ukrainian
Nature Conservation Group director Oleksiy
Vasyliuk examines monitoring of forest fires
caused by military
operations:
In
conditions of the ongoing war, it is generally
very difficult to effect environmental
protection measures in nature reserves and
national parks. Since the full-scale
Russian invasion began, 812 protected area sites
totalling roughly one million square kilometers
have been damaged by military
operations. Taken together, this
jeopardizes achievement of the European Union’s
Biodiversity Strategy, an important focus for
Ukraine’s European integration. Expanded
implementation of rewilding practices in wartorn
areas offers one potential solution. Ukrainian
journalist Viktoria Hubareva explores this
topic:
Despite
the ongoing hostilities, nature continues to
spontaneously recuperate. Today, there is even a
special term for this – war-wilding. War-wilding
can occur in areas affected by the full-scale
war in Ukraine and is essentially a natural
process of ecosystem restoration in areas
abandoned by humans. That said, it is important
that restoration contributes to the conservation
of the country's biodiversity rather than
becoming ground zero for the spread of invasive
species. Despite the ongoing war,
Ukrainian environmentalists are carrying out
initiatives to rewild territories.
Learn about how rewilding occurs and explore
examples of rewilding in an article written by
Ukrainian experts for UWEC Work
Group:
This month
we focus on energy in our monthly review of
stories related to the war’s environmental
consequences in Ukraine. Intensified shelling of
energy infrastructure in early April again
raised the issue of how to restore Ukraine’s
energy system. UWEC experts propose that
electricity generation and the distribution grid
be decentralized and become more energy
efficient, in other words, moving away
from large generation units such as thermal
power plants, nuclear power plants, and
hydroelectric power plants:
UWEC Work
Group experts Eugene Simonov and Oleksiy
Vasyliuk also studied the question of
decentralizing Ukraine’s electric industry and
explore how development of renewable energy
generation relates to conservation practices as
well as the role of “green energy” in Ukraine’s
integration with Europe:
You can
read more of our analysis and news of the
environmental consequences of Russia’s invasion
of Ukraine on our website, on
Twitter (X), Facebook, and
Telegram.
We wish
you strength and peace!
Alexej
Ovchinnikov
Editor,
UWEC Work
Group | 
