Organization:Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine

National public organization "Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine" is an all-Ukraine public organization created to support the protected areas of Ukraine, unite them into one system, increase the level of management of nature reserves of Ukraine and environmental education.

It is the only national organization that directly specializes in the management of protected areas.

History

The Association was established with the support of a joint project of the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine and the Global Environment Facility: "Strengthening the governance and financial sustainability of the national system of protected areas in Ukraine".

On November 19, 2009, the Minister of Justice of Ukraine Mykola Onishchuk signed an order on the registration of the Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine.

Main tasks

The main tasks of the Association are:

• conservation, reproduction and ecologically balanced use of natural resources in the territories of the nature reserve fund of Ukraine and in the territories for reserves;
• promoting the expansion of the area of the national ecological network and its combination with the ecological networks of neighboring countries that are members of the Trans-European Ecological Network, the comprehensive development of international cooperation in this area;
• participation in the development of the national environmental policy of the state, improvement of the regulatory framework in the field of preservation, expansion, reproduction and protection of a single system of territories with the natural state of the landscape and other unique territories;
• promoting the implementation of the Pan-European Strategy for the Conservation of Biological and Landscape Diversity and the National Program for the Formation of the National Ecological Network of Ukraine for 2000-2015, approved by the Law of Ukraine of September 21, 2000 № 1989;
• development of management plans for nature reserves;
• organization and funding of relevant research and monitoring of natural systems;
• conducting joint publishing and educational activities;
• promoting the development of national and international cooperation to raise the prestige and increase the potential of nature reserves of Ukraine.

The Association is open for cooperation with government agencies, international organizations, public organizations, private institutions and citizens in areas that support their goals.

Structure and management

The Association includes representatives of many protected areas from all over Ukraine, both national and local. 17 local branches of the Association have been established. Mykola Stetsenko was elected Chairman of the Association.

Collective members of the Association

Halych National Nature Park

Ichnia National Nature Park

Holy Mountains National Nature Park

Great Meadow National Nature Park

Hutsulshchyna National Park

Desna-Starohutskyi National Nature Park

Skole Beskids National Nature Park

Homilsha Woods National Nature Park

Prypiat-Stokhid National Nature Park

Synevyr National Nature Park

Uzhanskyi National Nature Park

Shatsk National Natural Park

Yavorivskyi National Park

Mezynskyi National Nature Park

Kazantypskyi State Nature Reserve

Kaniv Nature Reserve

Karadag Nature Reserve

Carpathian Biosphere Reserve

Crimean Nature Reserve

Luhansk Nature Reserve

Opuksky Nature Reserve

Polissia Nature Reserve

Yelanets Steppe Nature Reserve

Roztochia Biosphere Reserve

Cape Martyan Reserve

Dniprovsko-Orilskyi Nature Reserve

Znesinnia Regional Landscape Park

Mizhrichynskyi Regional Landscape Park

Institute of Hydrobiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

I. I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology

Ukraine Nature Conservation Society

Ukrainian Research Institute of Water Management and Environmental Problems

Kremenets Botanical Garden

Participation in environmental projects

Representatives of the Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine together with representatives of the UN Development Program in Ukraine, the State Service for Protected Areas of Ukraine, Photographer magazine, Samsung Electronics Ukraine, Bigmir were part of the jury of the video competition "Reserved Ukraine" (2011) held by the UN Development Program in Ukraine in partnership with the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine.

The Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine together with the Ukrainian Society for Nature Protection and Shatsk National Nature Park on October 6–7, 2011 held a Civil Society Forum "State-Public Partnership in the Environmental Field" on the territory of Shatsk National Nature Park in Volyn region. The Forum was attended by representatives of public organizations of the regions of Ukraine, the Belarus , representatives of the United Nations Development Program and other international organizations.

In 2012, the UN Development Program selected as partners for the project "Conservation and sustainable use of peatlands (Project № 00073498) two CSOs: the Institute for Development of Territorial Communities and the Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine for the following reasons:

1. availability of highly qualified personnel and professional reputation,
2. practical experience in the areas required for the Project,
3. organizations are well known, have own offices and a large network of long-standing partners in relevant fields.

External links

• Official website
• Pan-European Strategy for Biological and Landscape Diversity Conservation, Sofia, October 23-25, 1995