It is one of the countless projects that risk disappearing from the radar because of the war. Before the outbreak of hostilities, recalls The Republic, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had launched a program aimed at “reforest a million hectares in a decade” and “plant a billion trees in three years”.
Totally unachievable objectives according to the experts, but which nevertheless had the merit of turning media attention towards an environmental issue of great importance for the future of the planet.
Today, not only is it clear that this project announced in November 2021 will not go forward, but, in addition, the existing Ukrainian forests risk suffering very significant damage due to the war.
For the Italian daily, in fact, “The Russian invasion could have very serious repercussions on the approximately 11 million hectares of forest which today cover 15% of the country”, This is due to three main factors:
“The fires (as is already the case in the Chernobyl zone), the voluntary deforestation of the Russians for defense reasons, and, finally, the abandonment of the land by the organizations which dealt with the conservation of the forests .”
To date, the toll in the Chernobyl zone, affected by intense fighting, is already more than 10,000 hectares gone up in smoke.
This makes sense, since fighting causes fires, and, according to The Republic, with the arrival of good weather, the problem will get worse, because “the dry climate and very strong winds could spark wildfires out of control in times of war”.
A situation that is all the more delicate because “wood is an important resource in Ukraine linked to many workplaces and is often exported to Europe”, notes the Roman daily.
In addition to the ecological repercussions, the disappearance of forests is therefore likely to have serious economic consequences in the medium and long term.