Transformation of Forests to Close-to-Nature Forest Management in Ukraine: Nature-based silvicultural and fire management methods for increasing the resilience of pine stands to drought and wildfire
- 1Regional Eastern Europe Fire Monitoring Center (REEFMC), Kyiv, Ukraine
- 2National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
- 3Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), Freiburg, Germany
Scots pine forests that make up 33% of the total forest area of Ukraine (9,4 million ha) that
are represented mostly by single species and planted stands, have low resilience to climate
change, fires and insects. More than 180 000 ha of pine forests were burned within 5 fire
episodes in northern and south-eastern regions of the country during extremely dry fire
season of 2020. In Luhansk oblast 16 civilians died, 54 were injured, 22 villages and hundreds
of houses were burned or damaged because of July and October 2020 fires. Climate change
uncertainties and numerous ignition sources in the landscapes require development and
implementation of long-term strategy towards building fire resilient landscapes and fire
resilient communities.
National Strategy of Integrated Landscape Fire Management in Ukraine was developed by
joint research team of the Regional Eastern Europe Fire Monitoring Europe and the Global
Fire Monitoring Center for defining approaches and stakeholders as well as institutional
arrangement of fire resilient landscape and community concept implementation. The
Strategy was approved by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resource
Management of Ukraine and publicly discussed.
Silvicultural intervention and fuel treatment methods were tested experimentally in pine
forests of Ukraine within implementation of the RESILPINE project supported by the German
Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture (BMEL) / German Federal Agency for Agriculture
and Food (BLE). In particular, fire resilient forest edges on territories with high ignition
probability near agricultural fields and lowlands were established via planting birch, apple
tree, pear, lime tree in Boyarka Forest Experimental Station, Osterskii Military Forestry and
Teteriv Forestry Enterprise. Formation of open fire resilient structure in 60-year-old pine
forests via heavy thinning (40%) of overcrowded stands and prescribed burning of ground fuel
on southern and south-eastern vicinity of villages Kudriashivka and Varvarivka of Luhansk
Oblast that were threatened by fires in 2020. Oblasts were justified and prepared for spring
2022. Preliminary recommendations for state forest enterprises on increasing fire resilience
of pine forests were presented and approved by scientific-technical council of the State
Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine.
How to cite: Zibtsev, S., Georg Goldammer, J., Soshenskii, O., and Gumeniuk, V.: Transformation of Forests to Close-to-Nature Forest Management in Ukraine: Nature-based silvicultural and fire management methods for increasing the resilience of pine stands to drought and wildfire, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-13361, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13361, 2022.