Cтепи України

There was a response from Ukrainian authorities (ref. 13.10.11 № 37-49-14/15552) related to the letter of ap-peal to stop Ukrainian steppe afforestation sent by EDGG in 5th of September 2011. The 5-page letter sent by mail by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine arrived at Mike’s office in Karditsa in 25th of October. The introduction letter was signed by the Dep-uty Minister Mr O.B., while the scientific arguments were supported by the signatures of 9 scien-tific officers (Heads of Scientific Departments and Sen-ior Researchers from SRIFAM(?) Ukrainian Scientific-Research Institute of Forestry and Agricultural Forest Melioration). The letter was written in Ukrainian (!) and thanks to Alex Burkovsky (public campaign “Save Ukrainian Steppes!”) it was translated in English. Both versions (electronically scanned letter and English trans-lation) are freely available, please ask Mike ([email protected]); given space restrictions only an abstract of the response will be given below.

According to the authors:

The provisions of the regulatory framework meets the requirements of European and international legislation in the sphere of nature management taken into account, including international conventions on biological diver-sity, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats (Bern Convention)….. Constitution of Ukraine (Article 13) and the Land Code (Article 1) defines the land as one of the main wealth of the State…. Plough-land is the highest in the world and reached 56 % of the country and 80 % of agricultural land (Land Code, Art. 1, § 9).

Steppes are dominated sown vegetation for agricultural purposes… Natural vegetation, steppe, halophilous, psamophilous and wood … remain only on lands unsuit-able for cultivation.

Given the dangerously low afforestation in Ukraine and Crimea … the primary objective of forest policy in these regions is to increase forest area primarily at places where they were planted in the past.

It was pointed out that in the current structure of land in Ukraine, from 300-400 to 500-600 million tons of soil is lost every year from erosion (figures of dramatic nutrient losses are given). Yield of crops on eroded soils are 20-60 % lower than on not eroded…. ecological and eco-nomic losses due to erosion exceed $ 10 billion. The area of agricultural lands exposed to negative impacts of wa-ter erosion is 13 million ha (32 % of total area)…. That is why it is necessary to pay attention to the protection of these lands against negative influence of erosion and nutrient depletion; this protection also includes the creation of protective forest plantations.

The results of long-term research carried out by Ukr. SRIFAM (Ukrainian Scientific-Research Institute of For-estry and Agricultural Forest Melioration) showed that the forests in the steppe improve the yield of buckwheat by 10.6 %, the millet by 66.7 %, and decrease the dam-age from dust storms on winter wheat by 92.5 %. Figures from 10 years of experimentation showing benefits from afforestation to crop yield capacity, humus savings, agro-chemical decreases, and pollutant concentrations are given.

State agencies have stated a gradual and scientifically-based decrease of ploughed area by approximately by 10 million ha (from 32 mil. to 22 mil. ha) for its transforma-tion into other land categories: meadows and pastures, forests, recreational areas etc.…. Moreover, for the pur-pose of saving pastures with natural structure and spe-cies composition ecological experts have identified the most valuable areas for wildlife, which will be placed into various categories of natural reserve, for inclusion into the system of a national ecological network…

So, delivery of land plots for afforestation in the Steppe Zone, after preliminary approval with several local and administrative establishments, has to be considered as an ecological rehabilitation of natural territories to-gether with minimization and attenuation of ecological consequences of negative anthropogenic influence, that was made in previous historical period.

It is obvious from the above that authorities put emphasis in the well-documented and widely-accepted positive role of forest to halt soil loss and nutrient depletion, so increasing soil productivity and finally human welfare. Our (EDGG) arguments, presented in the appeal, are about the large scale afforestation programnmes of …. “Ukrainian steppes by the Ukrainian State Agency of Forest Resources. Even though steppes are termed “low-yielding, degraded and eroding land” in the course of these activities, photos and other evidence presented at scientific conferences and on the internet prove other-wise. At the same time regions more suited to forest growth, i.e. Carpathians and Polesye, suffer from defor-estation” (taken by the Appeal). Also, “Artificially cre-ated forests plantations in the steppe zone may fail inter-national certification when satellite data show their low quality. Ploughing of steppe in order to prepare affore-station may even stimulate decomposition of below ground biomass and humus, thus causing significant carbon dioxide emission in the first place“ (taken by the Appeal). The letter of Ukrainian authorities says a lot about the steppe as a land resource for economic profit 1 but nothing about the steppe as an ecosystem that bene-fits, among other, human life.

The SPC-EDGG have decided to continue the campaign against large scale steppe afforestation by raising the awareness of international environmental NGOs, scien-tific boards and fora, environmentally-related political centres (EU Commission, Bern Convention, United Na-tions Framework Convention on Climate Change – FCCC). A good start was given by intervening in the 25th International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2011) Aukland, New Zealand 05-09/12/2011).

1 In addition there is a lot of dark money moving around afforestation… Quoting Valeriy Lovchinovskiy “It is amazing that the companies dealing in the timber market want to increase the purchasing of our raw material, but disguise their real motives with nature preservation slo-gans.” You may have a look at his documentary film “WHERE HAS THE FOREST GONE? IT WAS STILL HERE YESTERDAY!” Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/GreenVideoTM#g/c/7D8F8287FF1FF557

Bull. Eur. Dry Grassl. Group 13 (December 2011)