Reviving activities and strengthening cooperation with Ukrainian partner biosphere reserves

From 6 to 15 August 2021, the series of excursions to Western Ukraine, which has been taking place since 2006, was finally able to take place again after a break in 2020 due to the pandemic. A group of about 50 students, PhD students, teachers and practitioners from Ukraine (National Forestry University, National Transport University, Carpathian Biosphere Reserve), Moldova (Moldavian State University) and Germany (Eberswalde University and Centre for Econics) undertook a joint excursion through Western Ukraine. The areas visited were:

Roztochya Biosphere Reserve with

  • a rewetting project (example of ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change – see IKI project of the two b.c partners Succow Foundation and Eberswalde University),
  • several clear-cut areas (installation of temperature data loggers for students’ microclimate research projects) as well as
  • Core and buffer zone of a UNESCO World Heritage beech forest component site;

Carpathian Biosphere Reserve with

  • large-scale clear-cut areas immediately adjacent to the BR area,
  • Krasna Poloninya and
  • the UNESCO primeval forest component sites Shyrokyi-Luh and Uholka.
Director of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, Mykola Tarasyuk (right), and Prof. Dr Pierre Ibisch (left) and Iryna Yonash (CBR staff member) at the signing of the contract in Velyka Uholka, Ukraine. © J. Carstens

At the end of the trip, a new cooperation agreement was signed between the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve and the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development to further strengthen and intensify the cooperation. With the new cooperation agreement, the training of junior staff for biosphere reserves can also be enabled and supported internationally, e.g. in the course of research stays of students of the new master’s programme Biosphere Reserves Management (BIOM) within the framework of their research semester.

The thematic focal points of the cooperation in the coming yeras are, firstly, the further internationalisation, on the one hand within the framework of the management of the UNESCO World Heritage Site ‘Ancient Beech Forests and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe’ and of the biosphere reserve itself. Likewise, climate change impacts are to be investigated with a focus on beech forests, and strategies and measures for ecosystem-based climate change adaptation are to be developed and implemented. Furthermore, the aim is to strengthen cooperation with civil society and citizen participation in the management of biosphere reserves. The efforts to expand the area of the CBR and the development of transnational and cross-border cooperation with Romanian and Moldovan protected area partners are to be accompanied and supported.

 

Contact: Angela Dichte

Further links: Centre for Econics