Riazhskykh offers Mykolaiv region authorities a compromise to restore Andriivskyi forest after large-scale fires

A large-scale fire in the Andriyivskyi tract, 2023. Photo: SES

Mykolaiv Regional Council deputy Alla Riazhskikh is asking the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to consider the problem of fires in the protected tract «Andriivske» as soon as possible to find a compromise for its restoration.

She wrote about this on her Facebook page.

The MP recalled that since 2022, large-scale fires have been occurring in the tract, destroying the reserve's ecosystem and causing large economic losses to the regional and state budgets. The first major fire, which destroyed more than 300 hectares of forest, occurred as a result of hostilities.

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According to her, the issue of forest restoration and prevention of new fires has been repeatedly discussed at commission meetings and field meetings with representatives of the regional authorities and forestry. The deputies appealed to the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Economy, but as of the end of September, they had not received a response.

«We really hope that the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine will pay attention to the problem, as the situation is getting worse every year and needs to be addressed immediately. Unfortunately, our legislation and procedures concerning protected areas are so inert and time-consuming that even if the Ministry of Economy positively considers the issue of changing the boundaries and changing the category of the protected tract of local importance «Andriivske», technically, the process of changing the boundaries and changing the category will take quite a long time, which may further deepen the environmental, social and economic problems of the issue,» said Alla Riazhskykh.

In her turn, the MP called for consideration of the possibility of speeding up the resolution of this issue at the next meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Mykolaiv Oblast and proposed a compromise option:

• branches «Southern Forestry Office» SE «Forests of Ukraine» to develop a three-year reforestation project with control terms;

• to temporarily suspend certain articles of the laws on the nature reserve fund and environmental impact assessment to allow restoration work;

• after completion of the work, to reintroduce these regulations.

«In times of war, we need to make quick management decisions, analyse the consequences and calculate budgetary costs more carefully than ever. We can definitely benefit from the experience of the Danish government, which, in order to build a defence plant, was authorised to temporarily suspend more than 20 of its laws, while ensuring environmental standards and technical and safety requirements through other government control mechanisms. Because there is a priority,» she wrote.

The total area of the Andriivske tract, which is located within Mykolaiv district near the village of Andriivka, is 1347 hectares. Earlier, NikVesti wrote that the process of changing the status from a protected area to a forest reserve of local importance began in 2022. A justification was made for the inexpediency of keeping the plantation in the status of a tract. The documents were sent to the Ministry of Environment, but they refused to change the status of the forest.

In the autumn of 2024, «Forests of Ukraine» began to re-prepare documents to remove the protected status from the Andriivske tract. This was necessary in order to cut down the burnt trees and create firebreaks.

As a result of the large-scale forest fires of 2022-2025, burnt conifers in the Andriivske tract began to fall en masse onto the road and power lines that run through the reserve. As a result, wires are damaged and poles fall down.

Read also the article NikVesti ««There’s hardly any forest left». Why is Mykolaiv region engulfed in fires and how does this affect the environment?