Ukrainian Carpathian National Nature Park

The Ukrainian Carpathian National Nature Park (UCNNP) is the idea of creating a unique national nature park covering over 350,000 hectares of mountainland located in the very heart of the Carpathians. It involves uniting lands of different use categories, converting uninhabited forest lands into a permanent protected area for preserving unique flora and fauna, maintaining traditional farming practices, preparing and implementing sustainable development projects, and developing tourism and recreation for residents and visitors of Ukraine.

The UCNNP aims to establish a critically important green corridor between the mountain regions of neighboring countries by integrating the region's nature protection institutions of the Nature Reserve Fund, including strictly protected reserve Gorgany, Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, and 9 National Nature Parks (Cheremoshskyy, Vyzhnytskyy, Hutculshchyna, Verkhovynskyy, Carpathian, Synevyr, Zacharovanyy Kraj, Skolivski Beskydy, and Uzhanskyy), as well as other additional areas between them. Since the territories of individual Ukrainian Nature Reserve Fund institutions in the Carpathians are typically not connected, they cannot fully function as protected eco-corridors for wildlife between the mountain regions of neighboring countries in their current state.

The Ukrainian Carpathian National Nature Park will become the largest national nature park in the Carpathians and join the ranks of the largest national nature parks in Europe and the world. It will combine strictly protected areas with uniquely beautiful corners of the Carpathians designated exclusively for recreational and traditional use, where industrial logging, hunting, land clearing, and any unnatural development will be prohibited. This will allow wildlife populations to recover and critically important forests and valleys for tourism to be protected and naturally regenerate after decades of clear-cutting.

The project aims to develop the idea of creating of the Ukrainian Carpathian National Nature Park as one financially sustainable united nature-protected area in the Ukrainian Carpathians.

ForestCom is working together with Global Conservation and the United States Forest Service to develop capacities of nature reserve institutions in Ukraine and establish valuable nature conservation areas in the Ukrainian Carpathians.

The main objectives of the project are:

- Identifying unique and valuable areas from a nature conservation and recreational perspective in the Ukrainian Carpathians;

- Improving the efficiency of protection of valuable natural objects, including and primarily in the NRF institutions;

- facilitating the granting of protected area status to valuable natural objects, including connecting the territories of existing protected areas;

- promoting the sustainable development of local mini-infrastructure and business projects aimed at both improving the well-being of highlanders and creating sustainable revenue for environmental institutions, and developing an understanding of their interdependence;

- creating well-developed visitor hubs (gateways) for national nature parks as examples of the potential functionality of the proposed new united nature protection institution of national significance for the Ukrainian Carpathians.

Planned Key Achievements:

• Increased recognition of the Ukrainian Carpathian Network of Nature Protected Areas (UCNNPs) as regions of significant conservation importance in Ukraine.

• Raised awareness about the unique ancient and pristine forests of the Carpathians.

• Proposal for the establishment of protected areas within the UCNNP, balancing the interests of various stakeholders.

• Development of inclusive visitor centers, serving as exemplary meeting points for visitors in Verkhovyna National Nature Park and Carpathian National Nature Park.

• Establishment of hiking trails, including inclusive ones, in Verkhovyna National Nature Park and Carpathian National Nature Park.

• Enhanced management and conservation efforts within the UCNNP and other NRF institutions.

• Promotion of tourism attractiveness, including inclusive tourism, in the Carpathian region of Ukraine.

• Facilitation of income generation for local communities through green tourism initiatives and related services.

Primary partners are the Ministry of Environment, Ukrainian National Nature Park Authorities and Verkhovyna Local and Regional Governments, industry associations and related businesses.

The project includes the following sub-projects:  

Development of Verkhovyna National Nature Park as an Attractive Tourist and Rehabilitation Hub

as well as:

25 Natural objects for the attraction of tourists in the Ukrainian Carpathians

50 natural sites for tourist centers in the Ukrainian Carpathians