Roads to Healthy Forests: Resilient, Adaptive, Diverse and Sustainable Forests in Cross-border Region of Ukraine and Slovakia

Climate change is an imminent problem influencing the future development of forests in Europe, negatively affecting tree growth, regeneration and causing tree mortality in the Carpathian region. Improving the capacity to adapt to climate change is on the agenda of the EU and Ukraine.
These common challenges need to be jointly addressed through targeted adaptation measures.
“Roads to healthy forests” main objective is to increase stability and adaptability of Carpathian forest ecosystems to climate change impacts in SK-UA cross border region.
Project’s approach is to transform the damaged forests to more sustainable multispecies forests and species able to adapt to changing climate, and support natural regeneration.
To reach the objective and make a change, the project will:
- improve accessibility of affected forest areas by re/constructing 18.9km and maintaining 45 km of forest roads, setting 84m riverbank protection, water polder of 50000 m3, 11 wooden cascades in Presov, Zakarpattia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions
- restore climate affected forests by growing 100.000 resilient seedlings a year in a newly established tree nursery (UA) at 1.9 ha
- reforestate and protect young trees on the area of 1224 ha.
- increase professional knowledge of forestes and nature protection specialists on issues of climate-resilient and adaptive forestry.
Forest practitioners (at least 85 pers) will benefit from 10 capacity building events, incl. at 2 demonstration sites and in the newly set-up Demonstration and Education Center “Forest and Climate” (UA). Building of Center “Forest and Climate” is an innovation in itself – made of wood, it will reduce GHG emission by using CO2 neutral construction materials which has a cross-border environmental effect.
The nursery is innovative for the Carpathian region of UA in a way that it will produce quality forest reproductive material from native resilient species allowing planting during a longer vegetation period, will produce as much as 100.000 of oak and beech seedlings.
A peer-to-peer intersectoral approach enables forest enterprises on the same level (Spisska Bela, Kezmarok, Vygoda, Uzhhorod) exchange experiences. Partnership is strengthened with a nature park TANAP and support organization FORZA to learn from each other and disseminate the knowledge further.
All activities of the “Roads to healthy forests” have a cross-border character, the most prominent being changes that will occur in “adaptive thinking” among UA-SK forestry community. The long-term cross-border impact pertains to reducing regional disparities between EU and non-EU countries.