Search

Recurrent wildfires in Ukraine exert severe impacts on the environment, human health and security as well as damage to private and public assets. From 2007 to 2020, the frequency of large wildfires has increased and reached a level that has not occurred previously. The period during April-October 2020 was the worst in modern Ukrainian history for the occurrence of catastrophic fires, e.g. in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (67 000 ha), Zhytomyr oblast (43 000 ha), Lugansk oblast (35 000 ha) and Kharkiv oblast (8 000 ha). In Ukraine there is the additional problem of open burning, mainly burning agriculture residues, which covers two million hectares (ha) annually. State forestry enterprises who are responsible for the management of 71% of the Ukrainian forests (7.6 million ha)and agricultural holdings are also responsible for the management of 41.3 million ha of croplands. The remaining forest users manage forest areas of 3.1 million ha within reserves and national nature parks. This article presents a brief overview of the problem of forest fires as well as of fires in other landscapes in Ukraine, and includes a critical reviews of the current wildfire management system and a description of the main features of the national wildfire management strategy. It also highlights the results of a survey of numerous stakeholders conducted on landscape fires in Ukraine. Based on the review of global and regional experiences, as well as existing fire risks in Ukraine, recommendations were developed for implementing an integrated landscape level national fire management approach.

Energy independence of the country can be solved in several ways. One of them is the creation of energy plantations of woody plants. The area increase of such plantations is limited by the insufficient amount of high-quality planting material. Hybrid plants of the genus Populus are of considerable interest when creating plantations. Given that not all hybrids are successfully propagated by conventional vegetative methods, the use of biotechnological methods, namely microclonal propagation, solves the mentioned problem. This method allows obtaining a large amount of highquality, uniform planting material. The purpose of this study was to develop the technology of microclonal propagation of black poplar hybrids ‘San Giorgio’ and ‘Ghoy’. The study used generally accepted biotechnological methods in the author’s modification at all stages of obtaining planting material of regenerating plants of poplar hybrids. Studies have established a positive effect when obtaining an aseptic culture of sterilising substances 0.1% AgNO3, 2.5 and 1.25% NaClO, 0.05% sodium merthiolate and 0.1% HgCl2. The largest number of aseptic viable explants was obtained by cultures using a 0.05% solution of sodium merthiolate after exposure for 5 and 10 minutes. When rooting microshoots on a hormone-free nutrient medium ½ MS and with the addition of 0.1-1.0 mg/l IBA, it was established that the best parameters for rooting microshoots are on a hormone-free nutrient medium ½ MS. Adaptation was carried out for 4 weeks in a greenhouse on a substrate that included components of peat:sand:perlite in a ratio of 1:1:1. The viability of regenerating plants of black poplar hybrids ‘San Giorgio’ and ‘Ghoy’ was more than 91%. The conducted research and the obtained results will be useful for producers of planting material and the scientific environment, which develop renewable energy sources through the creation of energy plantations of fast-growing woody plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]