NGL.media analyzed satellite imagery from the international organization Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) and found that over the past 20 years, 161 thousand hectares of forest have been cut down in the Ukrainian part of the Carpathians, which is almost 10% of the total forest cover. 80% of these losses are accounted for by forestries of the State Forestry Agency. The rest of the losses are accounted for by communal forests, reserve lands, and forests directly subordinated to ministries such as the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Education, or the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.

If you find it difficult to estimate the scale of the 161,000 hectares of forest loss, imagine that this is the area of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Ternopil combined.

A Greenpeace study shows that the Carpathians are losing forest at a rapid rate. In this mountain system, located on the territory of eight countries and, four hectares of forest are cut down every hour, which is about 20 trees every minute. These are often mature and valuable tree species that can be sold at a profit.

According to experts, the share of high-quality timber - especially protective and old-growth forest - is steadily decreasing. It makes the Carpathians more vulnerable to erosion, landslides, floods, and the extinction of native species.

“In fact, it's not even the fact that they're cutting down that's scary, it's the fact that the forest is no longer regenerating there. This process is called deforestation,” explains Dmytro Karabchuk, ”For example, the area at the Bukovel ski resort, where they cut down the forest on the territory of the local forestry and built hotels.”

Another example of deforestation is when a large forest area is cut down, which cannot regenerate itself, and the young trees planted do not take root.

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