Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Ruslan Strilets and European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginius Sinkavičius visited the selection and seed center in Zhytomyr region, during which the parties agreed to join efforts for the preservation of forests.

As the environmental ministry reports, the center visited by the European Commissioner was completed during the full-scale Russian invasion and is located 15 km from Belarus.

The European Commissioner got acquainted with the operation of a modern system of three-level video surveillance of forest areas and intermediate results and plans for reforming forestry.

‘We agreed with Mr. Sinkavičius to combine initiatives for the preservation and reproduction of forests. This once again proves that Ukraine is part of the EU. The Ukrainian forest regeneration initiative is fully in line with the new EU forest strategy until 2030, which calls for planting 3 billion trees by 2030, as well as the UN strategic plan for forests for 2017-2030, one of the goals of which is to increase the area of forests by 3 %’, said minister Strilets.

According to Virginius Sinkavičius, Ukraine’s forestry practices during active hostilities are indicative for Europe, as Ukraine continues to plant forests in liberated territories, where they were burned down, as well as to carry out the pre-war afforestation program.

In addition, the European Commissioner expressed confidence that Russia’s armed aggression cannot be an obstacle to building bridges between Ukraine and the EU, but on the contrary, it motivates to unite even more.