Chornobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve.

Project for the organization of the territory of the Reserve. (based on materials https://zapovidnyk.org.ua/ and http://chornobyl-gef.com/)

In 2007, by the Decree of the President of Ukraine a general zoological reserve of national importance “Chernobyl special” was created in Ivankiv district of Kiev region, and in 2013 the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources approved a request to create the Chernobyl Biosphere Reserve.

After three years of preparation, discussion and approval of all necessary documents, the relevant Decree of the President of Ukraine “On the establishment of the Chornobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve” was signed.

Since the middle of 2017, the Reserve has been actively developing as an independent budgetary institution related to the sphere of management of the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management.

The Reserve, created within the 30-kilometer exclusion zone, is the largest reserve in Ukraine. Its core is the Chernobyl special reserve and northern forests. The Polissya Ecological Corridor provides connection with the Drevlyans and Polissya Natural Reserves, the Mizhrichynsky Regional Landscape Park, as well as with the Polissya State Radiation and Ecological Reserve of the Republic of Belarus.

To date, 300 species of animals, birds and fish have been identified, 19 of which are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. Also, 1,228 species of higher plants have been identified, of which 61 species are rare and subject to protection.

The development of the Project for the organization of the territory of the Chernobyl Radiation and Environmental Biosphere Reserve is carried out within the framework of joint project “Conservation, Optimization and Management of Carbon and Biodiversity in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone” funded by the GEF/UNEP (Global Environment Facility through the United Nations Environment Program).

The main partners of the project “Conservation, Optimization and Management of Carbon and Biodiversity in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone” are:
UN Environment Program (UNEP);
Global Environment Facility;
Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine;
State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management.

The objective of the project is to assist Ukraine in creating the system of environmental protection within and around the Chernobyl exclusion zone to conserve valuable natural complexes of Polissya that cannot be used in traditional economic directions, as well as to support natural processes of carbon cycle.

As part of the work on the first stage of the project, the following important tasks were solved:

Task 1. Analysis of natural basis for the formation of modern natural landscapes within the Reserve.

As part of the task, the natural components were analyzed, on the basis of which the modern landscapes of the Reserve were formed. For this, using existing maps and scientific sources, the analysis of the geological basis of landscapes and lithological features was made. The description of geomorphological conditions of formation of modern landscape structure was carried out using remote sensing data with their specification using topographic maps and in the field. An orographic description of the territory was made. The hydrological features of the Reserve were analyzed in the basins of the rivers Pripyat, Uzh and, partially, Teteriv. Climatic features of the territory and variability of climatic conditions for the period 2005-2017 were analyzed on the Chernobyl meteorological station using archival meteorological data from the рп-5 Internet resource. A trend for change in climatic conditions towards warming, decrease in the average annual amount of precipitation for this period, significant decrease in the average annual air humidity and decrease in the average annual wind speed was revealed. The soil cover of the landscapes was analyzed using existing soil maps and their descriptions with refinement in the field.

Task 2. Biogeographical context of landscape diversity.

In the framework of the task implementation, the place of the Reserve landscapes in the system of physical-geographical and biogeographical zonation was determined. The biogeographical value and edaphic conditionality of the Reserve landscapes was revealed, associated with the expansion in this place of natural pine, pine-oak and oak-hornbeam forests, flood plains and swamps.

Task 3. Identification of landscape diversity of the territory.

The implementation of this task consisted in the analysis of modern maps of expansion and boundaries of natural landscapes of the Reserve, as well as specification of their boundaries in the field. The main natural landscapes of the Reserve were identified - Ivankivskyi, Dymersko-Makarivskyi, Korogodsko-Vilchanskyi, Uzhskyi, Shepelytskyi, Gdenskyi and Nizhnepripyatskyi. Their boundaries on the landscape map were specified, their characteristics to the level of tracts were given. Anthropogenic landscapes were analyzed from the standpoint of the spread of types of nature management before the Chernobyl accident and their changes in the period after the accident with the cessation of anthropogenic impact. The fact of restoration of natural landscapes in places of their anthropogenic changes (settlements, arable lands, fallows, pastures, drainage zones, anthropogenic forest-burners) was proved. According to the degree of anthropogenization growth, the forest phytovariant complexes are divided into root, imaginary-root, serial, initial and degressive-demutational. Anthropogenic changes within each of the natural landscapes were analyzed.

Task 4. Analysis of historical, cultural and archaeological components of the Reserve landscapes.

In the framework of the task implementation, the existing registered archaeological monuments and their condition on the territory of the Reserve were analyzed: Neolithic sites, settlements of the Bronze Age, settlements of the Mylograd and Zarubintsy cultures, early Slavic settlements.

Task 5. Identification of value of biodiversity and priorities for its conservation.

The value of the biodiversity of the Reserve is associated with its location within the Polissya Ecocorridor as one of the main migration routes of birds and mammals in the north of Ukraine, as well as the expansion of specific post-glacial vegetation and flora. Within the Reserve, the oak, oak-pine, oak-linden, oak-hornbeam and pine forests, meadows and all the variety of swamps: oligo-, meso- and eutrophic are valuable.

Task 6. Determination of value of landscape diversity and priorities for its conservation.

The peculiarity of the Reserve landscapes is their formation within the slope of the shield in the transition lane to the Dnipro-Donetsk cavity. This distinguishes the landscapes of the Reserve among other Polissya landscapes. It was revealed that among the landscape diversity of the Reserve territory the most valuable are areas with preserved natural ordinary oak with bear onions, oak-hornbeam, hornbeam-oak, oak-pine, oak-hornbeam-pine forests, ordinary pine forests with juniper. Small areas of oak forests are preserved in small massifs in each of the characterized natural landscapes. They are represented mainly by age-old (100-150, sometimes up to 200 years) trees. The dune formations with plant groups formed within them, air-water and water plant groups, swamps, coastal willow formations are valuable on the Reserve territory.

Task 7. Determination of values for research activities and priorities for their conservation.

The value for research activities and the main priority of its implementation is the study of changes in landscapes under conditions of cessation of anthropogenic impact on them. Radiation contamination of the Reserve territory made active economic activities impossible and created conditions for the restoration of both individual components of landscape complexes (vegetation cover, zoobiota) and natural landscapes in general. Thus, due to siltation of channels of drainage systems, meadow-swamp complexes (vetlands) are gradually restored. From the landscape positions the study of peculiarities of restoration of natural Polissya landscapes in the absence of significant anthropogenic impacts on them is valuable.

The current state of the project is development of the final stage of the project for organization of the territory of the Reserve.