Close to Nature, Close to People: How a local NGO is Shaping the Forestry Sector in Ukraine

Forests in Ukraine only take up 15.9% of the land mass, yet they play vital economic, environmental and social roles. Particularly important are the most forested areas of Ukraine, which are in the Carpathian region in the western part of the country. Forests, as well as other natural resources, significantly suffer from the impacts of the ongoing devastating war in Ukraine. The war places enormous pressure on the natural environment—not just on the frontlines, but on all natural resources, because those located in “safer” places still must respond to national economic and defense demands.

FORZA, a local nonprofit based in Ukraine’s Carpathian region, was founded in 2009 as the offspring of the Swiss-Ukrainian Forest Development Project in Transcarpathia FORZA. The project, which ran from 2004 to 2010, had a broad scope that included multifunctional forest management, forest economy and policy, and poverty alleviation for mountainous communities. It also advanced the close-to-nature approach to forest management. Due to the location of the organization and its focus on mountainous forestry, the team has been able to continue working, even under the conditions of war.

“Looking back over 15 years, I realize that the decision of the FORZA project team to set up an independent organization, with support from Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, was the right one,” said Lesya Loyko, who leads FORZA. “It has allowed us to preserve the achievements and build on the legacy of the FORZA project, which has brought about important changes in the region and the country.”

What led to the decision to create the nonprofit FORZA and who benefited from it? A better understanding of the context from which FORZA emerged requires a closer look at the project’s activities, which were funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Improving natural resource management

The FORZA project was launched in response to extreme floods that struck this region of Ukraine in 1998 and 2001 and that led to loss of life and severe infrastructure damage. Many locals believed that natural resource management issues were the root cause of the floods. Foresters were blamed the most, in particular for the traditional practices of clear-cutting and deforestation that drastically changed the local landscapes. Additionally, the use of outdated, environmentally damaging hauling machinery, which neglected the rules of skidding trails maintenance and revitalization, worsened the situation. The public was often left uninformed on issues of natural resource management and local communities were excluded from participatory planning processes and decision-making.

With this as the backdrop, Helvetas, the main implementer of the FORZA project, started working with forest management authorities at the national and regional level, policy actors, academia, researchers, grassroots forest management enterprises, forestry practitioners, woodworking businesses and local communities to define interventions needed in Ukraine’s state forest management system—all of which built on Swiss experience and expertise.

Promoting sustainable forest management

The FORZA project brought to life several aspects of Ukraine’s current forest management system, becoming the first to systematically promote close-to-nature silviculture in mountain forestry practices. Simply put, close-to-nature silviculture mimics natural forest processes and structures. The main differences between this concept of sustainable forest management and traditional forest management practices include: the application of selective harvesting (as opposed to clearcuts), supporting natural regeneration (instead of manual reforestation), supporting natural processes for growing forests (instead of manual interventions during the tending of young forest stands), striving to diversify species (in contrast with single species). All of these are aimed at improving long-term forest health, stability and resilience, while keeping the landscape attractive for various types of uses.

Not surprisingly, at the beginning of the project in 2004 forestry partners—such as the State Committee of Forest Management of Ukraine, the regional forest administration, forest management enterprises, researchers and field foresters that were largely focused on maximizing timber production—were skeptical about the approach. 

However, the extensive work done at the grassroots level and in shaping policy shifted perspectives. This included the practical training of forestry staff on the demonstration plots and changes to legislation (e.g., rules on conversion cuts and changes to forest inventory and planning procedures). These efforts also bore fruit at a national policy level: The State Strategy for Forest Management in Ukraine until 2035, which was approved by the government in December 2021, now defines close-to-nature silviculture as one of the tools for ensuring environmental sustainability and the adaptation of forests to climate change. This document sets the development direction of the sector, highlighting the lasting impact of FORZA’s work.

Making forest management more inclusive

The gender equality aspect of forest management, which is also now part of the State Strategy for Forest Management in Ukraine, was one of the cross-cutting priorities of the FORZA project and was continuously communicated, promoted and integrated into all project activities. At the start of the project, gender equality in forestry was an undefined and unconscious issue. It progressed through various project activities, such as trainings for foresters and communities on gender mainstreaming, an awareness raising campaign aimed at eliminating gender inequality, and equal access of all genders to the activities of the project. These efforts were supported by an overall improvement in gender equality policy in Ukraine.

Today women in the sector and their professional achievements are more recognized and valued. However, the situation still requires attention and action, since most of the top and middle management forestry and forest management positions are still occupied by men, with the gender gap in some instances reaching 96%.   

Becoming an active civil society organization

Building on the momentum of FORZA project achievements, in 2009 FORZA became a nonprofit and transitioned into the civil society space. The nonprofit focuses on the sustainable development of the Carpathian region, with emphasis on the economic, environmental and social aspects of natural resource management and community development. In response to changing needs over time, FORZA has expanded its scope to include climate change adaptation, with a special focus on interlinkages between climate change and natural resource management, forest pedagogics, environmental education, enhancing the competitiveness of small and medium businesses in the wood-based sector, urban forests and sustainable urban mobility.  

Over the last 15 years, the nonprofit FORZA has implemented almost 40 development projects. These include:

• Upgrading the knowledge and technical skills of foresters on multifunctional forest management and close-to-nature silviculture, as well as climate-adaptive forestry, by providing professional training, preparing educational and instructive materials and organizing peer-to-peer exchanges
• Developing legal frameworks for forest watershed assessment and management
• Improvement of wood-based product value chains
• Introduction of innovations in wood-based industries
• Non-formal education of adults and children about forests through the forest pedagogics approach, which includes planning and organizing tailored activities to each of the target audiences (e.g., excursions, games and hands-on activities)
• Improvement of urban green spaces through participatory actions on urban forest inventory and assessment, and facilitation of the planning activities of urban development for mobility improvement in communities
• Nature-based solutions for flood management at the community level  

It’s worth noting that some of the materials produced through FORZA are considered the best in the sector. “The manual Close to Nature Silviculture and Multifunctional Forest Management in Carpathian region of Ukraine and Slovakia, prepared by a team of researchers from Ukraine and Slovakia under the coordination of FORZA, was the first of its kind,” said Oleksandr Soshenskyi, who is an associate professor at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine. “At the moment, it is the best educational and reference material on the topic of sustainable forest management.”

Continuing to drive change

It’s been twenty years since the launch of the FORZA project, but its aims of setting new, better norms for natural resource management in Ukraine persist thanks to the local nonprofit FORZA.

“We often have a feeling that ideas introduced by the FORZA project were a bit ahead of the time or too innovative in terms of perception, like close-to-nature silviculture, which took about 15 years to find its place in Ukraine,” said Nataliya Voloshyn, FORZA’s manager of community development and sustainable tourism. “The feeling is still present. Nowadays we talk about bioeconomy, circular economy, sustainable mobility plans and climate change actions—and our stakeholders don’t always fully understand why these things are timely and needed. But I’m confident that the role of FORZA and other nonprofits is to initiate and influence change until it becomes a widely understood norm.”

With its motto "Close to nature, close to people," FORZA will keep utilizing its longstanding experience and commitment to sustainability to drive change towards a more environmentally conscious and people-centered society in Ukraine.

About the Authors

Lesya Loyko is the co-founder and head of FORZA. Her background and experience is in legal advisement on the operational management of NGOs, international and cross-border project management, and coordination of activities with partners and stakeholders.

Nataliya Voloshyna is the co-founder and an executive board member of FORZA. She is an economist who specializes in forest watersheds, community development and social innovations, and sustainable tourism development.