National public organization "Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine" is an all-Ukraine public organization created to support the protected areas of Ukraine, unite them into one system, increase the level of management of nature reserves of Ukraine and environmental education.
It is the only national organization that directly specializes in the management of protected areas.[1]
The Association was established with the support of a joint project of the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine and the Global Environment Facility: "Strengthening the governance and financial sustainability of the national system of protected areas in Ukraine".[2]
On November 19, 2009, the Minister of Justice of Ukraine Mykola Onishchuk signed an order on the registration of the Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine.[3]
The main tasks of the Association are:
The Association is open for cooperation with government agencies, international organizations, public organizations, private institutions and citizens in areas that support their goals.
The Association includes representatives of many protected areas from all over Ukraine, both national and local. 17 local branches of the Association have been established. Mykola Stetsenko was elected Chairman of the Association.
Halych National Nature Park
Ichnia National Nature Park
Holy Mountains National Nature Park
Great Meadow National Nature Park
Hutsulshchyna National Park
Desna-Starohutskyi National Nature Park
Skole Beskids National Nature Park
Homilsha Woods National Nature Park
Prypiat-Stokhid National Nature Park
Synevyr National Nature Park
Uzhanskyi National Nature Park
Shatsk National Natural Park
Yavorivskyi National Park
Mezynskyi National Nature Park
Kazantypskyi State Nature Reserve
Kaniv Nature Reserve
Karadag Nature Reserve
Carpathian Biosphere Reserve
Crimean Nature Reserve
Luhansk Nature Reserve
Opuksky Nature Reserve
Polissia Nature Reserve
Yelanets Steppe Nature Reserve
Roztochia Biosphere Reserve
Cape Martyan Reserve
Dniprovsko-Orilskyi Nature Reserve
Znesinnia Regional Landscape Park
Mizhrichynskyi Regional Landscape Park
Institute of Hydrobiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
I. I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology
Ukraine Nature Conservation Society
Ukrainian Research Institute of Water Management and Environmental Problems
Kremenets Botanical Garden
Representatives of the Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine together with representatives of the UN Development Program in Ukraine, the State Service for Protected Areas of Ukraine, Photographer magazine, Samsung Electronics Ukraine, Bigmir were part of the jury of the video competition "Reserved Ukraine" (2011) held by the UN Development Program in Ukraine in partnership with the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine.
The Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine together with the Ukrainian Society for Nature Protection and Shatsk National Nature Park on October 6–7, 2011 held a Civil Society Forum "State-Public Partnership in the Environmental Field" on the territory of Shatsk National Nature Park in Volyn region. The Forum was attended by representatives of public organizations of the regions of Ukraine, the Belarus , representatives of the United Nations Development Program and other international organizations.[5]
In 2012, the UN Development Program selected as partners for the project "Conservation and sustainable use of peatlands (Project № 00073498) two CSOs: the Institute for Development of Territorial Communities and the Association of Protected Areas of Ukraine for the following reasons:[6]