FSC Facts & Figures in Ukraine

Ukraine is the world leader in a number of sectors: agriculture, energy, metallurgy, chemical, and manufacturing. It has a high-tech industrial base and a fast-developing IT sector.

The forest cover in Ukraine spans an area of 9.6M ha, which is 92.3% of all forest plots in Ukraine (10,4 million ha) or 15.9% whole country's area. The forests in the country offer multiple recognized ecosystem services such as water conservation, protection of habitats, and recreation.

About 38 % of Ukraine’s forests are designated for commercial purposes.

Geography

The geography of Ukraine is very particular, with very different biomes, including dense forest biomes in the Carpathian Mountains and scattered forests in the Polissya zone, the sparsely forested forest steppes, and the nearly treeless steppes.The densest forest cover is found in the Carpathian Mountains (30–60 %) in the west, followed by Polissya (15–30 %) in the northeast. By contrast, forest cover is lower in the forest-steppe (5–10 %) and steppe (<5 %) zones.

Tree species of Ukrainian forests

The forest cover is divided almost equally between coniferous forests (42%) and hardwood broadleafed forests (43%). The most common species of tree are Scot's pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), Pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.), Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.), European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), Silver birch (Betula pendula Roth), Black alder (Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaerth.), European ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.), European hornbeam (Carpinus betulus L.), and Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.). Their current composition is made up of pine (Pinus spp.) - 35%, oak (Quercus spp.) - 28%, beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) - 9%, spruce (Picea spp.) - 8%, and birch (Betula pendula Roth) - 7%.

Forest management and harvest

All public forests are managed by the state or community enterprises. The share of private forest ownership is less than 0.1% of the total area of forest land. At the same time, about 0.8M ha are not managed and are held as state-owned reserves.

73% of the public forests are managed by the state forest enterprises that fall under the responsibility of the State Forest Resources Agency.

In 2021 was harvested 17,6M m3 including:

- industrial wood – 9,2M m3
- fuelwood – 8,5M m3
- Illiquid wood – 1M m3

In 2022 was harvested 15,9M m3 including:

- industrial wood – 6,4M m3
- fuelwood – 8,7M m3
- Illiquid wood – 0,8M m3

In 2023 was harvested 15,7M m3 including:

- industrial wood – 6,6M m3
- fuelwood – 8,6M m3
- Illiquid wood – 0,4M m3

Around 60% of all harvested wood was FSC certified.

FSC certification in Ukraine

Chain of Custody (CoC)

FSC chain of custody certification provides a credible assurance that products which are sold with an FSC claim originate from well-managed forests, controlled sources, or reclaimed materials.

The strong growth of CoC certification until recently is due to close collaboration with EU NPs on key accounts and the strategic orientation of the European market.

432 CoC certificates were valid on November 6, 2024.

Forest Management (FM)

FSC forest management certification confirms that the forest is being managed in a way that preserves biological diversity and benefits the lives of local people and workers, while ensuring it sustains economic viability.

The majority of forests with commercial purposes are covered by FM certification.

4,76M ha in 100 FMUs are FSC-certified as of November 6, 2024.