The vast expanses of Polesia are full of surprises. Even after decades of research, experts can’t claim to fully understand the region’s wildlife. They are still discovering endangered species (sometimes even those considered to be locally extinct), rare habitats, and vast areas of virgin forest. An expedition to uncover some of these hidden treasures led the Wild Polesia team to Makove Bog. Once an overlooked patch on the map, it turned out to be one of the largest undisturbed old-growth forests in the region. But without swift legal protection, this pristine natural habitat was at serious risk.
The word ‘Polesia’ derives from the ancient proto-Slavic noun ‘les’ meaning ‘forest’. No wonder: even now, after centuries of natural and anthropogenic transformations, economic exploitation and urbanisation, forests make up a significant share of the region’s area.
Among the diversity of Polesia’s ecosystems, old-growth forests stand out. The main criteria used to identify virgin forests are usually the presence of old trees, large amounts of dead wood in various stages of decomposition and the absence of economic activity for at least several decades. These forests are exceptionally rich in biodiversity, and home to a significant concentration of rare and vulnerable species. Old-growth forests also perform a range of essential ecosystem functions: shaping weather and climate, purifying and conserving water, and storing and sequestering carbon.
The most important characteristic of old-growth forests is their undisturbed nature. Any economic activity within their boundaries causes significant and often irrevocable disturbance, and sometimes even total destruction. Any form of logging, even the removal of deadwood or individual trees leads to their destruction as old-growth forests. And once destroyed, virgin forests can never be restored, not even over many generations. The only possible mechanism for preserving such forests is a total ban on economic activity.
The total area of virgin forests in Polesia amounts to several tens of thousands hectares. Interspersed with sparse forests on bogs and open bogs, which are also intact ecosystems, primeval forests form a complex spatial mosaic. There have been several attempts to find the last primeval forests in Polesia, and it is not an easy task. They are usually relatively small and fragmented, and the experts have had to examine huge areas of forest affected by human activity in order to find areas suitable to legal protection. Ukrainian environmental legislation provides for the creation of “primeval forest natural monuments”. This is a special category of strictly protected natural areas which are set aside specifically to protect old growth forest and include a total ban on economic activity.
Between 2019 and 2021, an expedition to identify primeval forests in Ukrainian Polesia was organised as part of the Wild Polesia project. During their work in the Rivne region, the specialists made a surprising discovery. Studying the documents describing the forest area known as Makove Bog, they expected to find a typical bog pine forest, with trees that were on average less than 110 years old and up to 15 metres high. But when they arrived, they found that the trees looked much taller and older. In fact, core analysis showed that some were more than 150 years old. The almost complete absence of human activity and the abundance of dead wood proved that this was a natural, intact old-growth forest covering an area of 260 ha – a very large area for a Polesian primeval forest. Surprisingly, before the expedition, the area had never been explored and legally protected.
In December 2021, after completing all the necessary bureaucratic procedures, Makove Bog was granted an official protection status, with a total ban on any economic activity, including all kinds of logging and construction of any buildings.
This case looked like a significant conservation victory, until late 2023, when a permit for peat extraction in Makove Bog for the next 20 years was auctioned by the Ukrainian government and bought for nearly $700,000. Unfortunately, this case is not unique in Ukraine: there have been other examples of the sale of permits for peat and amber mining in protected areas. Some of these deals have been cancelled by the Ministry of Environment, but not all.
Fortunately, the case of Makove Bog was brought to the attention of the specialised environmental prosecution service of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office. They stated that peat extraction in an area of designated virgin forest monument was a serious violation of national environmental legislation, as it would inevitably lead to the destruction of the unique habitat. The environmental prosecutors went to court and defended their position by proving that the use of Makove Bog for mining was illegal, using the high conservation status of the area as their main argument. The court agreed with their arguments and upheld the case. Now the prosecutors are also considering the establishment of protection zones around the nature monument.
This case is a significant conservation victory for Polesia’s wilderness, and a sound argument in favour of further identifying rare and valuable habitats and giving them legal protection. Without this protection, unique ecosystems might be irreversibly disturbed or destroyed. And we may never even know it.
This article was first published on the Wild Polesia website.
