First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi and Head of the State Forestry of Ukraine Viktor Smal met with GFA Consulting Group representative Christian Aschenbach and international expert Uli Müller to discuss further support for the forestry sector through the development of new international technical assistance projects.

“Cooperation with Germany in the field of forestry is of strategic importance for Ukraine. We plan to develop a new international technical assistance project for the next three years. It will be aimed at supporting the development and sustainable management of our forest resources,” said First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi.

New stages of cooperation were also discussed, in particular:

• national forest inventory;
• forest demining;
• forest cultivation and reproduction;
• introduction of innovations in forest management, accounting and monitoring of forests;
• digitalization of the forest industry.

It should be noted that GFA Consulting Group is a leading consulting agency that deals with international European development cooperation and is the general authorized contractor of the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food. After the specified areas of cooperation have been elaborated and agreed upon with the relevant German Ministry, a new project concept will be prepared in June.

It is worth reminding that cooperation between Ukraine and Germany in the field of forestry began in 2017 within the framework of the German-Ukrainian Agricultural and Political Dialogue. It consisted of the development of a regulatory framework for the national forest inventory in Ukraine, which was adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on April 21, 2021. However, due to the full-scale invasion of russia, the fieldwork of the national forest inventory in Ukraine was not fully completed. In 2023, they were partially resumed.