European integration, investments, forest conservation: Oleksii Sobolev held a meeting with environmental NGOs

The Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture of Ukraine continues to establish cooperation with expert organizations and relevant communities.

Today, August 11, the Ministry's team, led by Minister Oleksii Sobolev, held a meeting with representatives of more than 30 environmental unions, associations, and public organizations. The goal was to hear the community's ideas, comments, and concerns and to identify key areas on which the Ministry's team will work in the field of environmental protection.

Oleksii Sobolev, in particular, introduced his deputies to the meeting participants: Yegor Perelygin, who will be responsible for shaping state policy in the field of forests, subsoil use development, and waste management, and Ihor Zubovych, who will be responsible for nature protection, environmental control, emissions control, and the nature reserve fund.

At the same time, according to Oleksii Sobolev, the Ministry is focused on preserving the professional human resources of the reorganized Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources within the structure of the merged agency.

Addressing the meeting participants, the Minister commended the professionalism, commitment, and activism of the environmental community in Ukraine and commented on the experts' concerns regarding the reorganization of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources and the creation of a consolidated ministry.

"A unified ministry structure allows for more effective management of state assets and resources, attraction of international funding,

"The unified structure of the Ministry allows for more effective management of state assets and resources, attracting international financing and digital services. Ecology is an important part of our policies. And it will not be left aside. We want to maximize investment in environmental projects, particularly within the Ukraine Investment Framework, and this is also part of our commitments before our international partners," said Oleksii Sobolev.

The Minister emphasized that one of the key tasks at present is European integration, particularly in the area of environmental protection. The circular economy, the growth of investment in Ukraine's green recovery, and irrigation reform are also important, as the latter is urgently needed in the southern regions that have suffered from the blasting of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam by the occupiers.

Representatives of the environmental community, in turn, drew attention to the issue of waste management reform, the situation with forest protection, the clearing of high-mountain ranges, environmental challenges associated with russia's full-scale invasion, and so on.

Following the meeting, the Minister called on participants to work constructively in joint working groups, emphasizing that combining ministries into a single executive body would allow for quick, coordinated, and informed decision-making in the interests and with the consent of all stakeholders.