Posted on May, 16 2007

Ukrainian conservationist and WWF project leader Dr. Bohdan Prots has won the UK’s Whitley Award for conservation for his work identifying the hidden forest species in Eastern Europe’s little-known “jungles” of the Transcarpathia, in the western Ukraine.

Dr Prots received the Whitley Award, donated by The Shears Foundation, from HRH The Princess Royal and Sir David Attenborough at a ceremony at London’s Royal Geographical Society last night. It is the first time anyone from the Ukraine has won the Award, which is worth £30,000.

Flooded forests are now extremely rare in Europe and are among the most endangered habitats in the world. The flooded forests of Transcarpathia are an outstanding relic of the forests, which have been reduced to only a few patches. They are part of a larger landscape in the upper Tisza River Basin that is a priority for WWF's conservation activities in the region.

The location of these forests, close to the western border of the former Soviet Union, has effectively restricted any large-scale investigation of their wildlife and sustainable use. The economic growth of the Ukraine is now leading to growing pressure to exploit the forests quickly, and corruption, excessive logging and timber smuggling have caused serious economic and environmental problems for the region and could mean an end to these globally important forests.

Dr. Bohdan Prots, 41, is Senior Research Scientist and Supervisor of the “Plant Ecology” Laboratory of the State Museum of Natural History and leads a major initiative supported by WWF to incorporate Western European conservation experience into Ukraine policy. Bohdan is lobbying the government to create a 25,000 ha protected area in the Danube-Carpathian region. He is also working with WWF to identify High Conservation Value Forests in the Carpathian Ukraine.

Dr Prots and his team have been working for many years during difficult working conditions in Ukraine. Now, following the Orange Revolution and the change of government, conservation is seen as a strategy for development and a means to secure the outstanding natural heritage of Ukraine. Prots and his team have been carrying out a series of field surveys, and building up an inventory of key flora and fauna.

The old-growth forests are the largest in Central Europe and the ash trees are the biggest in the world reaching heights of 46m, 153cm in diameter.

Over 350 threatened species of international importance are found in Ukraine’s forests yet only two per cent of the forest is currently protected and over the last 100 years massive areas of over 12,000 ha of riverine forests and 10,000 ha of bogs have been lost due to drainage. This has led to the disappearance of natural systems of water flow and an increase in devastating floods in the region.

Contact:
Dr Bohdan Prots