Agricultural afforestation and protective forest growing

3.2. Agricultural afforestation and protective forest growing

As components of agricultural landscapes and concentration sites of plant and animal species belonging to forest biota, forest improvement plantations are widely spread in the Ukrainian and southern areas of the Russian parts of the basin (in Oriol, Kursk and Belgorod oblasts).

Economic development rate of the Ukrainian part of the basin is 92%, its agricultural development rate being 72%. As a result, the soil productivity deteriorates, while soils get extremely liable to erosion and degradation. The area of washed-out land in the Ukrainian part of the Dnipro Basin amounts to 12.3 million hectares, whereas that of arable land – only to 10.2 million hectares (32.8%), and of lands susceptible to degradation – to 19.8 million hectares (54.2%). Over 1991-2000, annual losses of fertile soil layer caused by erosion and deflation in Ukraine were equal to 600 million tons (including 20 million tons of humus).

Forest-improving plantations create favourable conditions for multi-industry agricultural development of the relevant agricultural landscapes and for increasing biodiversity. There are 1.4 million hectares of such plantations in Ukraine, including 432 thousand hectares of forest field-protection belts on plough land and about 90 thousand hectares of water-regulating forest belts.

About 120 thousand hectares of plantations in Ukraine are situated along the banks of minor rivers and on the shores of other water bodies. These forest plantations protect the water bodies from contamination and volume reduction, improve water balance, preserve aquatic and littoral flora and fauna. Their sanitary, hygienic and recreational significance cannot be overestimated, either.

960 thousand anti-erosion forest plantations helped to halt soil destruction and erosion in the regions where they were most pronounced: in Kaniv dislocation, Donbass region, Volyn-Podillia highlands, Middle Dnipro Basin. Anti-erosion plantations on the slopes leading to hydrological network arrest soil washout and erosion, transfer the surface drainage of snow-melting and rain water into the sub-soil level, purify water of field drain ingredients and enhance the local rivers’ water content in low-water seasons.

Anti-erosion plantations are multifunctional: apart from playing their major role, they provide medicinal and technical raw materials, mushrooms and berries, honey and its by-products, serve as habitats for plants and animals, including rare and endangered species.

However, land-improving forest plantations protect only 40% of the basin arable land and require special silvicultural measures aimed to enhance their amelioration functions and sustainability.

Over the last years, the scale of planting soil and water protecting forest belts in Ukraine has been reduced to 300 hectares from 20-25 thousand hectares in 1970-1980s because of inadequate funding. In view of this situation, in February 2001 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine passed a resolution “On Priority Measures to Plant Forests on Low-fertility Lands and in River Basins”.

The percentage of field-protecting forests in the steppe zone of Ukraine does not meet modern requirements: as of 1.1.1996, it was only 2.2%. In accordance with the draft National Program of Land Protection, by the year 2010, the average percentage of forests in agricultural regions is to be increased to 3.7%.

Protective forest plantations are accounted in the calculation of optimal forest amount in individual regions of the basin. Thus, for the left-bank forest-steppe zone of Ukraine it is estimated at 18%, for the right-bank forest-steppe zone – at 16%, for the northern steppe zone – at 8%, including bank (32%), anti-erosion (28%), green-zone (13%), maintenance (8%), field-protection (6%), roadside (1%) and other (12%) plantations.

The current reform in Ukraine's agricultural sector necessitates an urgent inventory taking of protective forest plantations in order to determine their quantity and evaluate the effectiveness of their location and use for the designed purpose.

Forest belts of Ukraine have the following composition: 31% - oak belts, 36% - black locust and robinia, 21% - ash, maple and elm. A great part of field protection (43%) and water protection (45%) plantations are in a poor condition because of the negligence and disregard of the recommendations concerning their species composition. A considerable number of field protection belts (26%) need correcting, while 25.4% of them are in a satisfactory condition. Only 39.1% of such plantations meet the requirements set to effective agronomy. The main reasons of the poor state of forest plantations are: wrong selection of species, ineffective agro-technical and silvicultural maintenance, lack of proper control and responsibility at all stages of plantation growing and guarding. Because of insufficient guarding, a lot of protective plantations suffer from unsanctioned and unregulated cutting by the local population.

In order to improve silvicultural and amelioration indicators of belt plantations, their structure, species composition, correlation of basic and accompanying species should be brought in compliance with the effective requirements.

The observation of forest belts in the southern steppe zone showed that the amount of field protection forests there is 2-3 times as little as the established standard, while the plantations themselves are in an extremely bad condition. Therefore, in the near future restoration felling and belt replacement may become necessary.

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