My first field study: Vorokhta Forest Management Unit

For the months of September and October I have been living in the Ukrainian Carpathians, doing a field study for my project in the Vorokhta region. I am working at the local forest management unit (Lishosp), which is publicly owned and managed by the State Committee of Forest Management. I am using this lishosp as a test case for how the new Ukrainian High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) standards could be applied in managed forests in the Carpathians. 

I have used FSC certification to frame this question, because the forestry administration in this province (Ivano-Frankivsk) has expressed interest in certifying all its lishospi. But FSC is basically unknown among field foresters here, and so my topic is met with a lot of suspicion! I think foresters fear that HCVF identification will remove even more of their acreage from the "exploitation fund" and place it in the "protective fund". There is probably some truth in this, but I believe that their existing network of protective forests (on steep slopes, around rivers, where rare forest types are found) already includes most of the HCVF in the territory. 41% of this lishosp is in the protective forest category. Clearcutting is forbidden in protective forests, and some are entirely off limits to forest management. 

I am really interested in the network of small protected areas that were established in Soviet times throughout managed forests. In the area I am working, there are several "monuments of nature", including relict populations of Pinus cembra, cliff forests dominated by Pinus sylvestris, and very high productivity beech forests.  I think the Soviet botanists and foresters who identified and protected these areas made a major contribution to biodiversity conservation. These areas usually go at the top of the list for HCVF in any given area. 

The pictures above are from "monuments of nature" and other protective forests inside Vorokhtyanske Lishosp. The gnarly looking pine is Pinus cembra, or Swiss stone pine. It is only found in small relictual stands in the Carpathians.