Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced 1 billion trees will be planted in Ukraine over the next three years.
He made the announcement at the Ukraine 30. Ecology forum.
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"In the next three years, we plan to plant 1 billion trees in Ukraine. I will sign the corresponding decree on the launch of this program today," Zelensky said on June 7.
The president stressed that one of the main allies in the fight against climate change is the Ukrainian forest resources.
"Unfortunately, the forestry sector has not been reformed for almost 50 years. We started to change this situation. Our changes will introduce European practices and make this area as transparent as possible," he said.
The president promised that the timber market in Ukraine would work transparently.
"We are introducing new rules for the sale of timber that will eliminate the gray market. In Ukraine, 100% of timber should be sold online, transparently, without corruption," Zelensky said.
According to him, the first steps to combat the gray timber market have already yielded results.
"The first steps on this path have already yielded results. This is plus UAH 1 billion (or US$36.6 million) in revenue posted by state-owned forestry enterprises in the first quarter of the year [2021]. A national inventory of forest resources has also been conducted," Zelensky said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, representatives of businesses, the government and the public held an all-Ukrainian rally to plant a million trees per day "1,000,000 trees in 24 hours."
