EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - UNESCO World Heritage

Pre-proposal No 4 ENHANCEMENT OF CARBON AND WATER RELATED REGULATORY FUNCTIONS
OF FORESTS THROUGH PATTERNS OF PRIMEVAL FORESTS DYNAMICS
Medzinárodná spolupráca s rozvojov˘mi krajinami, s krajinami v Stredozemí, s Balkánskymi krajinami, s Ruskom a nov˘mi nezávisl˘mi ‰tátmi, multilaterálna
koordinácia – len ‰pecifická podporná ãinnosÈ: V˘zva zo 17.12.05, Deadline 06.03.06
The main project goal is to determine the carbon and water retention, retardation and accumulation in nature forests. It is necessary to identify and
investigate natural patterns, processes and dynamics components in unmanaged primeval forests, which can be incorporated into forest management
theory and practise for the purpose of ensuring the stability of forests and their adjacent landscapes, provision of water, torrent control
and carbon sequestration.The new models to decelerate water cycle, the maps of carbon stock in primeval forests soils and the validated proposals
of enhancement of carbon accumulation by 20% will be developed. The field research will be conducted on the localities in Carpathian primeval
forests of the Ukraine, including cooperation among the top-researchers from these three countries: Ukraine, Slovak Republic and Czech
Republic.There will be used the new Methodology of the primeval forest structure development research and the Methodology of material and
energy cycles and fluxes research.
The project priority is scientific research concerning water and carbon cycling in temperate forest ecosystems. The main project goal is to determine
the carbon and water retention, retardation and accumulation in nature forests. The importance of this research project is sustained by the
significance of biological carbon sinks, within the Kyoto Protocol (1997), and the global climate changes which influence the quality and quantity
of the hydrological fluxes within forest ecosystems, including the impacts on carbon sequestration and down stream water users. Within the project
platform, elements of managed and unmanaged forests structure, texture and development dynamics in the temperate Carpathian forests
(Ukrainian Carpathians) and their interactions with the abiotic environment will be analysed in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Subsequently,
selected elements of virgin forests patterns and dynamics will be screened and tested by Sibyla, Hydrus, Biome BGC models. Successful
models will be proposed for implementation into forest management plans of Ukrainian Forestry.
The novel project contribution will consist in:
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1) Validated models of retention, accumulation and filtration of water in forest ecosystems, based on the exploitation of natural forest structure,
texture, trees necromass dynamics and surface humus patterns.
2) Verified datasets of increased organic carbon accumulation in forest biomass and soils, based on the utilisation of surface humus and
trees necromass spatial distribution patterns and solute transport in soils.
3) Identified forest types offering the best opportunities for enhancement of water and carbon retention and accumulation, with respect to
habitat conditions and type of forest management.
4) Proposed management practices to achieve increased and carbon water retention and accumulation in forests managed based by
nature-based approaches.
Regions of the Ukrainian Carpathians (Transcarpathian region), Eastern Slovakia (Slovak Republic) and Moravia (Czech Republic), as well as the
neighbouring European countries periodically suffer great human, material and moral losses from the catastrophic floods and other ecological
disasters, so it is also trans-boundary problem. The opinion, that one of the main reasons of this flood disaster is the disturbance of ecological
balance in the mountains, was completely supported at many scientific forums, in particular at the international scientific-practical conference,
Rakhiv 1999, “Ecological and socialeconomic aspects of the catastrophic hazards in the Carpathian region (floods, mud flows and landslides)”.
75 % of the Transcarpathian region is a mountainous area. 9429 rivers with the total length of 19866 km flow within its territory. The average density
of their network is 1.7 km per 1 sq. km, and is the largest one in Ukraine. Without taking into account the specify of mountainous conditions,
there was the unreasoned intensive management in the mountains and in the result of that, the woodlands of the Ukrainian Carpathians have
decreased from 95 to 53 percent, the upper timber line has decreased in 200-300 meters. The age structure of tree stands is disturbed. More than
70 percent of their part constitutes young stands and middle aged stands, the water regulated role of which is much lower than in ripening and
overmature forests.
Taking into account all this, Transcarpathia refers to the regions with a special ecological vulnerability and also declaration of the Transcarpathian
region as a zone of emergency ecological situation is especially actual (F. D. Hamor, 1999, 2001). The eloquent confirmation of the fact, that
from the regime of forest use depends to the great extent the degree of losses incurred by floods can serve the virgin forests of Uholsko- Shyrokoluzhanskyi
massif of the Carpathian biosphere reserve. In zone of their location neither in previous years nor today, the flood has incurred such
great losses.
Also, population in these mostly rural and underdeveloped has not yet had any opportunity to capitalize on their maintenance and provision of
regulatory functions of forests to the society, e. g. slide protection, water management, carbon sequestration. It is therefore necessary to effect a
correction by providing a solid reasoning to enable such participation on forest functions benefits, achieved through sound, services-oriented eco-