The Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains constitute one of the most important and unique ecoregions in Europe. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) recognized the Carpathians as a natural treasure of global importance and included it in its "Global 200" list of the most significant ecosystems on our planet. The rich and unique flora and fauna of the region is being preserved within a network of national parks and nature preserves established with the specific aim of protecting the biological and landscape diversity of the Ukrainian Carpathians. Because two-thirds of Ukraine?s territory lies within the steppe and forest-steppe zones, characterized by lowland landscapes and steppe flora and fauna, the Carpathian Mountains have a particular significance for Ukraine and are considered part of the national heritage. While protected areas occupy about 4 percent of Ukraine?s entire territory, in the Ukrainian Carpathians they occupy 8 percent, and in Transcarpathia oblast over 13 percent. Learn more about the natural treasures of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains by visiting the following entries:
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CARPATHIAN PROTECTED AREAS. The first Carpathian protected areas were established in the early 20th century. Several forest reserves were set up in Transcarpathia: the Stuzhytsia beech-forest reserve (est 1908), the Tykhyi fir-forest reserve (est 1908), and the Pip Ivan spruce-forest reserve (est 1912). In 1913, in accordance with Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky?s decree, the Kniazh-Dvir yew-forest reserve was established on the territory of today?s Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. The current network of Carpathian protected areas consists of several types of parks and reserves: the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve; the Gorgany Nature Reserve; the Carpathian National Park, Synevyr National Nature Park, Uzhanskyi National Nature Park, Vyzhnytsia National Park, Skole Beskyd National Park, and Hutsulshchyna National Park; and the Sian Regional Landscape Park, Zacharovanyi Krai Landscape Park. The largest and most interesting among them from the nature-conservation point of view is the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve...
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| Carpathian Protected Areas |
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CARPATHIAN BIOSPHERE RESERVE. One of the Carpathian protected areas established in 1992 with the aim of preserving the unique mountain landscapes, fauna, and flora of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathian Biosphere Reserve covers 53,630 ha and consists of six detached complexes: the Chornohora, Svydivets, Maramures, Kuzii, Uhlia-Shyrokyi Luh, and the Narcissus Valley complexes; as well as two partial reserves: Chorna Hora and Yulivska Hora. Since 1992 the reserve has been a part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves. In 1998, the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve become the first Ukrainian protected area to be awarded a European Diploma by the Council of Europe. More than 1,000 species of vascular plants, 64 species of mammals, 173 species of birds, 9 species of reptiles, 13 species of amphibians, 23 species of fish, and more than 10,000 species of invertebrates are protected in the reserve. Among them there are 64 plant and 72 animal species included in the IUNC Red List of endangered species...
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| Carpathian Biosphere Reserve |
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GORGANY NATURE RESERVE. A nature reserve established in 1996 in the Gorgany Mountains on the territory of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast with the aim of protecting the unique local mountain landscapes, flora, and fauna. The reserve, covering the total area of 5,344 ha, is located in the central part of the Ukrainian Carpathians and its highest peak is Mount Dovbushanka (1,755 m). The distinguishing features of the local landscape are steep stony slopes and numerous inaccessible mountain peaks. Over eighty percent of the reserve?s territory is covered with mixed forests, such as beech-fir-spruce, fir-spruce, and relict pine-spruce forests. Rare Swiss stone pine forest stands are located at altitudes of 1,000-1,400 m. A vast zone of mountain-pine krummholz growth is located above the forest belt. The reserve?s flora and fauna features a number of rare and endemic species, including twenty plant and twenty two animal species listed in Ukraine?s Red Data Book of endangered species and three animals listed in the IUCN Red Data Book...
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| Gorgany Nature Reserve |
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CARPATHIAN NATIONAL PARK. Ukraine?s first national park, established in 1980 on an area of 50,303 ha with the aim of preserving the ecosystem as well as historical, architectural, and ethnographical monuments in the Chornohora and Gorgany Mountains. The park stretches along the eastern slopes of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains at altitudes ranging from 500 to 2,061 m and is located in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. It borders on the Carpathian Bioshepre Reserve with which it shares Ukraine?s highest peak, Hoverlia (2,061 m). Chornohora?s largest lakes--Nesamovyte and Maricheika--as well as numerous glacial peat bogs are located on the park?s territory in the upper reaches of the Prut River and Chornyi Cheremosh River. One of the distinctive features of the Carpathian National Park are relict patches of Scots pine, Swiss stone pine, and European white birch--the largest in the Ukrainian Carpathians. More than 1,100 vascular plant species, 35 of which are endemic to the region, have been registered in the park...
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| Carpathian National Park |
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SYNEVYR NATIONAL NATURE PARK. The third national park to be created in Ukraine, after the Carpathian National Park and the Shatsk National Park. Established in 1989, the park covers 40,400 ha in the central part of the Ukrainian Carpathians, in the upper reaches of the Tereblia and the Rika rivers in Transcarpathia oblast. The park is located in the Gorgany Mountains. The highest peak on the park?s territory is Mt. Nehrovets (1,712 m). The park?s unique feature is the Synevyr Lake, the largest lake in the Ukrainian Carpathians, that has recently been added to the list of Ramsar wetlands of international importance. A widely popular site associated with many local legends, the lake is one of the best-recognized symbols of the Ukrainian Carpathians. The park also has sources of mineral water, and valued historical and cultural structures, particularly wooden churches. The Synevyr National Nature Park houses eastern Europe?s only wood-rafting museum built on the Ozerianka River...
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| Synevyr National Nature Park |
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UZHANSKYI NATIONAL NATURE PARK. A national park in the Carpathians established in 1999 in Transcarpathia oblast and extending over the total area of 39,159 ha. The park is located in the upper reaches of the Uzh River and its tributaries in the Low Beskyd, along the Ukrainian border with Slovakia and Poland, and on the western slopes of the Polonynian Beskyd. It's highest peak is Velyka Ravka (1,304 m). The Uzhanskyi National Nature Park was created on the basis of the Stuzhytsia Regional Landscape Park and other nature preserves some of which had existed in this area since the early 20th century. For example, the Stuzhytsia and Tykhyi nature preserves, established in 1908 as the first protected areas in the Ukrainian Carpathians, served to protect the unique local beech and fir forests. Today the Uzhanskyi Park constitutes an integral part of the Eastern Carpathians Biosphere Reserve which was designated in 1998 as a first trilateral biosphere reserve in the world, uniting the Polish-Slovak reserve with the Ukrainian one...
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| Uzhanskyi National Nature Park |
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