![]() The territory of Ukraine contains habitats that are home to 35% of Europe's biodiversity, including 70,000 plant and animal species, many of them rare, relict, and endemic. Importantly, rare steppe ecosystems survive in the central and eastern parts of Ukraine. The Carpathian mountains in the western part of the country are home to ancient beech forests and alpine meadows. ![]() It includes vast pine, oak, and birch forests and peat bogs in the Polyssia region of northern Ukraine. The country shares a part of the Danube Delta, the second-largest river delta of continental Europe and the largest reed-bed in the world. This includes rare steppe ecosystems, coastal wetlands, alpine meadows, ancient beech forests, and extensive peatlands. It is part of a broader region stretching across Central and Eastern Europe sometimes referred to as the “ Green Heart of Europe”. Ukraine has a high diversity of habitats and species. Activities and investments to restore habitats, conserve species, improve protected area management as well as mitigate and adapt to climate change have been disrupted. The war is not only impacting an already stressed natural environment but also preventing efforts to improve the situation. The impacts of these changes are increasingly evident, for example in decreased harvest yields. The country has already warmed by almost 1.5☌ over the last 30 years, and the increase in annual mean temperatures could reach 3☌ by the middle of the century. The environmental costs of the war include direct impacts on habitats and species but also indirect ones in terms of pollution of air, land, and water, or diverted resources.Īlready before the war, Ukraine – like other countries – was facing significant environmental challenges, including crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.
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