This collaboration between the public sector, business, and state enterprises marks an important stage of joint work on the Digital Platform for Ukrainian Forest Restoration. Over 45 employees of the company participated in the event, collectively planting over 3,000 saplings of common oak, European fir, cherry, and small-leaved lime. This plantation will over time develop into a fully-fledged forest in the Shpylchyna tract in the southeast of Lviv.

The future forest has been designed according to the principles of climate-smart and nature-based forestry. Planting oak seedlings in the selected area will contribute to the restoration of the native forest type moist oak-hornbeam forest. This reforestation will help preserve soils and counteract erosion processes, essential for the ecological balance of the region.

“On World Environment Day, together with SoftServe in the Lviv region, we planted a forest of the future. This is a pilot region for implementing our joint project with OpenTech SoftServe called Digital Platform for Ukrainian Forest Restoration, which we aim to scale up nationwide, including forests destroyed by war. We want to restore forests in such a way that they are as natural as possible, and therefore resilient to climate change, capable of performing their protective and defensive functions. Our common goal is to design quality forests right now, including through digitization and the use of innovations in natural resource management,” commented Bohdan Vychor, Executive Director of WWF-Ukraine.

“We launched the tree planting project for the first time in 2015 because it was important for us to make our contribution to environmental protection. Over time, the project has expanded not only in Ukraine but also in other countries such as Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Mexico, and Colombia. In these nine years, we managed to plant over 17 thousand trees. We are proud that this time we were able to increase this number jointly with WWF-Ukraine and contribute to forest restoration. For us, this is not just a one-off project but a continuation of a great collaboration,” said Yulia Tarkovska, Senior Manager of Sustainability at SoftServe.

WWF-Ukraine, in partnership with OpenTech, a charitable crowdsourcing program by SoftServe Ukraine, has been working on the Digital Platform for Ukrainian Forest Restoration since 2023. The platform will provide scientifically grounded information on areas suitable for tree planting and forest creation, as well as guidance on what and how to plant in specific areas and how to ensure their long-term preservation. OpenTech volunteers have conceptualized and are working on the mechanics of the platform as an online resource that will not only provide unique scientific information conveniently but also inspire Ukrainians to engage in tree planting and forest restoration through a scientific and sustainable approach. The platform's presentation will take place at a later date.

The planting initiative has been supported by the Western Interregional Forest and Hunting Management Administration and the Carpathian Forest Office of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” to ensure the high-quality implementation of the “Green Country” program under the auspices of the Office of the President of Ukraine, aimed at creating resilient and productive forests using IT tools and decision-making digitalization.

For more information, please contact: 

Yuliia Novoseltseva
Forest Communicating Officer
e-mail: ynovoseltseva@wwf.ua
+38 063 756 62 93