Ukraine Nature Conservation Society
Encyclopedia
Ukraine Nature Conservation Society (UkrTOP – Ukrayinske tovarystvo okhorony pryrody) is a non-governmental environmental organization, foundation of which was a predecessor of the Khrushchev thaw
during his time in Ukraine. In 1967, under the pressure of UkrTOP, the Ukrainian Government founded the State Committee for Nature Protection as a central government body. It happened three years before Nixon
established the EPA
in the US and 21 years before Gorbachev
established a similar Soviet-wide agency in Moscow. The State Committee for Nature Protection was upgraded to the ministerial status in 1991.
UkrTOP promotes public awareness of recycling, environmental education and the love for nature at schools, in local communities and among local authorities, using its branches in all the regions
and most of the regional districts/municipalities as well as in the special-status cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol.
. It has a fascinating history of struggle of the founders of the Ukrainian environmental movement. Nikita Khrushchev
(then the Head of the Government of the Ukrainian SSR and the Communist Party
) gave permission for establishment of UkrTOP in response to numerous appeals of Ukrainian scientists and conservationists, many of whom were academics. Up until the mid-1960s, UkrTOP was the only voice for environment in draft public policy decisions. At that time UkrTOP requested the introduction of a comprehensive ecological-economic approach
to the planned economy and promoted the establishment of the Ministry of Environment within the Ukrainian Government
.
It was not easy to assert environmental rights
in the absence of democracy
even for Ukraine's famous scientists. However, giving in to the pressure of UkrTOP, the Government created the State Committee for Nature Protection as a central body in 1967. To compare, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
was established three years later, and the State Committees for Environmental Protection of both the USSR and the Russian SFSR
were established only 21 years later. Mykhailo Voinstvenskiy was the Chairperson of UkrTOP in 1963-1982. In 1971, Professor Stepan Stoyko, the head of UkrTOP’s Lviv branch, hired Viacheslav Chornovil who had been previously imprisoned for political beliefs.
During the era of stagnation and the subsequent perestroika
, UkrTOP focused on environmental education, particularly among high school/university students and senior citizens, mobilizing them to participate in community service days
. UkrTOP's and other public voices on environmental issues did push through at the time when Dina Protsenko headed the State Committee for Nature Protection (1978–1988). Only with Ukraine’s independence, the status of the State Committee for Nature Protection was elevated to the Ministry of Environment
in 1991.
In December 1992, the Ministry of Justice
re-registered UkrTOP's charter amended by its 9th Congress on November 21, 1991. In UkrTOP governance, the Congress establishes an All-Ukrainian Council and its Board that consist, in majority, of volunteers. One of the new goals became to leverage the civil society, exercising the legislative right for the public and NGOs to receive information on environmental disclosure, to be consulted and even to participate in pollution inspections and raids against poachers under certain circumstances.
. Its highest governing body is the Congress that is elected by UkrTOP volunteers every 5 years. Between Congress meetings, UkrTOP is governed by the All-Ukrainian Council and its Board chaired by the President.
23 regional (incl. Kyiv and Sevastopol) organizations of UkrTOP report to the All-Ukrainian Council. These regional organizations have 354 district and 70 local branches, which include 23,000 primary organizations (at schools and universities, etc.), more than 10,000 corporate members (sponsors, co-hosts of environmental events and community days) and over 2 million individual members / volunteers.
Vasyl Shevchuk
, a former Environment Minister, has been the Chairperson of the Board of the All-Ukrainian Council since 2002.
issues (in the Verkhovna Rada
) and promotes the implementation of the Aarhus Convention
and the Law of Ukraine on Environmental Audit.
Also UkrTOP proactively encourages the Ukrainian businesses to implement:
- the system of environmental and social risk management
, in particular under the Equator Principles
.
- Business models that promote sustainable development through energy and resource efficiency, sustainable land use and sustainable biodiversity conservation, business with partners who manage well their environmental and social risks, and a caring attitude toward employees and local communities.
- Principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR
).
s and implementing methodologies (through its scholarly members) to assist regional and local branches of UkrTOP.
, World Wetlands Day
, “Clean Ukraine - Clean Earth” and such regional environmental actions as “A Primrose”, “A Spring”, “A Fir Tree”, “Clean Air”, “A Tomtit”, “A Swamp Turtle”, “A Spawning” and other ones.
It is important for UkrTOP to attract people to participation in environmental protection, performing a variety of regional and local environmental actions such as afforestation, planting trees in the urban areas, greening public places, cleaning river banks and lakes, liquidation of dumps, etc. UkrTOP's regional organizations initiate community service days where communities clean their territories.
Also, UkrTOP reaches out through publications, particularly the nationwide popular-science magazine 'The Native Nature', 'The Shamrock' newspaper, many brochures, and sections in the local newspapers help regular appearances in the media.
Khrushchev Thaw
The Khrushchev Thaw refers to the period from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s, when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were partially reversed and millions of Soviet political prisoners were released from Gulag labor camps, due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization and...
during his time in Ukraine. In 1967, under the pressure of UkrTOP, the Ukrainian Government founded the State Committee for Nature Protection as a central government body. It happened three years before Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
established the EPA
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
in the US and 21 years before Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
established a similar Soviet-wide agency in Moscow. The State Committee for Nature Protection was upgraded to the ministerial status in 1991.
UkrTOP promotes public awareness of recycling, environmental education and the love for nature at schools, in local communities and among local authorities, using its branches in all the regions
Administrative divisions of Ukraine
Ukraine is subdivided into 24 oblasts , one autonomous republic, and two "cities with special status".- Overview :...
and most of the regional districts/municipalities as well as in the special-status cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol.
History
Ukraine Nature Conservation Society (UkrTOP) was founded on June 28, 1946 during an environmental desaster - a drought that triggered a famineSoviet Famine of 1947
The last major famine to hit the USSR "began in July 1946, reached its peak in February–August 1947 and then quickly diminished in intensity, although there were still some famine deaths in 1948." It was triggered by a bad harvest caused by drought in 1946. However, the surplus stocks in the hands...
. It has a fascinating history of struggle of the founders of the Ukrainian environmental movement. Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
(then the Head of the Government of the Ukrainian SSR and the Communist Party
Communist Party of Ukraine
The Communist Party of Ukraine is a political party in Ukraine, currently led by Petro Symonenko.The party fights the Ukrainian national self-determination by identifying any Ukrainian national parties as the National-Fascist ones The Communist Party of Ukraine is a political party in Ukraine,...
) gave permission for establishment of UkrTOP in response to numerous appeals of Ukrainian scientists and conservationists, many of whom were academics. Up until the mid-1960s, UkrTOP was the only voice for environment in draft public policy decisions. At that time UkrTOP requested the introduction of a comprehensive ecological-economic approach
Ecological economics
Image:Sustainable development.svg|right|The three pillars of sustainability. Clickable.|275px|thumbpoly 138 194 148 219 164 240 182 257 219 277 263 291 261 311 264 331 272 351 283 366 300 383 316 394 287 408 261 417 224 424 182 426 154 423 119 415 87 403 58 385 40 368 24 347 17 328 13 309 16 286 26...
to the planned economy and promoted the establishment of the Ministry of Environment within the Ukrainian Government
Budynok Uryadu
Budynok Uryadu , literally the Government Building, is located in center of Kiev at Hrushevsky Street in the vicinity of Verkhovna Rada building. It serves as the administrative building for the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine...
.
It was not easy to assert environmental rights
Rights
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory...
in the absence of democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
even for Ukraine's famous scientists. However, giving in to the pressure of UkrTOP, the Government created the State Committee for Nature Protection as a central body in 1967. To compare, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
was established three years later, and the State Committees for Environmental Protection of both the USSR and the Russian SFSR
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
were established only 21 years later. Mykhailo Voinstvenskiy was the Chairperson of UkrTOP in 1963-1982. In 1971, Professor Stepan Stoyko, the head of UkrTOP’s Lviv branch, hired Viacheslav Chornovil who had been previously imprisoned for political beliefs.
During the era of stagnation and the subsequent perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
, UkrTOP focused on environmental education, particularly among high school/university students and senior citizens, mobilizing them to participate in community service days
Community service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....
. UkrTOP's and other public voices on environmental issues did push through at the time when Dina Protsenko headed the State Committee for Nature Protection (1978–1988). Only with Ukraine’s independence, the status of the State Committee for Nature Protection was elevated to the Ministry of Environment
Environment ministry
The Ministry of Environment is a high executive official of government in charge of environment and natural resources political.Environment ministry may refer to:* Ministry of Environment...
in 1991.
In December 1992, the Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Justice (Ukraine)
The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine is the main body in the system of central bodies of the executive power that provides realization of a state legal policy. It is often abbreviated as Мiniust [України]...
re-registered UkrTOP's charter amended by its 9th Congress on November 21, 1991. In UkrTOP governance, the Congress establishes an All-Ukrainian Council and its Board that consist, in majority, of volunteers. One of the new goals became to leverage the civil society, exercising the legislative right for the public and NGOs to receive information on environmental disclosure, to be consulted and even to participate in pollution inspections and raids against poachers under certain circumstances.
Structure
UkrTOP is a nonprofit organizationNonprofit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
. Its highest governing body is the Congress that is elected by UkrTOP volunteers every 5 years. Between Congress meetings, UkrTOP is governed by the All-Ukrainian Council and its Board chaired by the President.
23 regional (incl. Kyiv and Sevastopol) organizations of UkrTOP report to the All-Ukrainian Council. These regional organizations have 354 district and 70 local branches, which include 23,000 primary organizations (at schools and universities, etc.), more than 10,000 corporate members (sponsors, co-hosts of environmental events and community days) and over 2 million individual members / volunteers.
Vasyl Shevchuk
Vasyl Shevchuk
Vasyl Yakovych Shevchuk was Ukraine’s environment minister in 1998-2000 and 2002-2003 and a deputy minister of economy for sustainable development in 1993-1998. Under his leadership, Kyiv hosted the UN “Environment for Europe” Fifth Ministerial Conference in 2003...
, a former Environment Minister, has been the Chairperson of the Board of the All-Ukrainian Council since 2002.
Participation in the dialogue with the government and politicians
UkrTOP stands for and promotes public and parliamentary control over the clean environment. It has been taking part in all of the parliamentary hearings on environmental and ChernobylChernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
issues (in the Verkhovna Rada
Verkhovna Rada
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is Ukraine's parliament. The Verkhovna Rada is a unicameral parliament composed of 450 deputies, which is presided over by a chairman...
) and promotes the implementation of the Aarhus Convention
Aarhus Convention
The UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, usually known as the Aarhus Convention, was signed on June 25, 1998 in the Danish city of Aarhus. It entered into force on 30 October 2001...
and the Law of Ukraine on Environmental Audit.
Also UkrTOP proactively encourages the Ukrainian businesses to implement:
- the system of environmental and social risk management
Management system
A management system is the framework of processes and procedures used to ensure that an organization can fulfill all tasks required to achieve its objectives....
, in particular under the Equator Principles
Equator Principles
The Equator Principles are a voluntary set of standards for determining, assessing and managing social and environmental risk in project financing....
.
- Business models that promote sustainable development through energy and resource efficiency, sustainable land use and sustainable biodiversity conservation, business with partners who manage well their environmental and social risks, and a caring attitude toward employees and local communities.
- Principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR
Corporate social responsibility
Corporate social responsibility is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model...
).
Sections of UkrTOP
UkrTOP’s organizational system includes 10 national and 140 regional thematic sections. Their issue can be divided into mobilization of scientific research, advocacy and public policy. Among substantive issues for research are environmental safety, protection and restoration of flora and fauna, minerals, water resources, atmosphere, land, fish stocks, forests and protected areas. Advocacy is taken on via the promotion and development of environmental youth movement as well as the promotion of legal rights, spreading environmental awareness among school and university students, population of regions. Sectional work on public policy includes legislative recommendations on protection and rational use of natural resourceNatural resource
Natural resources occur naturally within environments that exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a natural form. A natural resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity and geodiversity existent in various ecosystems....
s and implementing methodologies (through its scholarly members) to assist regional and local branches of UkrTOP.
Environmental activities in the regions
Members of UkrTOP take an active part in such international and national environmental actions, as World Environment Day, Earth DayEarth Day
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the...
, World Wetlands Day
World Wetlands Day
World Wetlands Day occurs on February 2nd, every year.It marks the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands, called Ramsar Convention, on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. WWD was celebrated for the first time in 1997 and made an encouraging...
, “Clean Ukraine - Clean Earth” and such regional environmental actions as “A Primrose”, “A Spring”, “A Fir Tree”, “Clean Air”, “A Tomtit”, “A Swamp Turtle”, “A Spawning” and other ones.
It is important for UkrTOP to attract people to participation in environmental protection, performing a variety of regional and local environmental actions such as afforestation, planting trees in the urban areas, greening public places, cleaning river banks and lakes, liquidation of dumps, etc. UkrTOP's regional organizations initiate community service days where communities clean their territories.
Educational activities
Every year the All-Ukrainian Council together with the regional organizations of UkrTOP conducts targeted educational and public-awareness campaigns by organizing public lectures, weekend excursions, public movie/documentary watching, thematic exhibitions, open roundtables and seminars.Also, UkrTOP reaches out through publications, particularly the nationwide popular-science magazine 'The Native Nature', 'The Shamrock' newspaper, many brochures, and sections in the local newspapers help regular appearances in the media.