ЦІННОСТІ ДИКОЇ ПРИРОДИ В ПОЛІТИЦІ ЄС ТА УКРАЇНИ

Abstract

The aim of the article is to study the implementation of wildlife values into the environmental policy of European Union and Ukraine. The research methodology is based on a comparative analysis of the activities of the EU and Ukraine in the protection of wildlife. The study has introduced the essence of the terms "wildlife" and "value of wildlife." The material and nonmaterial value of wildlife, which is currently the most demanded in EU, has identified. The activities of European Union and EU member states in the development of legislative and strategic framework for the protection of wildlife has analyzed. The peculiarity of the European model of wildlife conservation is revealed; it is the formation of strategic directions that are being developed by member-states in accordance with the national specifics. The main shortcomings of the wildlife conservation activities in Ukraine, in particular the lack of a generally accepted and legally enforced definition of “wildlife” has been disclosed. Ukraine’s first steps on this path has been analyzed. Among them – the adoption in 2017 of the law “On Amendments to Some Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Protection of Forests under the Framework Convention for the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians”and the inclusion of 63 plots of ancient forests from ten European countries and Ukraine into the Ukrainian-Slovak-German UNESCO World Heritage Site “Virgin Beech Forests of the Carpathians”. It has concluded that the European integration course of Ukraine requires not only the adaptation of domestic environmental legislation to the EU legal norms, but also the development of a separate environmental policy direction – the protection of wildlife. A number of recommendations have been developed for the main activities that should be carried out within its framework, in particular: the development of an appropriate concepts concerning wildlife and its introduction into domestic legislation, the creation of wildlife sites and the adoption of principles for managing them, the creation of a permanent expert group involving government institutions and civil society, the development of public initiatives, the promotion in the Ukrainian society the values of the wildlife.