Ukraine War 2022-23 - Global Park Defense Deployed to Protect Carpathians National Park, Ukraine

After decades of uninterrupted illegal hunting and logging in the Carpathians Mountains National Parks, Nature Reserves and protected areas, Ukraine is now making a new effort to protect its parks, forests and endangered wildlife in partnership with Global Conservation.

The Carpathian Mountains contain the last intact primeval forests and megafauna habitats in Europe for bear, stag, lynx, wolves and red deer.

Illegal and commercial logging both threaten critical wildlife habitats.

In 2019, Global Conservation was asked by Carpathian National Park and Ukraine’s Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources to consult on park and wildlife protection systems.

Global Conservation has five goals in supporting Global Park Defense in Carpathian National Park:

1. Deployment of Global Park Defense systems and communications for all Park Rangers.

2. Achieving ‘No Cut, No Kill’ within the park by increasing arrests and fines.

3. Increasing the size of Carpathina National Park to protect adjacent high biodiversity areas by 30-50%.

4. Improving core wildlife populations by 2-3 times for endangered indicator species in 5 years.

5. Training of Park Rangers on Global Park Defense technologies, systems and training for rapid response and targeted patrolling.

Deploying Global Park Defense enables under-resourced park rangers and enforcement inspectors to effectively cover vast areas of rugged mountains and to make limited numbers of park rangers more effective by using targeted patrolling rather than random patrolling. 

Targeted patrolling is based on 24/7 surveillance and community intelligence gathering on illegal activities focusing on the highest threat areas.

In January, Global Conservation purchased the national park’s first truck for ranger patrols.  Previously, patrols could not reach most of the park territory, especially in winter.

Global Park Defense provides 24/7 surveillance of all roads, trails and rivers providing access to the park.

Global Conservation evaluated cellular service in and around the park to support essential Cellular Trailcams for 24/7 surveillance of roads and trails focused park rangers on real threats in real time from actual intruders with weapons and logging equipment.

By ramping up coverage of real-time surveillance within Carpathian National Park rangers can rapidly respond deep into mountainous and heavily forested areas.

Global Conservation recommended organizing the park into sectors with the ability to rapidly respond to Cellular Trailcam alerts showing hunters and loggers, and creating a model for the 7 other protected areas facing destructive illegal logging and wildlife poaching in Carpathian Ukraine.

Global Conservation will provide Cellular Trailcams, systems and training, combined with operations funding and support for rangers to rapidly respond to illegal intruders in the park.  

Newly renovated Joint Operations Command Center (JOCC) was built with high-speed internet for real-time surveillance and GIS Mapping.

To provide training for Carpathian Park Directors, Global Conservation hosted mission to our current GC Project at Borjomi National Park in the Republic of Georgia.

Winter patrolling can find hunters in the fresh snow allowing rangers to track my easier illegal activities.

Carpathian National Park is one of the most valuable natural treasures of Ukraine, and the namesake for the entire chain of 8 protected areas in the West of Ukraine scattered throughout the Carpathian mountain ranger.

Carpathian National Park was the first national park to be created in Ukraine and remains one of the biggest, covering over 50,000 hectares, or 500 square kilometers. Unlike national parks in the United States, over 25,000 people live in 12 towns and villages within the park, making conservation of wildlife and forests even more challenging.

Carpathian National Park contains many of the last remnant populations of endangered wildlife species that once roamed the European continent. Wildlife includes brown bear, wolf, lynx and 400 unique species of mammals including the roe deer. 60% of Europe’s last brown bear population live in the Carpathian Mountains.

Today, Carpathian National Park has potential to be the critical core for the Carpathians UNESCO World Heritage site which includes Ukraine, Romania and Slovakia, all facing ongoing illegal logging and wildlife poaching.