Order No. 725-r of the Cabinet of Ministers validating the Concept of agroforestry reclamation in Ukraine.

Concept of agroforestry reclamation in Ukraine is a nationwide cross-sectoral policy document. The Concept shall address the following issues: (a) aggravation of ecological problems of modern agrolandscapes, lack of systematic reclamation anti-erosion measures on arable land, which accounts for 78 percent of agricultural land; (b) planting protection forests of linear type with a view of creating ecological frameworks of agrolandscapes, as their current areas, location and placement do not meet modern requirements; (c) conservation and protection of arable land for ensuring balanced development of agricultural landscapes with a view of increasing crop yields; (d) improvement of forestry and reclamation conditions of protection forests.
The scope of the Concept is to identify areas for institutional change and improvement of legislation that will ensure the optimization of areas of protective forest plantations of linear type on the zonal principle, efficient management thereof and will be an ecological prerequisite for the balanced development of agricultural landscapes. This will solve the problem of protecting soil from degradation and pollution, increasing crop yields, increasing the volume of production of environmentally friendly products, providing food security of the state, preservation of landscape and biological diversity, creation of ecologically safe living conditions of the population.
There are two possible solutions to the problem. The first option involves improving the development management system of agroforestry and increase funding for measures to create protective forest plantations, their accounting and control, which will allow in part to stabilize negative natural processes in agricultural landscapes and solve problems of their balanced development, but will not ensure their effective protection against the negative impact of natural and anthropogenic factors. The second option involves making appropriate changes to the regulatory legal acts, taking into account state target programs in the field of forest economy, protection of land through optimization of protective forest plantations of linear type according to the zonal principle. This will allow to allocate funds from the state budget to protect the most vulnerable part agricultural land - arable land. The second option is optimal under the condition of state funding budget, local budgets and at the expense of investors.
Implementation of the Concept will enable to achieve: (a) to increase resilience of the biological components of agrolandscapes against negative impact; (b) to provide filtration and cleaning of surface runoff from hazardous components by translating protective forest plantations of linear type in subsoil; (c) prevent soil erosion and deflation; (d) to improve forestry and reclamation functions of protective forest plantations of linear type through performance of the required forestry measures; (e) to preserve biological and landscape diversity, increase intensity of the processes of natural reproduction of agrolandscapes; (f) to optimize the location of systems of protective forest plantations of linear type according to the adaptive-landscape principle; (g) to increase the level of protective forest cover; (h) to reduce soil pollution by chemical compounds; (i) to increase crop yields on inter-lane fields; (j) to increase groundwater runoff on condition of optimal forest of watersheds; (k) to provide additional carbon sequestration by protective forests plantations of linear type; and (l) to increase the efficiency of implementation of state environmental programs related to the improvement of the environment.