Like a scythe cutting across the Hungarian plains, the sweeping arc of the Carpathian Mountain chain — more than a 1500 kilometers long — dominates the landscape of Central and Eastern Europe. Metaphorically, the Carpathians can be viewed as an arch; a portal that opens Western Europe to the east; gradually receding and giving way to the steppes of Ukraine that stretch all the way to central Asia. Two posts along the Danube River support the arch. The great arc begins at the so-called Hungarian Gate (Porta Hungarica) — essentially a gorge or canyon — on the Danube, 50 km east of Vienna and ends down river at the Iron Gate (Porta Ferrae) near Orsova, where the Danube cuts though the mountains at the Kazan Pass, thus separating the Carpathians from the Balkan Mountains.

The impacts of the Carpathians and its forests on Ukrainian literature, culture and folklore are disproportionate to their relative size. The Ukrainian or “northeastern Carpathians” graze Galicia in a sweeping blow to the southwestern flank of Ukraine. Only 10% of the Carpathians are in Ukraine and the Carpathians mountains and the coastal mountains of Crimea make up less than 4% of the area of Ukraine, which is essentially a flat, agricultural country of plains and steppes. Less than 15% of the landscape is covered with forests. Although they lack the majesty of the Alps, the Carpathians are larger in area and what they lack in spectacular mountain scenery, they make up in pastoral beauty and wildness. The Carpathians are the continent’s most biologically diverse montane ecosystem, containing the greatest floristic diversity in Europe as well as the highest concentration of large carnivores including bears, lynx and wolves. Some 45% of Europe’s wolves outside of Russia — more than 4,000 animals — live in the region WWF Danube Carpathian.

The Carpathians also play a vital role in ensuring Europe’s freshwater supplies. Runoff from the mountains feeds the Danube, the Vistula, the Dniester, the Prut and other major rivers that flow into the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. The mountain streams in upland watersheds of the Carpathians have some the highest water quality on the continent and provide 40% of the freshwater resources of Ukraine. Unfortunately, ongoing research findings confirm that the loss of biological diversity in mountain and wetland ecosystems poses a serious threat to the health of the Carpathian region.

From a non-European, North American perspective, the elevation and topography of the Ukrainian Carpathians is reminiscent of northern New England or the Adirondacks. In western North America there are still vast, intact wilderness areas; some protected areas larger than the entire range of the Carpathians.
So it come as a surprise to see that some areas of the Ukrainian Carpathians that have seen settlements for two millennium are wilder than the thrice-cutover forests of the northeastern United States, some of which were settled less than two centuries years ago.

In terms of the entire mountain range, the Ukrainian Carpathians are unique and have the highest concentration of mineral springs; more than any other Carpathian country. Even more surprisingly, they also contain the largest, contiguous stands of virgin or old growth European beech (Fagus sylvatica — in Ukrainian buk or the German word buch) in the Europe — a globally significant ecosystem that is protected as part of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve. The wildest and least disturbed forests are in the Gorgonskyy Zapovydnyk (the Soviet zapovydnyk systems of “preserves” protected unique biological resources but were not accessible to the public but only open to foresters and researchers). The relief and evergreen forests of the Gorgony recall the coniferous forests of the Idaho Panhandle and are essentially roadless — the most remote and undisturbed forest of the region.

In December 2006, seven countries — Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic — signed the Carpathian Declaration and pledged to protect and develop the Carpathians. The English-language Kyiv Post quoted, Vasyl Dzharty, Ukrainian Minister of the Environment, “The Carpathian Convention establishes the fundamental principles for international cooperation on the protection and sustainable development of mountainous areas in general and the Carpathian mountains in particular.” At a press conference that ended in Kyiv after the two-day meeting of the parties to the Carpathian Convention the Ukrainian minister continued, “We will formulate mechanisms for utilizing all possible resources in the framework of the Carpathian Convention.” The document also makes provisions for working groups of the member countries at the environmental ministry level, which will develop concrete projects aimed at resolving the problems of the Carpathian region.

Participating in the work of the conference on the Carpathian Convention were the delegations of the seven Carpathian countries as well as representatives from Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, the UK, Germany, Georgia, and Switzerland. Other participants included international agencies such as the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), donor organizations such as the World Bank, environmental NGOs, and Ukrainian and international movements concerned with environmental problems and nature conservation.

The Carpathian Convention will allow Ukraine to draw on the experience from its
neighbors to create a modern infrastructure to create economic opportunities and rural development while protecting these mountainous areas. This is particularly true of problems of Ukraine’s Transcarpathian or Zakarpattia oblast, one of the poorest regions in the country with up to 40% unemployment and a continuous stream of out migration to Russian cities or the West. The Framework Convention proposes new environmentally sound production facilities to resolve the issues of poverty and emigration. An article in last December’s Budapest Sun quotes Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UNEP, “The Carpathians of central and eastern Europe are among the world’s richest regions in terms of biodiversity and pristine landscapes. As such, they hold huge potential for nature- and wildlife-based tourism,” he said. “Sustainable ecotourism can draw investors and tourists to rural communities. This will assist in conserving and developing livelihoods that, until now, have been largely isolated from the European economy,” concluded Steiner.

Altogether more than 16 million people call these mountains home. Intense population pressures, lack of zoning regulations and privatization are creating haphazard development. Illegal logging and lack of financial resources are affecting the health and productivity of the forests. In addition, pollution and alternatives to unemployment are resulting in abusive practices that are causing rapid changes to the agrarian way of life creating a dramatic transformation of the landscapes and traditional lifestyles.

Bihun, Yurij. 2007. The Mountain Forests of the Ukrainian Carpathians Revisited: An American Forester’s Perspective. 2006 Fulbright in Ukraine Yearbook, Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), Kyiv, Ukraine. pp 47-49.