The right of strong is to protect
High speed of Ukrainian land development, fragmentation of natural habitats, wild fauna overhunting, general anthropogenic changes of natural environment cause serious ecological problems, in particular, for wild animals of our country. Realizing an extremely serious current condition of the Ukrainian fauna, the zoologists working within the territory of natural-reserved fund and biological departments of institutions of higher education from all regions of Ukraine, annually conduct a 7-day workshop devoted to one of the relevant subjects on the protection of biological diversity.
According to the existing tradition, each regular workshop is conducted at a new place on the bases of natural-reserved fund objects or at biological departments of institutions of higher education. This allows the participants to meet, provide the results of their work, discuss existing problems and share the experience on animals’ protection un der the conditions of various natural zones and regions with different levels of anthropogenic load.
The forthcoming 14th workshop under the title “Monitoring of fauna and remote methods of mammals research” is planned to be held this September in close vicinity to the Chornobyl zone: in ‘Ekopolis’ recreation center, village Oranoe, Ivankov Region, within 30 km from Chornobyl. One of the most essential lines of discussion will be the issue of this region fauna study and protection.
The subject and place of the workshop were chosen not casually. At the present day, when our country and the world community have a twenty-year experience in overcoming the man-caused accident consequences at the Chornobyl plant, the following fact is still obvious to all of us: despite intensive and advantageous development of natural complexes within the Chornobyl zone, their high biological diversity and certain perspectives, stable stereotype of ecological catastrophe and human tragedy is still in minds and soulsamong the population of people. The principal cause of this is, first of all, an extreme lack of actual information obtained during the post–accident time by scientists – zoologists, botanists, employees of environmental bodies – among the public.
Contrary to the existing views, natural complexes of the zone, affected as a result of the Chornobyl catastrophe, not only haven’t turned into a “radioactive dump”, but vice versa became more valuable. Under the almost reservation conditions, they developed in the way of rehabilitation of the once lost recourses. Absence of people and business practices promoted the growth of biological diversity and remediation of biological balance. Within the territory, which area is equal to the area of the largest National Park of Ukraine, self-sustaining and stable development of biogeocenosis is possible. To date, the complete list of the vertebrata only includes up to 413 species, habitation of 318 of them do not raise any doubts and 22 species are registered in the Red Book of Ukraine. The value of natural complexes promoted the creation of a biosphere reserve in the Chornobyl zone being the most reasonable way for rehabilitation of lands and at the same time not contradictory to the task of upholding the radiation situation in a stable and controlled condition.
Conducting of regular Theriology Workshop in close vicinity to the Chornobyl zone will give an opportunity for zoologists from the whole Ukraine to see this region first-hand. The scientists, who are carrying out their researches here, will provide information about fauna of the mammals living within this territory for a judgment of zoologists and environmental protection experts. One of the tasks of the forthcoming workshop will be to draw attention of zoologists and representatives of protective organizations to the issues related to the protection of the right of the Chornobyl zone’s natural complexes for free development.
For a detailed information on the Theriology School refer to the web-site: www.terioshkola.org.ua
