THE MAIN DIRECTIONS OF ACTIVITY

The Carpathian biosphere reserve is a nature-protected scientific-research institution of international significance. The scientific staff of the reserve gives much attention to the environmental grounds development of the natural ecosystems preservation and their management methods in the Carpathian region. According to the results of the conducted researches, tens of volumes of the “Litopys pryrody” (Chronicle of nature), several monographes and hundreds of other scientific publications were published. Besides, the reserve is a training ground for the environmental investigations of many other scientific institutions. The scientific conferences, seminars and symposiums are held on the reserve’s basis. Students and specialists in the sphere of biology, forestry, nature protection do their scientific practical work and raise the level of their skill here.

The system of ecological monitoring is organized in the reserve, that is a long-term continuous observation over the condition of ecosystems and course of natural processes within them. The system of stationary (permanent) monitoring plots is formed in various nature-climatic zones; a network of permanent plots, phenological, meteorological and hydrological posts, permanent inventory routes has been developed.

The territory of the reserve is divided into functional zones: protected (core), buffer, regulated protected regime and anthropogenic landscapes, which differ from each other, first of all, by the regimes of nature use. The functional zoning of the reserve’s territory promotes to combine the tasks of nature protection with the interests of local population. The complex measures, aimed to improve both ecological and economic grounds of nature use in the region of biosphere reserve, are conducted in the zone of anthropogenic landscapes.

Much attention is given to the environmental education and training of the population. With this aim, in the administrative centre of the reserve in the town of Rakhiv, the Museum of Ecology of the Carpathians was established, the All-Ukrainian ecological scientific-popular magazine “Green Carpathians” is published, a network of the Centres of Information, ecological scientific-cognitive routes was formed. Nature of the reserve and its activity is reflected in numerous scientific-popular video- and films, books, booklets, postcards, envelopes, badges etc.

The Carpathian biosphere reserve is a member of the International Carpathian Association of National Parks and Protected Areas, and maintains close relations with the nature-protected institutions of Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.