Nature protection
Nature is a silent victim of war. The Russian invasion has been causing huge damage not only to people, but also directly to nature. Greenpeace in Ukraine is continuously monitoring environmental war crimes and advocates for Russia to be held accountable for the damage.
![](https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-ukraine-stateless/2024/08/4ea692f2-gp0stwhwn_low-res-800px.jpg)
![](https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-ukraine-stateless/2024/08/1d685651-gp0stwhf0_low-res-800px.jpg)
Mobile Rescue Station in the Ukrainian part of the Carpathian mountains
European companies are complicit in the destruction of old growth forests in the Ukrainian Carpathians, the timber from which is sold throughout the European Union. This is the shocking finding of a Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe research, including a Greenpeace expedition in the Ukrainian old-growth forests. The report, published in November 2022, revealed thatless than 3% of critical ecosystems are strictly protected from industrial logging. The majority of the forests of the Carpathians forests is exposed to widespread logging and exploitation.
Our work on the protection of the Carpathian forests is ongoing.
Mapping environmental damage
Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), together with Ukrainian NGO Ecoaction, launched the “Environmental damage map.” It shows a set of cases of environmental destruction that were caused by the Russian war and should be considered both by the Ukrainian government and the European Commission’s Donor Coordination Platform for planning and financing for future nature restoration. The data on severe damages were collected by Ecoaction and later confirmed by satellite imagery and mapped by Greenpeace.
![](https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-ukraine-stateless/2024/08/f3defd9d-uamap_twitter_fb_clean-1024x576.png)