January 11 - Day of Reserves and National Parks
Day of reserves and national parks began to be celebrated in the world for the first time in 1997 on the initiative of the Center for Wildlife Conservation and the World Wildlife Fund.
The first reserve in the territory of modern Ukraine was established in 1886 by Ukrainian naturalist Volodymyr Didushitsky. By the way, it was also the first nature reserve in Europe, which was a nature reserve of 22.4 hectares near the village of Peniaki (now Brodivsky district of Lviv region) and was named "Peniatsky monument".
The most ancient form of conservation in the territory of Ukraine is sacral, on the basis of which is worship of holy places and mysteries of nature. In doing so, the wildlife is recognized as sacred, worshiped and protected through its association with the Divine. The sacred conservation is done without the intervention of state institutions. Remains of such national nature protection occur in the territory of Ukraine to this day in the form of holy springs, trees and rocks (boulders), in Western Ukraine and in the Crimea - in the form of sacred mountains, caves and groves. The resource approach is also one of the most important areas of conservation, but it began to develop a little later. According to it, wildlife is considered solely as a mean to achieve man's own goals, and priority is given to the economic values of nature, such as the reproduction of hunting species of animals for hunting, growing forests to obtain maximum production. It was extended in the times of Kyivan Rus and later. The resource approach had one of the peaks of its development in the territory of Ukraine in the 50-60's of the 20th century in connection with the mass organization of hunting and fishery reserves.
The modern form of preservation for the conservation of the remains of nature (individual natural complexes or parts of them), which can already be called classic, began to form from the late 20's of the 20th century (created the first nature reserves and monuments) and has been developing significantly since the 80's years with the organization of different types of nature reserves and national nature parks.
The classical preservation was formed in contrast to the industrialization of the state, when with the rapid development of agricultural machinery and technologies, the area of arable land rapidly expanded, cities became large technopoles. Scientists have seen the threat to all nature, which is the basis of life, so by destroying it, we lose the very basis of human existence.
In 1992, for the first time, a clear legal framework was created in the form of the Law of Ukraine "On the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine". The preamble to the Law reads: "The nature reserve fund consists of land and water areas, natural complexes and objects of which have special nature conservation, scientific, aesthetic, recreational and other value, and are selected for the purpose of preserving the natural life of the animal, maintaining the overall ecological balance and providing background monitoring of the environment." The preparation of two editions of the Red List of Ukraine, whose status in 2002 was raised to the level of the Law of Ukraine "On the Red List of Ukraine", was of great importance for the development of the reserve case in Ukraine. According to the Law, the species of plants and animals included in this list, plant groupings of the Green Paper of Ukraine, as well as species of plants and animals and types of natural environments from the Red Lists of international conventions applicable to Ukraine are recognized as priorities during the conservation and cultivation of nature within the boundaries of nature reserve fund.
The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine is a specially authorized body of state administration in the field of organization, protection and use of the nature reserve fund.
On December 1, 2008, the President of Ukraine issued Decree No. 1129/2008 "On expansion of the network and territories of national nature parks and other nature reserves". In 2009, the boundaries of the territories were significantly expanded and new national nature parks and other nature reserves were created. On August 18, 2009, the President of Ukraine signed the Decree "About the Day of the Employee of the Nature Reserve", which is celebrated annually on July 7.