In Kyiv, the capital of the Ukraine, local NGO Ecopark Osokorky has joined WWN due to challenges and threats to their wetland.
In the Darnytskyi region, they have long worked on creating a 600 hectare wetland park for locals. However there are plans to create large scale housing and smaller recreational facilities in the wetland.
On 2nd October they co-organised the ‘March for Kyiv‘, where environmentalists took to the streets.
We have put them in touch with Tobias Salathe, Europe Rep at the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention. We also wrote letters of support for their cause. Read the letter to the President of Ukraine below or learn more via Facebook.
Follow the Wetland Park Osokorky on Facebook and learn more about their experience in these posts.
Ecopark Osokorky submission to WWN Bulletin
There are few big cities in the world that are lucky to have natural wetlands, very valuable to it’s people and the environment. Kyiv is one of such.
Clean ponds, floodplain forest – 600 hectares of pride that residents seek to protect from construction and create a nature reserve including a city park – Osokorky Wetland Park.
The value of such area is recognized by the petition from City residents, by scientists, the local and international professional community, Ministry of Environment, Parliamentary Committee of Environmental Protection.
They all appeal to the city authorities for the preservation of these important territories for future generations. City authorities, burdened by corruption and outdated Soviet principles of urban planning, remain deaf to the voice of the community and blind to modern world trends and challenges.
As a result, October 2, 2021, people went out on the streets for protest.
Osokorky Wetland Park co-organized and co-participated in the grandiose march “For Kyiv” with more than 50 other NGOs.
More than 10,000 attendees demanded from the city authority’s cessation of the criminal city construction, that is killing the green zones from Kyiv.
In the history of Kyiv as the capital of independent Ukraine, that was the largest protest of which the main demand was environmental protection.
Wetland Park Osokorky SOS!
We kindly like to ask for the support of the international community in saving this natural oasis, which is important not only for Kyiv and Ukraine, but also for the whole of Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Send your support e-mail to the mayor of our city, Vitali Klitschko to the following e-mail: zvernen@kma.gov.ua (please copy to our e-mail: ecopark.osokorky@gmail.com).
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