Problem of environmental protection and nature conservancies of Halychyna region (20-30s of the XXth cent.)

Abstract

The article highlights the issues of nature protection in Halychyna region that have been arising since ancient times till1939. Inthe 20-30s of the XXth century the solution of this problem was considered in the search of separate valuable objects of nature, their expropriation from the sphere of economic usage and complete protection. In the hard interwar period, the Polish government, scientists and some land owners were doing their best to protect nature. This intense activity had a significant public basis, as the main legislative basis of Poland of that time facilitated development and distribution of nature-protective activity in Halychyna region.

Poland had a significant public legislative foundation for environmental protection and isolation of valuable natural areas/objects. First of all, since 1852 Halychyna had the valid Austrian law on forest conservation, according to which all forests, regardless of ownership form, had to be supervised by the State Forest Administration. In 1900 the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture issued the Circular concerning conservation of natural tracts and old trees. Later on, in 1927 the President of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth issued the Decision on the protection of forests that were not owned by the state; in1934 anew public law about monuments of nature was adopted in Halychyna, which greatly simplified and facilitated the procedure of conserving valuable natural objects in the country. In addition, Poland had a number of other valid laws on nature usage with the elements of environmental protection.

In the 1920-1930s, nature conservation and isolation of national parks in Halychyna were performed by both the government authorities of Poland and numerous Polish academic-social entities, such as the State Council for Nature Conservation of Poland, Polish Committee for Nature Protection in Lviv city, the Polish League for Nature Protection, Department of Reserves of the Research Institute of State Forests, Nature Conservation Commission of the State Geological Institute. Apart from that, Poland also had various public nature protection societies of local history and natural sciences, such as the Copernicus Society of Naturalists, Society of Tree-Lovers, Society of Planting Local Hylads, Zoological and Botanical Society, Society for Animal Protection, 'Stowarzyszenia c.k. straznikow lasowych i dozorcow skladow', 'Straz Lesna w Kosowie', "Akademickiego kola Przyrodnikow wszechnicy Lwowskiej' and others. A number of protected state reserves have been created. In addition to the public ones, there were a lot of community nature reserves, which were bought by the Polish scientific-cultural societies and organizations, as well as private reserves, created on private lands by some land owners.

Thus, in Halychyna region the issue of nature conservation was developing very actively in those years, yet under the auspices of the Austrian (and later Polish) environmental organizations. Correspondingly, the new protected objects became Austrian or Polish state property. No Ukrainian natural reserves existed, and no national societies for nature protection. Therefore, the problem of nature protection in the 1920-1930s in the society turned from the purely ecological problem into the ecological-national one. Ukrainian patriots, uniting around their spiritual leader - the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), started a broad nature protection activity in Halychyna, focusing at conserving and multiplying the natural resources. First of all, they founded the Permanent Commission for Nature Conservation at the Taras Shevchenko Scientific Society, which was carrying out an active nature conservation activity in the given region.