According to the information of the Ecological and Cultural Center in Kyiv, there are more than 500 ancient trees in Ukraine. However, half of them are not protected. There are 82 trees that are over 1,000 years old, and three trees that are over 2,000 years old. The latter are an olive tree in Nikita Botanical Gardens, aged 2,000, a juniper in Kanaka Reserve aged 3,000, and a juniper on Sarych Cape which is approximately 4,000 years old. The ecologists received this information after having monitored the ancient trees. The center carried out this study in 2009-10, with the support of the State Reserve Department at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. The ecologists assert that we should protect the trees, following other countries’ examples: there the territory around an ancient tree is protected, and there is a plate near the tree. In the US special acts assigning tree species as town symbols are adopted. In some places plates saying “This tree is under the public protection” are installed next to the trees. In Thailand, in order to protect venerable trees from being felled, Buddhist monks “ordain” the trees and dress them in their yellow and brown clothes. Ukraine is behind other countries in the number of protected trees as well. At the end of 1990s slightly more than 50 memorial trees were taken under protection in Ukraine, which is far from being enough. That is why the Ecological and Cultural Center in Kyiv, together with the regional state administrations of the environmental ministry, is now taking the ancient trees under its protection.
