National Ecological Network as Environmental Management Strategy

In this article national ecological network is analyzed as an environmental management strategy and not in the traditional legislative aspect. The necessity to rethink the traditional static approach is caused by the fact that considering the national ecological network exclusively as a sustainable territorial system of objects under environmental protection and underestimating its format as a dynamic environmental management strategy led to the failure to implement the State-Wide Program of the National Ecological Network of Ukraine Formation for 2000-2015. The strategy process management of formation, sustainable use and protection of the national ecological network should use the whole set of tools foreseen by the current environmental legislation of Ukraine. Management plans, such as those used during the design of the Emerald Network, should be developed for each structural element of the ecological network. Ecosystem conservation programs and other environmental protection measures must be adequately funded and implemented as planned. It is worth to form the special permanently acting central Agency in the sphere of the formation of the National Environmental network in Ukraine and its regional offices for making and implementing the local programs and schemes of the formation of the environmental network that are included in the General Scheme of the territory planning in Ukraine. The strategic environmental management will improve the interaction of organizational and legal mechanisms aimed at preservation of landscape and biological diversity, increase of the natural resource potential and recreational attractiveness of Ukraine. The dynamics of the ecological network should be reflected not only in the gradual extension of its territory in Ukraine, but also in the general improvement and constant monitoring of the environment due to the updated environmental management strategy, in particular to balanced environmental planning and effective environmental control