Finland to boost environmental cooperation with Ukraine

Finland has decided to allocate funding for cooperation between the Finnish Environment Institute and the environmental authorities of Ukraine, said the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a press release on Friday.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio took the decision based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Finnish and Ukrainian environmental ministries in March 2023.

The project will reinforce monitoring of water quality and terrestrial ecosystems in Ukraine and improve the availability of environmental information. The four-year project has a budget of EUR 2 million.

The project is based on Finland’s and Ukraine’s long-standing environmental cooperation in monitoring the state of the environment, measuring environmental consequences of the war and supporting early warning systems and the convergence of Ukraine’s environmental legislation and administration with that of the EU.

“The poor state of the environment threatens the health of the residents of Ukraine and the country's agricultural productivity and economy. Finland is helping to plan measures to repair damage and to improve the measuring of the state of the environment in Ukraine,” said Tavio.

Finland and Ukraine will continue their established cooperation in environmental security in accordance with the security cooperation agreement concluded between Finland and Ukraine in spring 2024.