Functional classification of territories of the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine: history of formation and international aspect

The classification system of the Nature Reserve Fund has been developing in Ukraine since 1919, separately from other countries. The parallel development of the network of protected areas in different countries has resulted in a great number of approaches, statuses and other ways and forms by which a certain territory can obtain protected status. In order to make possible to compare conservation territories of different countries and to select those potentially having international significance the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) created a unified system of classification of conservation areas based on their functional aspect. In case of development of national classifications that correspond to the international system it will become possible to make objective assessments of conservation areas all over the world. In the article, problems related to the comparison of national categories of protected areas of Ukraine with the international classification approved by the IUCN are discussed. These issues include the necessity of applying an individual approach to the analysis of Ukrainian protected areas when applying the IUCN criteria as well as the necessity of reviewing separately each functional zone of national nature parks, regional landscape parks, and biospherе reserves comparing their real function and conservation regime with the international criteria. Former suggestions by other authors and proposed approaches to the strategic planning of reserve management oriented on western standards are analysed. Additionally, detailed information on historical stages of formation of the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine is given in the paper presenting a review of literature sources.