Regarding the history of the inclusion of European beech forests and ancient forests in the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites and the problems of sustainable development in Ukraine in the region of their location

The current issues on the history of establishment and management of the transnational serial UNESCO World Heritage Site "Ancient and primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe" are considered. The site was inscribed to the Heritage list in 2007 as "Primeval beech forests of the Carpathians". It was extended and reorganized in 2011, 2017 and 2021 into "Ancient and primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe". It is located on the territories of 18 European countries (Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Spain, Germany, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, France, Croatia, Czech Republic and Switzerland). It comprises 94 components with an area of 98,125.15 hectares. The buffer zone of the site constitutes 294,720, 87 hectares. An important role for its establishment and extension had an active environmental position and fundamental research of many Ukrainian and foreign scientists, representatives of different times, first of all professors Alois Zlatnik (Czech Republic), Štefan Korpel, Ivan Voloschuk and William Pichler (Slovakia), Vasyl Komendar, Stepan Stoiko and Vasyl Parpan (Ukraine), Mario Brodgi and Brigitta Kommarmot (Switzerland) and others. The support of the expert of International Union for Nature Conservation David Michalik (USA) was extremely important in this case. A significant role in this difficult process was played also by the following international scientific conferences and seminars organized by the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve: "Natural forests of the temperate zone of Europe - values and utilization" and "Identification of potential World Natural Heritage sites"; a monograph published in Switzerland in Ukrainian and German "Virgin forests of the Carpathians. Guidebook to the forests of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve", a Ukrainian-Dutch project on the inventory of Transcarpathian primeval forests, support by German researchers Peter Schmidt and Harald Plachter. Here are analyzed also the lost opportunities caused by the unsatisfactory implementation of three Decrees and Orders of the President and the Government of Ukraine (2009-2023) on the issues on conservation of primeval beech forests as a World Heritage site and the sustainable development of mountain settlements adjacent to them.