2022 Ukraine Botanic Garden Appeal

Botanical Garden of Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University

The Chernivtsi Botanical Garden was created in the romantic style by Karl Bauer in 1877 by order of the board of the Imperial-Royal Franz Joseph University in Chernivtsi. It holds collections of many Chinese , japanese and American flora and the arboretum holds collections of 100 to 200 year old specimens. Among the herbaceous plants of the open grounds, the collection of rare species of the flora of Ukraine deserves special attention, particularly native species of flora of Bukovina and the Ukrainian Carpathians.

Collections at Chernivtsi Botanical Garden

These are majestic age-old tree exotics that adorn the Garden, in particular: Liriodendron tulipifera, Pinus strobus, Abies cephalonica, Abies nordmanniana, Juglans nigra, Platanus x acerifolia, Fagus sylvatica, Fagus sylvatica ‘Atropurpurea’, Quercus rubra, Taxodium distichum, etc. The herbaceous collection include species listed as Threatened under the IUCN Red list and which are not found in any other botanical garden in the Ukraine: Iris bransae Prodan; Ligularia glauca (L.) J. Hoffm., Primula farinosa L. (has the category of Extinct in the Wild in Ukraine).

How has the war impacted the garden?

Only one employee has left (30 employees currently). 10 employees have a family member fighting at the front – this is a common nervous background. There is almost no funding for actual repair and maintenance work and needs. Many excursionists from the number of refugees attend our excursions that are free for them. Volunteers appeared from the number of refugees, for whom working with plants is therapy.

How will the funds from the Appeal be used?

We will introduce new excursions for refugees and other visitors; we will support laboratory assistants and curators of collections – tour guides; we will attract more refugee volunteers for hortitherapy in the Garden.

Final report

How you have met your objective(s)?

Describe the impact(s) of your project.

The staff looked after the collections more carefully because they had more stable incomes. There were about 450 visitors during the reporting period (children, adults, and elderly people). They were mostly refugees from various frontline areas, they are adapting to new living conditions. Most of them thanked us for the opportunity to distract from worries and restore mental balance. They are interested in visiting again. We have updated the visitor booklet. We were inspired by such human curiosity and now want to develop this activity further. We were inspired by foreign experience and we want to develop this activity further.

October 2022: Update from Yuriy Fedkovych

With help from the Appeal we prepared 2 new tours and the time of our tour guides who have conducted free tours for parents with children; children from rehabilitation institutions and for senior citizens. Most of the visitors to these excursions are forced migrants from the frontline regions. The new excursions were very popular and interested many, many people want to get on these free tours. People are grateful for such a wonderful opportunity to distract themselves from difficult thoughts about lost homes. We have also submitted to the printing house a new booklet for visitors.

Aug 2022: Update from Yuriy Fedkovych

Thanks to the support provided, we were able to pay for the time of the tour guides, who continue to conduct free tours for children and adults (most of whom are displaced persons from the front-line regions: Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Mykolaiv). Children are interested, and adults often get emotional and sometimes even cry after excursions, they are thankful that they were able to distract themselves a little and return to a peaceful time…

We are also in the process of developing 2 new tours and making a layout of a new visitor booklet – this work is also paid for thanks to your help. And here is a photo of several excursions for children from the children’s camp.