On October 7, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine held a constituent meeting of the council for cooperation with the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations.
Participants discussed environmental protection issues in the areas of climate change, waste management, sustainable water resources management, creation of new forests and conservation of biodiversity, AUCCRO website reports.
The Chairman of the AUCCRO Hryhoriy Komendant expressed gratitude to the ministry for the initiative to create such a specialized advisory council. This decision was the first result of the practical implementation of the Memorandum of Cooperation concluded between the Ministry and AUCCRO in July 2021.
The Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Roman Abramovsky, said that at the end of September, according to the proposals that the ministry received from the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, the composition of the council was approved and now it's time to start working together for the benefit of the environment and Ukraine.
According to him, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine is the only ministry that is probably closest to the heart and soul of believers and representatives of churches and religious organizations, because it deals with the protection of nature and all living beings that God has created on our land. The council will help unite the spiritual word and state affairs to preserve the environment.
The participants of the constituent meeting elected Pavlo Unguryan, people's deputy of Ukraine of the 6th and 8th convocations, as the chairman of the council for cooperation with the AUCCRO under the Ministry of Ecology.
He noted that he is glad to establish cooperation between the Ministry of Ecology and the church and religious organizations. There is a lot of work ahead to establish communication between the ministry and the faithful, to whom we must inform about the importance of nature conservation, for example, about the harm to the environment of plastic flowers and the benefits of separate garbage collection.
During the meeting, the council members decided on a further work plan and agreed to create sections on key environmental protection policies.