After Ecocide: Grappling With the Ecological and Socioeconomic Consequences of the Destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in Southern Ukraine

Description

Anna Olenenko is an environmental historian from Ukraine, currently at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada). She has a Candidate of Sciences degree in history from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2013. Anna’s research interests are related to the environmental history of Ukraine, especially the Steppe region, and animal studies. Her research on the history of Dnipro wetlands which disappeared in the 1950s due the construction of Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station was published in the article“’Our New Sea Is Our New Sorrow’: The Conflict between the Ukrainian and the Soviet in the Struggle for the Design of the Lower Dnipro’s Landscape,” Ab Imperio 2019.

Ivan Moysiyenko has a doctor of biological sciences degree and is professor and is head of the Department of Botany at Kherson State University. A key focus of his recent research has been Ukraine’s grassland habitats. For example, he has studied kurgans as refugia of steppe flora in the agricultural landscapes in southern Ukraine. He has carried out applied research in preparation for the formation of many protected areas in Ukraine, including the National Park “Kamianska Sich.” Recent co-authored publications include “Vascular Plants of Old Cemeteries of the Lower Dnipro Region” and “Potential Protected Areas in Kherson Oblast.”

Viktor Komorin is the acting director of the Ukrainian Scientific Centre of the Ecology of the Sea. He is a recognized expert in the field of oceanology and marine ecology and has more than 30 years of experience working at this centre. He has a Doctor of Philosophy degree in oceanology from the Marine Geophysical Institute of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences. He is actively involved in researching marine ecosystems, developing mathemetical models and organizing ecological monitoring. He represents Ukraine in several professional bodies connected with oceanography and monitoring pollution in the Black Sea. He is the author of more than 70 scientific works.  

Viktor Karamushka has a candidate of sciences degree in biology and is currently head of the Department of Environmental Studies at the National University “Kyiv Mohyla Academy.” His areas of research include environmental microbiology, ecology and environmental management. His recent co-authored publications include “Trends in the Environmental Conditions, Climate Change and Human Health in the Southern Region of Ukraine” Sustainability (2022) and “Climate impact drivers provoke fires in protected areas of Polissia. In: XVI International Scientific Conference “Monitoring of Geological Processes and Ecological Condition of the Environment” (2021).

Ihor Pylypenko is Professor of Geography and Ecology and Dean at the Faculty of Geography, Biology, and Ecology at Kherson State University. His areas of expertise include regional development, rural development, and nature conservation in southern Ukraine, particularly in Kherson Oblast. He has commented extensively in the Ukrainian media about the consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka HES. His recent publications include “Mykolaiv and Kherson as Port Centres: Common Characteristics and Problems of Development” and the co-authored articles “A Regional Analysis of the Use of Recreation Potential of Ukrainian Regions in Contemporary Geopological Conditions” (2021).

Brian Kuns is currently Associate Senior Lecturer at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in the Department of Rural and Urban Development. He received his PhD in Human Geography from Stockholm University and he studies questions of agricultural corporatization, changing agrarian structure, smallholders, and farm labor, with respect to Ukraine and Sweden. Brian has conducted research in Kherson oblast in southern Ukraine, studying, among other things, how irrigated agriculture, which in this region is dependent on the now emptying Kakhovka reservoir, has changed during the period of Ukrainian independence. He is author of “’In These Complicated Times’: An Environmental History of Irrigated Agriculture in Post-Communist Ukraine” which appeared in Water Alternatives. (https://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/vol11/v11issue3/468-a11-3-21/file)

Moderator and Organizer: Tanya Richardson, Associate Professor, Anthropology and Global Studies Programs, Wilfrid Laurier University

Sponsored by the Petro Jacyk Program for the Study of Ukraine