Mykhailo Rizak, NIBULON’s Director of Government Relations, will be a speaker at the two-day 4th International Sustainability Forum 2024, which will take place on October 24-25 in Amsterdam and Kyiv.
Mykhailo will participate in a panel discussion titled “ESG disclosure as an avenue for social and economic change – how to get all stakeholders on board?” He will share his knowledge and experience in engaging stakeholders in the humanitarian demining project, NIBULON’s large-scale ESG initiative that is helping Ukraine to return agricultural land mined during the hostilities to economic use.
“The ongoing war in Ukraine poses unprecedented challenges for humanitarian demining. It is estimated that one-third of Ukraine’s territory – 156,000 square kilometers – is potentially contaminated with mines and other explosive remnants of war. The issue of demining goes beyond purely technical or practical issues such as survey and demining, re-survey, and clearance in regions near the frontline. The administrative and financial challenges have become critical. Accordingly, solving this complex set of problems requires the involvement and effective cooperation of the government, demining operators, and international partners. Financially, international support is crucial: farmers cannot afford to demine their land with costs estimated at USD 3-5 per square meter. This is disproportionate to the value of land in Ukraine.
“The ongoing war in Ukraine poses unprecedented challenges for humanitarian demining. It is estimated that one-third of Ukraine’s territory – 156,000 square kilometers – is potentially contaminated with mines and other explosive remnants of war. The issue of demining goes beyond purely technical or practical issues such as survey and demining, re-survey, and clearance in regions near the frontline. The administrative and financial challenges have become critical. Accordingly, solving this complex set of problems requires the involvement and effective cooperation of the government, demining operators, and international partners. Financially, international support is crucial: farmers cannot afford to demine their land with costs estimated at USD 3-5 per square meter. This is disproportionate to the value of land in Ukraine.
In this context, NIBULON’s partnership with the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ), the German State Development Bank (KFW DEG) and GCS sets the standard for the most effective and sustainable approach to humanitarian demining, through which the international companies bring their decades of experience and rigorous mine action practices. On the other hand, we appreciate an open stance of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and are grateful for supporting our initiative. We hope that we will soon receive an official publication from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, outlining changes such as 100% compensation for demining costs, as well as the mechanism for compensating the cost of work when the demining operator and the agricultural producer are a single economic entity.
Sharing our experience in forming such partnerships is an opportunity to scale the success of this initiative and accelerate the return of Ukrainian lands to the economy or address other pressing ESG issues.”
We are determined to continue demining agricultural land in Ukraine and are open to cooperation!
The forum is organized by the NGO “Association of Sustainable Development Experts.”
More about the event on the event page
