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Strengthening the Ukraine as a social State, accompanied by the policy of increased cooperation with the European Union (EU), entail far-reaching reforms in many areas, including the development of concepts and methods of environmental sustainability and biodiversity protection (as an integrated system of fauna, flora and their habitats). Studying both the historical and legal aspects of these issues is essential to understanding the Ukrainian move towards European integration. Certain aspects of current problems have been covered in textbooks and journals, but do not give a holistic understanding of the dynamics of this field. Notwithstanding the urgency of the problem, the level of scientific analysis in Ukraine has been extremely weak (with rare exceptions). This reduces the opportunity for close objective cooperation with foreign colleagues. It also results in fragmentary research papers on biodiversity protection. EU law has an unprecedented and rapidly changing character because of the unique and dynamic nature of the European Union itself. Therefore, solving the complex problem of biodiversity loss is impossible without recourse to the historical aspect of establishing and developing the legal protection of biodiversity, and a critical analysis of Ukrainian and EU legal heritage.
Biological diversity protection is relatively "young" on the political and legal scene. Rising concern on this issue, however, gives a reason to analyse its emergence and development from a historical perspective. The term "biodiversity" only arose around the middle of the 20th century and initially was very much on the periphery of scientific research. But in recent decades, it has become one of the central concepts both in scientific literature and international relations.1 Currently, the conservation of biodiversity is incorporated into the scope of international commitments in the implementation phase of sustainable development policy, with "political overtones".2
The idea of tracing the legal aspects of biodiversity protection historically and using this information as a basis for evaluating the current state of the harmonisation process in Ukraine arose in response to two factors. Firstly, according to the National Report of Ukraine "On the harmonization of society's activity with the environment",3 modern Ukraine is implementing an active policy of integrating with the European Union. Consequently, the contemporary direction of Ukrainian external policy requires the proper regulation of the national legislation in accordance with the EU's basic provisions....