Hamburg Sustainability Sessions (#HSS12) – Ukraine Nature Network: Navigating Polycrisis Together: Sustainable Toolkit for Land, Forests, Energy, and Circular Waste
This special online session will address the interconnected environmental challenges of our time through the lens of polycrisis, with a focus on land degradation, forest resilience, energy security, and circular waste management. In this context, the event will also highlight the work of the Ukraine Nature Network and examine the severe environmental consequences of the war in Ukraine, including ecosystem disruption, forest damage, soil and water contamination, and pressure on waste and energy systems.
Bringing together researchers, practitioners, and institutions from different regions, the session will explore how science, policy, and international cooperation can support environmental protection and recovery in conflict-affected settings. It will emphasize practical toolkits and strategies for strengthening resilience, supporting nature restoration, and enabling sustainable reconstruction pathways in Ukraine and beyond.
The event will also provide a platform for global dialogue and knowledge exchange, including discussion of collaboration opportunities and financial mechanisms to support environmental action, conservation, and long-term recovery.
This session is organised by the European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR), Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg), the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP), and the European North-American Sustainability Research Consortium (ENASRC), with support from the Ukraine Nature Network (https://ukrainenaturenetwork.org/).
Event details:
Date: 23rd April 2026
Time: 01:00 p.m – 03:00 p.m CET (Central European Time)
Format: Online
Language: English
Cost: None!
Speakers:
Professor Daniel Muller
holds a diploma and doctoral degree in agricultural sciences and is Adjunct Professor of Geography at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He is Head of the Land Systems Group at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO). His research focuses on land-system change and its implications for rural livelihoods, food security, carbon dynamics, and biodiversity, with particular emphasis on climate change impacts on agriculture and related mitigation and adaptation strategies. His regional expertise centres on the Western Balkans and the post-Soviet region, especially Ukraine, where he examines land-use change, agricultural transformation, and resilience under conditions of political, economic, and environmental stress. He is a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Global Land Programme (GLP).
Dr Oksana Pelyukh
holds master’s degrees in administration and management of Organizations and in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics and obtained her PhD in Economics from the National University of Water and Environmental Engineering in 2020. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Ukrainian National Forestry University and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Lodz, Poland. She is a laureate of a two-year scholarship from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and a grant from the President of Ukraine for young scientists and was awarded the Forests 2021 Early Career Investigator Award. Her research focuses on integrating ecosystem services into decision-making processes and analysing stakeholder engagement in natural resource management, with particular emphasis on urban resilience and nature-based solutions in the context of crises and recovery.
Dr Ihor Honcharenko
is a Visiting/Grant Researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, working in the Fine Particle and Aerosol Technology Laboratory within the Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences. He has more than ten years of experience in environmental research, risk assessment, and recovery-oriented programming in crisis-affected contexts. His work integrates ecological safety, air pollution assessment, circular bioenergy, and GIS-based multi-hazard analysis. Prior to joining the University of Eastern Finland, he led research and assessment activities in the humanitarian and environmental sectors in Ukraine, with a particular focus on disaster risk reduction, recovery planning, and data-driven decision-making. He has authored over 25 scientific publications and contributed to a wide range of applied environmental and resilience-related projects.
Dr Ihor Soloviy
is Professor at the Department of Economics, Tourism and Recreation at the Ukrainian National Forestry University in Lviv. His teaching includes Environmental Economics, Sustainable Strategic Enterprise Management, Sustainable Business and Marketing, Circular Bioeconomy in the Forest Sector, and Green Project Development and Management. He is Vice-President of the Forestry Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and has extensive international experience as a consultant for organisations including IUCN, FAO, WWF, and the World Bank. His work focuses on forest policy, ecosystem services, and the socio-economic impacts of forestry practices.
As a Fulbright scholar, he conducted research at the University of North Carolina and the University of Vermont. At the national level, he has led projects commissioned by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Ministry of the Environment on ecosystem services and environmental policy. He is currently Project Lead of the Erasmus+ CBHE project on forest sector transformation in Ukraine and a Senior Researcher in the Horizon Europe project “CircHive,” focusing on natural capital accounting and biodiversity footprints.
Registration:
Ukraine Nature Network Hamburg Sustainability Session #12 & Final event – Fill out form
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