Ivano-Frankivsk region

Ivano-Frankivsk region is located in the west of Ukraine, it is the part of the historical and geographical region "Galicia", in the extreme south it borders with Romania (50 km). The region was founded on 4th of December 1939, and up to November 9, 1962 was named Stanislav region.  

The area is 13.9 thousand square km or 2.3% of the territory of Ukraine. 

The historical area Galicia got its name from the ancient capital of the principality - the city of Galich, and is situated at the crossroads between East and West, North and South in the north-western part of Ukraine.  

The population is about 1.46 thousand people or 2.9% of the Ukrainian population, including urban population – 43.4%, rural – 56.6%. In Ivano-Frankivsk region well over 80 nationalities.  

The specificity of the soil cover of the region is that there are found nearly all agro-industrial groups of soils, varying with altitude. On the plains dominate gray forest podzolic soils and podzolic chernozem, in the foothills - sod-podzolic soils. In the mountains - brown mountain-forest soils with varying degrees of podzolization, mountain-meadow sod, peaty and sod-brown soils.  

About 40% of the territory is covered with forests, on the plains dominate oak, oak-hornbeam and oak-beech forests, in the foothills - beech, oak, beech and beech-fir forests, on the lower slopes of mountains dominate mixed forests, mostly of oak, fir and spruce.  

At the top of the mountains there are conifers, mostly spruce forests, which are called smerekovi (Smereka - a spruce). The tops of mountains, with a height of 1400-1600 m, are covered with meadows, pastures, with a height of 1850-1900 m – with sub-alpine meadows, and over 1900 m - Alpine.  

In the region there are 160 deposits of 24 different types of minerals, among which only half is developed. Here are the major oil and gas deposits of Carpathian oil and gas province. Non-metallic mineral resources are represented by considerable reserves of magnesium and potassium salts, deposits of common salt, large stocks of building materials, mineral waters, which are explored in 800 sources. In the Carpathians there are small deposits of iron and manganese ores, copper, zinc, gold and silver.  

In the region run 8286 rivers, of which 132 rivers are longer than 10 km, 35% of the rivers are mountain. The biggest of them are the Dniester (with its tributaries Lomnitsa, Bystritsa, Gnilaya Lipa) and Prut, rises from the foothills of Goverla, with its tributaries the Black and White Cheremosh. Lomnitsa is the cleanest river in Europe. Mountain Rivers form the cascades and waterfalls, they are used as sources of hydropower, for timber rafting and tourism boating. There are a little lakes, in the valleys of the rivers there are created ponds to control runoff.  

There are 261 territories and objects of nature reserve fund in the region, 13 natural monuments of national importance and three arboretums.  

The basis of natural reserve fund is formed by the natural reserve “Gorgany”, with the area of 5.3 ha; three national parks - Carpathian, Galicia and “Hutsulshchina”, with the total area of 97.5 hectares; two regional landscape parks - Dniester and Polyanitsky, total area of 38.4 hectares; 60 wildlife reserves, total area of 45.8 hectares, 10 of which are of national importance.  

The climate of Ivano-Frankivsk region is temperate continental with wet cool summers and mild winters. In the Carpathians, the climate is more harsh and humid, varies with altitude. In summer in the region are often rainfalls, causing flooding in the Dniester and Prut, as well as in their tributaries, in winter there are often thaws.