While in Poland the territory of the “Eastern Carpathians” is annually visited by 600 thousand to 1.5 million tourists, in the Ukrainian part – 35-50 thousand only.
Despite the unique natural values, most roads in the Ukrainian part are in poor conditions, the unemployment rate is high, and the main sources of income are logging, agriculture and work abroad. The level of smuggling in the region is a matter of concern. There is a risk that the existence of a protected area will be blamed in case of economic collapse. Part of the local population do not see the benefit of the protected area, the local economy does not link to tourism development and employment raise. Poor cooperation between Ukrainian, Polish and Slovakian sides of the Biosphere Reserve does not contribute to biodiversity protection, cultural or economic development on the Ukrainian side of the Reserve. The current coronavirus situation complicates the communication among the stakeholders.