At the end of August, the Zolochiv community in the Lviv Oblast opened the Zolochiv Health Trails featuring 30 kilometers of marked paths within the Northern Podillya National Nature Park. Here, residents and guests can engage in sports, take care of their health, explore the area, and enjoy nature. This location has the potential of becoming a tourist attraction and a driver of economic development for the community.

During the trail's opening, the community hosted its largest running event — a memorial race for fallen soldiers that attracted over 600 runners and spectators.

This idea came to Zolochiv resident Marian Kovalskyi during one of his regular runs. Marian, who has been involved in sports for 15 years, often ran in his favorite park.

“This is a unique place! You walk through a pine forest, then a bit further — deciduous and mixed woods, and as you climb higher, there’s a breathtaking panoramic view. The sand underfoot is perfect for running because it adds resistance on sunny days and never turns muddy when it rains. I studied these trails and found new ways home each time, but I noticed others always stuck to one short route. So, I thought, why not mark the trails?”

While working at the city council, Marian learned about the possibility of implementing this idea as Zolochiv participates in the Community Engines project from the USAID HOVERLA Activity, implemented by the M.CLASS Transformation Agency. Within the project, officials from 30 local governments are gaining knowledge and exploring tools for inclusive economic development of communities, particularly in tourism.

“We realized this was a unique project because Ukraine has few tourist trails focused on health. Similar paths exist in some cities but are usually paved. Here, the concept is set entirely in nature,” says Serhiy Pidmogilny, a tourism expert at M.CLASS.

Over six months, Marian and his city council colleagues, along with experts, explored every section of the park, selecting the best routes, mapping them, and marking the area. They installed about a thousand hand-painted trail markers, over a hundred additional signs, and information boards describing the paths, ensuring that visitors could choose the optimal route and not get lost. Thanks to these markers, visitors can combine countless routes.

“We tried to design trails of different lengths and difficulty levels, both for experienced runners and beginners. For families walking together, we made sure paths pass through places where they could, for instance, have a picnic,” says Marian Kovalskyi.

“I tested this route for the first time and am glad such a project was realized. Our community has many runners who train in the city—which is great—but there are cars and traffic. Here, the trail is beautiful, with fresh air and birds singing. It's wonderful that such a location is so close to Zolochiv, and there's no need to travel far to expensive resorts,” says Oksana Borukh, director of Zolochiv's Sport for All Physical Health Center.

To attract more attention to the trails, the Zolochiv community decided to organize a nationwide running event. As a veteran of the war since 2014, Marian Kovalskyi dedicated this race to the Day of Remembrance of Ukraine's fallen defenders. A photo exhibition featuring 63 portraits of Zolochiv heroes who gave their lives in the war with Russia was displayed at the event. A total of 237 participants registered for the memorial race, each wearing a shirt with the names of the heroes they honored by completing the distance.

In the future, the Zolochiv Health Trails plans to offer skiing, yoga, Nordic walking, nature therapy, camping areas, and observation platforms. Partnerships have already been established with local hotels, which agreed to host information stands about the location. The community also hopes the trails will encourage local businesses to create nearby cafes, eco-farms, and craft products, contributing to the community’s economic development.

Zolochiv Mayor Ihor Hrynkiv sums it up:

“Projects like this will draw people here. This year, we’ve already planned a national shooting competition on the Zolochiv Health Trails, expecting around a thousand participants from across the country. It will open our community. In terms of resources, we are one of the strongest communities in Ukraine. We have beautiful castles, nature reserves, and now, scenic walking trails with marked routes. We can be a base for tourism development—people just need to discover us. And we are grateful to the USAID HOVERLA Activity for effectively supporting our community on this path.”

As part of the Communities’ Engines project supported by the USAID HOVERLA Activity, in addition to tourist trails, some communities will also develop virtual 3D tours, revitalize public spaces with inclusivity in mind, Braille product catalogs for local producers, and videos about local businesses to help strengthen their tourism potential.

The USAID HOVERLA Activity supports the Ministry of Restoration’s efforts in strengthening the capacity and self-sufficiency of Ukrainian communities.