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THE
NATURAL RICHES OF THE NATIONAL PARK
Situated on the watershed of the Baltic and the Black
Seas, this immense lowland primeval forest range is home
to some remarkable animal life, including rare mammals such as the wolf, the lynx and the otter, as well as some 300 European
Bison Bison bonasus, a species which has been reintroduced into the region.
As in the Polish part of the national park between 170 - 200 bird species breed here with owls
and woodpeckers among the specialities. The owl species present include Eagle Owl Bubo
bubo, Ural Owl Strix uralensis, Pygmy Owl Glaucidium
passerinum and Tengmalm's Owl Aegolius funereus and the rare Great Grey Owl
Strix nebulosa is present some years. Hawk Owl Surnia
ulula and Snowy Owl Nyctea scandiaca have also been recorded as vagrants. Read
more here...
.... AND THE THREAT TO ITS SURVIVAL
Although the forests have been under protection since the end of the 14th Century, and were designated
a World Heritage Site in 1992, increased
economic pressures in the former Soviet republic of Belarus , such as soaring inflation and lack of funding create pressures to intensify commercial
and economic activity. The sawmill located within the reserve, which was initially installed to handle dead and damaged trees,
is now increasingly being used to destroy the natural regeneration of the forest which is being irreversibly destroyed through intensive logging
and skidding of timber. Man-made plantations, including species foreign to the Pushcha, threaten the character of the
previously virgin forest.
The government and their
appointed managers have ignored the protests of local people and conservationists; and journalists attempting to throw light
on breaches of conservation laws and dubious practices by the forest management have been prevented from communication with
forest workers and local residents. More recently they have only been permitted to visit the reserve under escort! More
information here ...
WHAT YOU CAN DO!
The key figure in the decision-making process in Belarus is President Lukashenko. The management of the National
Park is directly responsible to his office.
Send a letter, telefax or email of protest to the President of Belarus,
Alexander G. Lukashenko and also to The Minister of Natural
Resources and Environment Protection Leontiy Khoruzhick.
A draft text, taken from one provided by Ukrainian conservationists, is
supplied below. The President can only be mailed via his website and the Environment Minister via the
link SEND DIRECT MAIL below. You can alternatively use the the addresses given here.
For those with time to compose their own texts see a short guide for Proact campaigners.
MAIL LINK TO PRESIDENT LUKASHENKO
SEND DIRECT MAIL
ACT NOW
FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE BELOVEZHSKAYA PUSHCHA
Dear President Lukashenko,
Dear Minister Khoruzhick
The natural resources of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park are the property of the
whole of the Belarusian nation, and further held in trust for the rest of mankind as a World Heritage site. The national park
is also an inseparable homogenous part of the adjoining Bialowieza National Park, forming a biosphere reserve in the hydrological divide between
the Baltic and Black Seas. The integrity of this last remaining European lowland primeval forest is of great importance to the biodiversity
of a region extending well beyond the borders of your country.
Since the management of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha was transferred to the
presidential administrative department, intensive commercial activities have been introduced which are incompatible with its
environmental status and which subjects the survival of the forest in its present
form to an unacceptable risk. These commercial activities also contravene your own legislation, the law on "Specially
Protected Natural Areas and Objects" and ignores all scientific tenets of wildlife
conservation.
We therefore urge you to introduce urgently the following
measures for the protection and long term sustainability of the natural resources of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park:
1. Stop the wide-scale logging of timber which is gradually
destroying the structure of the primeval forest.
2. Remove all responsibility for the promotion and
execution of large scale commercial activities from the remit of the present and future National Park management.
3. Ban all commercial hunting.
4. Limit commercial activities within the boundaries
of the National Park including its buffer and transition zones to those strictly compatible with environmental legislation
and existing scientific nature conservation guidelines.
5. Institute the long postponed drafting and implementation
of regulations for the National Park in conformity with national and international
environment protection legislation. This should be a public process permitting the involvement
all Belarusian citizens.
6. Transfer the responsibilities for the management
of the national Park to an independent the declassify the activity of the management
of the National Park to a new public supervisory body.
We hope that you will see fit to introduce and implement the above measures as soon as possible. It would be tragic if this unique European
natural resource, which has sustained its biodiversity as a result of 6 centuries of protection, is irrevocably destroyed in less than the course of
a single generation.
We remain,
yours sincerely,
[name and address]
© Proact 2003
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