FLORA
& FAUNA OF THE BELOVEZHSKAYA PUSHCHA PRIMEVAL FOREST IN BELARUS
Situated
on the watershed of the Baltic and the Black Seas, this immense forest range, consisting of evergreens and broad-leaved trees, 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.
Together
with the adjoining Bialowieza forest in Poland,
Belovezhskaya Pushcha is the last remaining stand of the old lowland primeval European
forests. The average age of the the whole of the forest is more than a 100 years;
some stands are 250-350 years old. More than 1,000 giant trees are still standing.
The plant
kingdom of this unique territory numbers more than 2 thousands of species, the animal world more than 11,000 of species. Living
creatures, which have disappeared in the rest of Europe, are still found here.
According to incomplete data 65 species of higher plants, 4 species of mosses,
16 lichens, 7 fungi, 11 mammals, 52 birds, 2 reptiles, 1 amphibian, 8 species
of fish, and 38 insects are included in the Belarus Red List.
As in the Polish part of the national park around 170 bird species breed 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. The
woodpeckers include Black Dryocopus martius, Grey-headed Picus canus, White-backed Dendrocopos leucotos, Middle Spotted Dendrocopos medius, Three-toed Picoides tridactylus, and possibly
also Syrian Woodpecker Dendrocopos syriacus.
Greater Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga has been recorded and may breed, Lesser Spotted Eagle Aquila pomarina certainly does as well as Booted Hieraaetus pennatus and White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla. Other
raptors include Red Milvus milvus and Black Kite Milvus migrans, and three harriers, Marsh Circus aeruginosus, Hen Circus cyaneus and Montagu's Harrier Circus
pygargus; as also Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus and Hobby Falco subbuteo. Also breeding are Black Ciconia nigra and White
Storks Ciconia ciconia, Hazel Grouse Bonasa bonasia, Black
Grouse Tetrao tetrix and the Capercaillie Tetrao
urogallus which may now be extinct in the Polish sector of the forest. The more open and wetter areas have breeding Corncrake
Crex crex, Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa
and Great Snipe Gallinago media. Passerines are varied with Nutcracker Nucifraga caryocatactes, Collared Flycatcher Ficedula albicollis and
Red-breasted Flycatchers Ficedula parva, and River Warbler Locustella fluviatilis and Barred Warbler Sylvia nisoria amongst about eighteen breeding warblers.
Mammals include Wild Boar Sus scrofa, Red Deer Cervus elaphus, European Elk Alces alces and Eurasian Beaver Castor fiber with carnivores such as
Beech Martes foina and Pine Martens Martes
martes, Otter Lutra lutra, the introduced Raccon Dog Nyctereutes procyonoides and the rarely seen Lynx Felis lynx and Grey Wolf Canis lupus
The Belovezhskaya Pushcha has been protected since
the end of the 14th Century. In 1992 it was included by UNESCO in the List of the World Heritage Sites. In 1993
the status of biosphere reserve is given to the national park, and in 1997 it was awarded with the Diploma of the European
Council.
CONSERVATION OR EXPLOITATION?
The Belovezhskaya Pushcha has been protected since
the end of the 14th Century. In 1992 it was included by UNESCO in the List of the World Heritage Sites. In 1993
the status of biosphere reserve is given to the national park, and in 1997 it was awarded with the Diploma of the European
Council.
In 1994 the responsibility for the Belovezhskaya Pushcha was passed to the administrative
department of the President of Belarus. The new managers had no association with either nature reserves, or conservation.
Forest for them - even previously
sacrosanct the Belovezhskaya Pushcha - meant principally its economic value. The national park became heavily commercialised.
The new managers tried to make profits in various ways: cattle breeding, expansion of agricultural land, an increase in the
number of commercial hunters; and have organized gathering of birch sap, mushrooms, berries, and medicinal herbs on an the
industrial scale. But the decisive stage in the destruction of the National Park was the construction of a large timber processing
workshop in the centre of the reserve at Kamenuki village in 1998. Its processing capability considerably exceeded the calculated
timber resource base of the Pushcha. A highly productive power-saw bench was bought from Germany. The total cost of the
new sawmill complex was more than $1,5 million.
The Belovezhskaya Pushcha forest had retained its
primeval structure thanks to the efforts and dedication of many generations of Pushcha inhabitants and employees of the reserve.
Ancient forest ecosystems determine the character and value of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Retention of the forest
in its old-growth condition is possible only by limiting logging volume and observing the tenets of the science of wildlife
conservation. Until recently the unwritten principle prevailed here: "Dont cut a living tree!" Even if a tree has a single
living branch it was spared as such trees are the habitat of many rare and unique species of living organisms. The dead giant
trees were left standing in order to preserve the distinctiveness of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha primeval forest. That
is now all a thing of the past.
The sawmill is in its full operation. The new management
expands its wide scale activities within the primeval forest and masks these operations by claims of solving environmental
problems (bark beetle pests etc.,). of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. This increased economic activity doesn't solve these problems
- it aggravates them. In the second half of 2002 alone more than 100 000 cubic metres of valuable trees were cut down. Some
300 hectares of forest!
The natural young generation of Pushcha forest is cruelly
destroyed by intensive logging and skidding of wood. Man-made plantings, including the introduction of foreign species are
changing the character of the forest.
The World Heritage Fund in a recent report states:
Other potential threats exist due to agricultural intensification
and the prevailing economic situation. The greatest hazard though comes from run-off generated by 40 tons of pesticide and
over 30,000 tons of fertiliser used annually by large state farms within, or close to the buffer zone. There are also an estimated
60,000 free-ranging cattle within the Pushcha, 1200 of which are permitted to graze over 11,000ha of forest within the reserve.
Other provisions made for farming within the buffer zone include 1500ha of hay meadows for intensive cultivation, in addition
to 240ha of arable land and 750ha of hay meadows for cultivation by park employees. Further disturbance to the hydrological
balance has also been caused by land reclamation projects which have been underway since the 1960s, with over 90km of canals
so far constructed within the reserve. These canals threatens one of the most economically important species in the forest,
the Norway spruce, which is extremely sensitive to changes in the ground water table (Anon, 1991).
Increased economic pressures, such as soaring inflation
and lack of funding create pressures by necessitating industrial intensification. The sawmill located within the reserve,
which has been used for utilizing dead and broken trees, will have to be monitored by strict regulations defining volume and
form of timber harvested.
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