THE «PLAGUE-STRICKEN» DROWSY STATE

The Initiative Group «Belarussian Green Association»,
Published in «Svaboda» (Liberty) Newspaper,
July 23, 2001

The clear sanitary cuttings, covering a total area of 50 hectares, have been initiated in seven quarters of the National Park «Belovezhskaya Pushcha».

That is the result of the long-term «assiduous» work of the Property Management Department of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Belarus fulfilled on the protected territories.

Higher-ups have completely ignored the professional discipline, the ecological approaches, and not to mention, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection which authorized cuttings in the protected quarters. The signature on the act coordinating cuttings belongs to deputy Minister Vasily Podolyako who, to say the least, was not even present in the forest.

The decision regarding clear sanitary cuttings was taken privately, on grounds of the so-called «Certificate of spruce forests inspection», avoiding the Scientific and Technical Council of the park and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Unfortunately, among persons signing the mentioned certificate there were also scientists: Ya. Marchenko (from the «Belarus Forest Protection» institution, within the Forest Ministry), A.Blincov (Belarusian State Technological University), A.Luchkov and A. Maximovich (Property Management Department of the President).

The industrial and economic pressure on so-called «specially protected» territory is most likely connected to a heavy debt, which the national park has run into. In 1999, as the unforgettable curator of the reserved areas of Belarus, Ivan Titenkov became Manager of the Presidential Affairs, a second-hand high-efficiency sawmill was purchased from a German businessman. It was projected to process the living wood, and was actually an additional stimulation to vandalization of the Pushcha. However, the most serious problems are the debts. The adventurous purchase requires huge monthly payments, while the large sum of money was taken on credit and ostensibly «under guarantee of the president».

Three months ago there was a change of management: Evgeny Smoktunovich, the cultivated and circumspect professional, forester by descendance was replaced by Nickolai Bambiza, notorious for bringing industrial and economic development to other specially protected lands — those of «Pripyatski» National Park. For many years he has been general manager there and then head of the Belarussian Fish Inspectorate Department, whence he was «extracted» three months ago, by the current manager G.Zhuravkova.

The intense clear cuttings business poses a danger of both enormous losses of biodiversity in the best preserved corner of the green Atlanta, and of great moral costs. It is impossible to forget that 90 percent of the forests of Belovezhskaya Pushcha have primary character. They have grown naturally and free of human intervention. But the present potentates of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha try shamelessly to forget that they are in control of the most representative resources of the country, the Biosphere Reserve included in the List of World Heritage Sites of Mankind. They forget because they are casual managers, and think they should be quick to take, while chaos and mayhem are in the country, and before future changes come. Their mentality is created by living in a criminality plagued drowsy state.