Belovezhskaya Pushcha: a chance for its survival
The article by Yulia Dranchuk,
Radio «Racia»,
January 10, 2003
Lots of reactions came on the article written by Heorhi Kazulka, the former Deputy Director on science of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha. He published his article the 4th of January in the «People's Will» newspaper: «Belovezhskaya Pushcha: they go on logging it out, on and on and on…»". In this article he accused the administration of the National park to exploit the territory of the Pushcha for economic activities. These facts will be carefully checked, according to Mr. Yushkevich, the Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Forestry at the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.
A photo in this article shows logged trees lying on the ground, covered with snow. It is obvious: they were felled a long time ago. Logging in Pushcha is not illegal since the forest is heavily infected by pests. Some of these pests, like the bark beetle, are common in all European forests. To control this pest, experts recommend to cut the infected trees and healthy spruces around these trees. But this method is only effective if the infected felled trees are removed out of the forest immediately in combination with some other protection methods. The picture in the article showed clearly that the infected trees were not removed. This means that the bark beetle could spread out very efficient.
It is a shame, commented, Alexander Rachevski, Head of the Department of International Cooperation at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Protection. He underlined that the officials which are responsible for nature and environment protection cannot just deny these facts in the article.
But the officials don't pay attention to the real problem in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Both Mr Rachevski en Mr Yushkevich (the Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Forestry) declare that «the facts should be analyzed».
According to Mr. Rachevski, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Protection has given permission to make clear cuttings in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha in order to control the bark beetle problem. But then the public protested. A special commission was formed to solve the problem. This commission made recommendations to control the bark beetle. We don't know how well these recommendations are implemented: they were only recently elaborated in October. Now that the Minister has finished his holiday, some of the decisions and recommendations will be applied properly. The case is too serious to leave it without attention.
The best way to control the bark beetle, according to Swedish scientists, would be to consider cutting of infected trees plus 40 percent of the surrounding trees, so informed Mr Rachevski as response to accusation of leaders of the national park for extra cutting in the Pushcha.
But it is good to note that Belovezhskaya Pushcha is not a simple forest. It is a National Park included onto the List of World Natural Heritage Sites by the decision of UNESCO. According to Heorhi Kazulka the European tradition of forest protection is totally different. Tree cuttings to protect the forest are not the method to conserve biodiversity within special protected natural territories. The nature has to struggle itself to save the natural complex. But the administration of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha ignores this European knowledge.
Meanwhile, at the end of January 2004, the European Commission of the Department of Natural and Cultural Heritage is discussing the implementation of recommendations of European Diploma by European Parks and Reserves. Different European Parks, like Belovezhskaya Pushcha have got a Diploma of the European Communion, which means they have to be managed in a certain way. If the felling goes on, the Belarusian public offers to think about the status of Reserve and put it on another list: the Threatened World Natural Heritage Sites.