A log in your eye
The article by Elena Tribuleva,
Published in «Vecherniy Brest» (The Evening Brest) Newspaper, #8,
January 31, 2003
The forest is cut … What were journalists from Minsk shown in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha?
In the beginning of New Year 12 famous Belarusian and Russian journalists have addressed the Head of the UN representative office in Belarus Neil Bune with a proposal to organize a
Almost half of the journalists who have subscribed a letter to UN office have not obtained a permission to visit the Belovezhskaya Pushcha because they were not inscribed in an accreditation list. Neil Bune was also out of the tour. According to some information, he has left the office for a business trip for literally two days and did not know that a date had been planned for the press-tour. But right here this date was defined for a «journalistic landing». Maxim Vergeichik, the manager on ecological programs, represented the UN office. Adam Korchik from the Polish Forest Research Institute, the Director of the Belarusian Zoology Institute Michael Nikiforov, and Professor of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences Ivan Lishtvan who is more known as the talented ecologist and an expert on melioration than the forester, represented scientific disciplines.
The program of a press-tour was also reduced, instead of the proposed three days to one. Journalists visited two «addresses» in the Pushcha. They were strict protected quarters at the border with Poland and quarters which suffered from an abnormal hurricane a year ago. The «landing» has visited also the
Journalists from Brest did not get permission to participate in this event. We tried to take part in a press conference, but even a mouse was not able to slip through the «sieve» organized by the protection guard of the Reserve. «If you are not on the lists, you will not enter this building», a head of the protection guard declared. «Cordons» created near a Park's entrance barrier did not permit even local inhabitants to go the administrative building. The locals fist thought that the President Alexander Lukashenko had arrived himself. What else is a matter for such secrecy?
Nevertheless, we were lucky to receive some information.
It was not possible to hide a fact of clear cuttings in the Pushcha any more, however Director of the Reserve Nickolai Bambiza has presented it for the journalists as a rescue for the Pushcha. About a year and a half ago, soon after Mr. Bambiza was nominated to this post, the Pushcha has again become an object for the spruce bark beetle infestation. Such invasions happen periodically all over the world. They were in the Pushcha not once, and always, as local inhabitants say, the primeval forest was able to cope with invasion of the pest by itself. However, this time, as scientists dealing with forest have admitted, infection of spruce stands has got unprecedented scales. The administration of the Park decided that sanitary clear cuttings are the only possible method to stop beetles. Opponents of cuttings, which have proved to be numerous among scientists, said that to cut down spruce stands infected by beetles means the same as to cut a head, when migraine harasses. The majority of European countries prefer the other methods of a struggle with the pest which are more sparing for forest. Except for Poland, a representative of this country has confirmed that they cut trees at the earliest stage of beetle infection. Due to this they do not allow him to spread around.
However, cuttings of spruce stands conducted during a year in the Belarusian part of Pushcha could not stop an infestation of bark beetle. In the opinion of Pushcha's «members of opposition», forbidden to partake in a press conference as well, to a great extent an additional reason of this situation is the fact that felled down trees are not removed out from a forest in time, therefore the harmful beetle has time «to migrate» to a healthy tree.
However, opponents of clear cuttings are worried not less about the fact that completely healthy trees are cut as a simulation of the struggle with the beetle. All inhabitants of Kamenyuki village, knowing the Pushcha as their own five fingers, speak about it unanimously. The journalistic «landing» has not found live wood at a sawmill; there was only dead wood. But it would be surprising, if they could see it…
Many colleagues from Minsk have got a double impression of the press-tour. Some journalists have already released a topic in the urgent order about how the Pushcha is rescued and how all sorts of «political intriguers and demagogues» hinder to do it while «there should be no place for him here». Others have admitted that they merely regret about downtime because they have not heard anything new to themselves here. Yet others sincerely try to study the situation and to find a reasonable compromise between protection of the Pushcha and intensive economic activity on its territory. Maxim Vergeichik has admitted after a press conference to the editor of the newspaper «Belovezhskaya Pushcha» Valery Dranchuk (he was also not accredited) «Everything I saw in the Pushcha is very burdensome». However, he has refused further comments.
It is true there is nothing for comments. The Belovezhskaya Pushcha, lawfully or illegally, is cut …