Does "Syndrome of Belovezhskaya Pushcha" affect especially protected natural areas?
Ales Pchelka, "World of Animals" (Gomel), No 1, January 2006
Physicians have an interesting term called "syndrome". This concept means the presence of steady combinations of certain pathological symptoms. Turning from medicine to ecology, it is possible to say that Belovezhskaya Pushcha also precisely features a package of steady "pathological" phenomena - few research staff, bad-managed tourism with a low level of ecological education, urban-like "improvement" of landscape, and changing natural balance. Pushcha is the place where the "illness" with the specified above symptoms has particularly clear diagnosis. I offer to call all listed above set of "unhealthy" conditions on especially protected natural areas (EPNA), therefore, as the medical term "Syndrome of Belovezhskaya Pushcha"...
This "syndrome" also affects stronger and stronger other especially protected natural areas of the country, in particular the National Park "Pripyatski". I will put the concrete facts to confirm my words by means of an example of winter vacation's tourist trip of the guys from one of the Gomel schools.
By departing from Gomel to Turov, an accompanied guide informed in a bus that the tourists go to the Pripyatski... Reserve(!). Yes, the Reserve which does not exist over ten years... There is theoretically nothing surprising by saying this. Ecological illiteracy of the guides is a common phenomenon. Besides of this, combination of words "the Pripyatski Reserve" is used often in newspapers (including even TV) which advertise tours around local sights. "Reserve" sounds much more attractively for the tourists. It means that it is more profitable for travel companies...
The excursion in a museum of the National Park lasted 15-20 minutes. The guides frankly avoided questions of the visitors, especially of the adults. Apparently, they consider some visitors as the people whom are not necessary to be much aware, as a kind of "spy". Maybe is this the reaction to a trip of the readers of our newspaper to Belovezhskaya Pushcha?
Nevertheless, the guides could "flash" by knowledge, moreover to do it in the "bright" and "remembering" form. For example, the visitors of the museum were informed about living 49 (!) Lynxes within the territory of the Park, although I accounted no more than dozens, according to scientific sources…
It seems to be distributing an idea of erroneous case of entering of this species into the Red Data Book. It means when the lynx will cease to be a Red Data "property", hunting can be started at once that will attract new tourists - hunters and, certainly, foreign currency...
How did these "49" Lynxes appear? Why not 25 or 30? The fact is known that all scientific staff of the "Pripyatski" Park can be counted on the fingers on one hand... The experts on mammals are absent at all. Foresters and hunters, therefore, conduct "monitoring" and obtain "exact" data on registration of traces of Lynxes or cases of its "often" founding. It is clear that everyone follow own purposes by this... It is necessary to note that only nearly three tens Lynxes live in the Berezinsky Reserve. It is clear that the fantastic number "49" should show that the life of Lynxes became "better" after downturn of the status of "Pripyatski" from Reserve to National Park... Certainly, it is "better" because the museum of nature abounds in staffed animals of many "Red Data" species like Eagle Owl, Brown Bear, Lynx... All this should optically and subconsciously influence to the visitors that, compared with the "Pripyatski", the life of animal is better only in paradise...
A "remarkable", "very informative and colourful!" booklet at the price of 3,500 Rubles is sold for the visitors in the museum. It is called "The National Park "Pripyatski". One can read on the page 10 of this edition "51 species of animals and 37 species of fishes live in the area of the Park". It is necessary to specify that, according to the data by Inna Zenina (1999), the mammal fauna of the National Park consists of 66 species. According to the data by D. Kunitskiy & R. Rizevskiy (2002), the modern species composition of fishes in reservoirs of the Pripyat River's basin comprises 51 species. We see the essential difference. These things are explained rather simply - scientific backwardness of the National Park progressing year by year. The only eloquent fact is 1 (one!) scientific report on a bison feeding was submitted from the National Park to the last IX Zoological conference (Minsk, 2004). This is the best conformation of the scientific level, or more precisely, of complete scientific degradation...
The National Park, as a matter of fact, becomes a tourist bureau. Even the mentioned above booklet (page 4) has the record "The area of the Park makes 188,485 ha... The Experimental Forest Game Ground "Lyaskovichi" covers the area of 102,644 ha in the northern part of the Park. Besides, 92,897 ha of hunting lands are under the Park's rent". The simple arithmetic calculation shows that 195,541 ha (102,644 + 92,897) of 281,382 ha (188,485 + 92,485) of the used territory, or 70 %, are under plan to provide hunting and tourism!
But the saddest is on the cover of the booklet - "The National Park "Pripyatski", 247946, Gomel region, Petrikov district, Lyaskovichi village". Since when is the administrative centre of the National Park located in the village of Lyaskovichi, instead of Turov? No one in Minsk accepted such the decision as this... Probably, is Lyaskovichi the centre of "Pripyatski", from the point of view of the local managers, because the hunters and experts on timber processing are gathered in the specified village?
This fact once again specifies the main patterns of development of "Pripyatski" – unrestrained tourism and scientific rickets...
Let's return to the schoolboys-tourists! The guys were carried very long over historical places of Kirilla Turovskiy, although this is absolutely another excursion! They were not allowed to enter the National Park… They get all the same 15-20 minutes to contact with the ALIVE nature by running over the museum…