The analytical discussion
The system of wilderness protection of Belarus needs to be radically reformed
Heorhi Kazulka, Ecological bulletin "Green Space", No 1, 2007, p. 6 - 11.
Situations regarding different especially protected natural territories (ENPTs) of Belarus (in this paper national parks and reserves will only be under discussion) vary and depend on many factors, namely on status and specificity of an EPNT, traditions, staff. In general, the situation is quite complicated. In some cases, I might say, it shows deadlock.
Judge yourself. According to the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On Especially Protected Territories and Objects", the main task for an EPNT is to provide natural conditions for preservation of natural ecosystems and objects which are located within the territory of a reserve and to preserve in natural conditions model and unique natural ecosystems and objects which are located on the territory of a national park, as well as to conserve biological and landscape diversity. Other sorts of activities (tourism, science, ecological education, economy management) which are also under permission by the Law should promote implementation of the main task or, as a minimum, do not contradict it.
However, the real situation is opposite. If the situation in the Berezinski Biosphere Reserve is rather optimal (it means as applied to Belarusian standards, not to ones of the West Europe and the North America), national parks demonstrate a catastrophe. Let's see latest maps and zoning schemes of national parks (for example, of Belovezhskaya Pushcha). The most of their surface is economic use zones where timber logging, agriculture, hunting, trade and other sorts of economy and industry management are, I would say, in a great progress. These activities are as very numerous and intense to take time and energy as other kinds of management dealing purely with nature protection have deeply come to the background. The managing staff of EPNTs is accordingly selected from economic planners who are often absolutely incompetent because they had nothing to do with wilderness conservation, nature protection and science before taking a job in EPNTs. So, our basic troubles grow from this.
Between 1999 and 2001 I had an opportunity to work as a deputy director on science of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" and, let's say, personally has tested all "beauties" of the modern Belarusian management in the field of wilderness protection. For example, within three years during weekly planning meetings which are usually held in a general director's office on Monday and which assemble top-managing staff from all departments of the National Park, issues concerning science and biodiversity conservation were never, I repeat, never (!) topics for discussion. Issues of how economic plans to extract timber, to process wood, to make trade, to harvest raw materials and to do other industrial activities were only under discussed. Everything else what in either event relates to nature protection and tourism was under consideration only if the context of "how much money this earns and how to make profit more beneficial".
If to look at inside of what is now going on ENPTs, not at outward attributes like records and finely made signboards hanging on buildings of national parks, as a matter of fact, our national parks are actually not national parks in the true, classical sense of this words. There are no such the words to call them exactly neither in the Russian nor in the Belarusian languages. If you like, this is some sort of industry-agriculture-trade-tourism-economic complex, which in addition to above activities is also engaged in nature protection, biodiversity conservation, science and eco-education. Naturally, the quality of the lasts, as a rule, does not stand up to any constructive criticism.
Accordingly, Belarusian national parks are not nature protection institutions. All of these are fiction in beautiful package, advertising, a signboard to distract a attention from real dramatic situation and to mislead the national and international public society. They are actually nature-killing institutions which, though slowly, annihilate their unique natural ecosystems, instead of preserving them. Moreover, the speed and power of destruction constantly increase.
That to put facts, it is enough to see basic information of the website "Belovezhskaya Pushcha - 21 Century" which expose illegal and criminal activities of the administration of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" (http://bp21.org.by/ - the website is devoted to problems of preservation and defense of Belovezhskaya Pushcha) towards the unique relic old-aged forest. That what was done by the administration of the National Park and by the Property Management Department of the President (PMDP) of the Republic of Belarus for the last fife years, or more exactly by a team headed by Galina Zhuravkova and Nikolai Bambiza, can be called only as vandalism towards the Belarusian natural sanctity. I repeat, what they have done is vandalism. And if the first mentioned above person (madam) who took a post of Manager of the PMDP was after all arrested because of her criminal activity and then was sentenced to 4 years in prison (the truth is that Madam Zhuravkova was not delivered to the prison while then she was pardoned by a secret presidential decree). As to the second organizer of this activity, Nikolai Bambiza, he is still active holding a post of general director of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" and continues his work, as before, on "preservation" and "enriching" natural resources of Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
For example, many actions which brought a serious damage to the wild reserved nature of Belovezhskaya Pushcha and discredited the nature protection image of the country were already conducted for the last seven years. These are an attempt to apply sanitary clear cuttings, illegal secret felling of living forest of the best quality, conducting hydro-technical works, building of the Residence of Grandfather Frost avoiding permission of appropriate state bodies, building of the big fenced game enclosure for hunting within the protected territory, lowering of the protected status of areas on which illegal economic activities were conducted etc (http://bp21.org.by/en/ff/).
If to look at all these ugliness and lawlessness which were taken place and are taking place in the area of Belovezhskaya Pushcha (it concerns not only to nature destruction but also to infringements of the civil rights and the work legislation) and if to compare all these things with those in the areas of timber enterprises (I have such the opportunity since one of my today's jobs as a FSC-auditir from the Danish company "NEPCon" is to audit Belarusian forest enterprises in the framework of the national FSC-certification program), I can take full responsibility to say that the Belarusian Constitution and the Belarusian Law are not valid to a full extant on the territory of Belovezhskaya Pushcha . The management and businesses are often not follow the law there, being done according to own concepts. It means that, instead of taking the principle of "allowed and authorized", "we are doing because we want" is applied. And as regards of ecologically-correct conducting the forest management, the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" represents one of the worst examples being second in this term after many timber enterprises, although it should be a model and an example for them.
Today the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" is an institution which is not less secret and restricted if compared with any military strategic object. Independent reporters, ecologists and "greens" are the most "dangerous" and, because of this, the most unwanted visitors to enter its territory. There are a lot of cases to detain, to penalize and to evict them not only from tourist routes but also from the Economic Use Zone. There are also judicial precedents. For example, a few years ago I won two legal proceedings in connection with a case when I, a local, was illegally detained on a tourist route (read in "Belarusian part of Belovezhskaya Pushcha turns from the National Park to a criminal zone!?").
Moreover, access for KGB and state control bodies is even restricted to enter the Park's territory. It's impossible if there is no a special sanction from the PMDP. There was a case in 2000. For the weekend a Chairman of the Brest Regional Executive Committee visited the place of Viskuli, a governmental residence located in the depth of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, as a part of the Pushcha belongs to the Brest region. On Monday the director of the Park has got a reprimand by the top-office because he allowed the Chairman's entrance without a sanction from the PMDP! Imagine! The Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee could not visit the territory of the governing by him region without a special sanction! That's the final!
For this reason lawlessness and ugliness has "blossomed" at the heights of their power in the area of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. For this reason a so-called caste of "untouched" presidential officials has been generated as they are not under scope of the Constitution and the Law to a full extant and their life, therefore, does not go in accordance with the concepts, not with the law. How Mr. Andrew Zakharenka has fairly written in the forum of the site "Belovezhskaya Pushcha - 21 Century", I quote, "In the National Park that means its priori work under full control of the society of the country, the conditions for uncontrolled and involuntary management were created, actually doing this without a long-term plan of the management accessible for the public, both economic and nature protection ones. This naturally has caused abusing."
Alas, the situation in other Belarusian national parks is not much better than in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The obvious fact is that in those parks there are either no people who are patriots of their land and can skillfully cover problems, or their activity is poor and insufficient. And, therefore, the public does not know about these problems. Only one example. The zoning scheme in the Pripyatskiy National Park has drown up in such a manner that the most of unique flooded oak forests are outside of the Wilderness Protection Zone, so their cutting down is therefore actively conducted there. As a result, we are losing invaluable natural ecosystems.
How to change the situation? First of all, we need to get publicity and democracy in Belarus. The dramatic situation which covers Belovezhskaya Pushcha and others Belarusian national parks has basically, but not only, a political ground. There cannot radically be escaped from this situation by separate sending of separate directors to prison, as it happened in the National Park "Braslav Lakes" and in the Berezinski Biosphere Reserve.
The Belarusian system of the EPNTs needs to be radically reformed. It is necessary to remove reserves and national parks from the PMDP which subordinates all of them because this body, as a matter of fact, has nothing to do with wilderness and nature protection. The main functions of the PMDP are economic ones, in particular, to service machinery of the President, Parliament and other governmental bodies. Let the PMDP be engaged in it. It is obvious that if an outstanding composer to give him a good working enterprise to manage it, tomorrow workers of this enterprise will go in the street to ask alms. Here is the same situation. Everyone should be engaged in his business.
However, to make EPNTs’ subordination over the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Protection also will be rather wrong, although better than today since the Ministry provides functions of control, not administrative ones. A body specially authorized to manage the EPNTs and directly subordinated to a head of the Government should be created. For example, a State Committee on Especially Protected Natural Territories and Wilderness Protection Management can represent these functions as it is already going on in USA, Australia and some other countries for a long time. From this wilderness protection and national parks prosper in these countries. Otherwise whatever we will do, nothing of good will be reached. As the saying goes it’s impossible to breed a snake and a hedgehog.
However, everything what was written above is only one side of medal. There is also another one, either not less dramatic. This is indifferent attitude of the majority of Belarusian population to natural values and sanctities. If to tell "the Mountain Fudgyama" to a Japanese, apart from an image of the mountain, a second spirit image of the native Land, Japan, will be simultaneously appear in his consciousness. And if today to tell "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" to Belarusians, many of them will answer "Aha, that's from where a Grandfather Frost lives". This means that within last years the substitution of concepts happened, not only disappearing association with a sanctity and a symbol of the native Land. An image of the great ancient fantastic Bialowieza Forest was replaced by the cheap show called "the Belarusian Grandfather Frost". And if people are indifferent they will never protect and save it. So, we, ecologists and activists for nature protection, get a large field of work because of this.
A role of NGOs to preservation national natural sanctities is big in all advanced societies. In our country the role of NGOs is scanty. This is not only because of the civil society in Belarus is not advanced and is under permanent suppression. Even those NGOs and their members who are active are still far from being perfect. Some time ago I have described in the article "Green bazaar, Or why Belarusian ecologists did not support an action to protect Belovezhskaya Pushcha" quite detailed reasons of why Belarusian NGOs are weak. And I will not repeat. I say only that we, Belarusian ecologists, are rather unlucky. There is a catastrophic deficit of outstanding, talented persons. There are no leaders with large-scale mind and deep spirit with whom together would be possible to reach great achievements. This is also important for education of young generation of ecologists because they simply have no models to learn examples. So, we have no choice but to search for potentially perspective people among the youth, to grow and to train them with hope that they become such kinds of persons and leaders in the future. By the way, my new Internet-project "How to save the planet Earth, civilization and himself" which will start in the Life Journal this autumn will basically be devoted to this issues. I hope for support, first of all, from young people.
And the last. We can beautifully tell of reasons and can offer clever decisions, but we will fail if we will not lead up business to the logic end, that means to apply it in practice. There are enough examples of this. And this is one more serious reason of our failures we get.
As to problems of the EPNTs, the most of them are just connected to infringement or non-fulfillment of legislation's requirements by authorities. Many our offers and activities are held up for legal deadlock. However, for today no one of Belarusian NGOs, their leaders or lawyers are not seriously engaged in legal problems of the EPNTs. This is a big gap. I consider, therefore, that a decision on creation of the Ecological Commission at the Belarusian Helsinki Committee which was offered me to lead very topical. Control for fulfillment of the nature protection legislation, access to ecological information for the population, the public participation in the decision-making process and access to justice concerning the environment in the frameworks of the Aarhus Convention ratified by the Republic of Belarus is seen as major directions of the activity of the Commision. We have very much work in this field. It is necessary to teach the law to Belarusian officials working in EPNTs, including trough the legal form. There is no need to hide the fact that some of them are simply illiterate. They have no basic legal culture and are not able to cooperate with the public. They need simply to be learned like pupils making unsatisfactory progress in a school.
We have also to inform the population, ordinary people, on understanding that nobody will fulfill the ecological right if there is no need of it. If people are indifferent to what quality of water they drink, to what kind of air they breathe and to what nature around they live, any official will not care of them. The right will only be fulfilled when people need of it, when they will struggle for it. Thus, it is necessary to teach and to bring up to legal and business culture all the people. Our realities are, unfortunately, such as these.
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