Belovezhskaya Pushcha: celebration is over, monotony continues
Inessa Zenina, specially for the website "Belovezhskaya Pushcha – 21 Century", February 18, 2010
The pompous celebration of the 600th anniversary of so called "wildlife conservancy" in Belovezhskaya Pushcha left its real history in the shadow while the site’s coming days are not optimistic at all.
There are no problems
Once being interviewed the general director of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" Nikolai Bambiza assured that there were no problems in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. At the same time all questions that appeared were under control of the state authority and even under special attention of the president. Meanwhile numerous attempts of the public to organize independent control over the fulfillment of the environmental legislation on the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" have negative reaction from the directorate of the national park.
Ecologists and public activists are alarmed about the practice of the large-scale and multifaceted exploitation of the natural complexes of Belovezhskaya Pushcha by its today's "assiduous managers". Large-scale tree felling, trophy hunting, organization and reconstruction of water reservoirs, development of road network, ecologically groundless construction of tourist objects… All those actions are reasonably worrying.
But there are bark beetles
General Director of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" called the necessity of fighting against the destructive insects as one of the reasons for tree felling in the reserved forest. According to him, tree felling is the only method of forest saving from the bark beetle. Interesting fact is that the outburst of propagation of spruce bark beetles, started in 2001 in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, still has "not been stopped" by now. It leaves stubs of the cut but "saved" trees and … constantly supplies a big sawmill of the National Park with raw wood materials. We can only guess by what reasons the director of the National Park, recently received the title of honoured forester, was conformed making such claims. Perhaps, it is the lack of knowledge of the international practice and modern methods of fighting against wood pests. Or maybe it is a willful ignoring of the real situation and convenient excuse for validation of "legality" of tree felling at the specially protected nature territory for the purpose of gaining profit.
The situation with explanation and usage of tree feeling is complicated by the lack of the possibility for free exchange of opinions among specialists. Decisions of the Scientific Council existing under the general director of the National Park are recommendatory. The practice used for forestry handling in order of profit earning has always used "scientific" validation and recommendations of confidant scientists.
A Management Plan
Existence of the Management Plan for Belovezhskaya Pushcha for the next 10 years has been one of the basic and most crucial conditions for granting the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" with a European Diploma. Soon this question will be raised and considered in the Commission of the Council of Europe.
Management Plan for managing Belovezhskaya Pushcha for 10 years was developed with direct participation of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus. This document aroused great interest of the ecologic community. However, the directorate of the National Park prevented public from full participation in the development and discussion of the plan. Only thanks to persistence of nature defenders the document (the Plan) became accessible for familiarization although for a very short time which was possible to fight off from bureaucrats. Thanks to this it was possible to bring in some comments and suggestions.
Existence of the Plan is not an end in itself. However good the Plan could be, the most important is how it will be implemented in practice.
Prepared by the demand of the Council of Europe the Management Plan for managing Belovezhskaya Pushcha for 10 years is not the first such document in the history of the National Park. More than 10 years ago, as a result of the international project, there was developed a plan for management and preservation of the biological diversity of the Belarusian part of the Bialowieza Primeval Forest. Big hopes were pinned on it. It was highly discussed in press. It was discussed in scientific circles. Some time passed and the plan was …forgotten. Many of the points/issues still are not fulfilled. Ecological problems reflected in the plan still are unsolved. For example, nowadays, as well as 13 years ago, specialists keep stating that "Pushcha is overpopulated with wild ungulates which are destroying under-story of young regeneration". In the Management Plan developed in 1996 certain measures for step-by-step reduction of the population of wild ungulates till an optimal size were supposed to be implemented. These suggestions stayed unrealized in the practice as well as many other. The current Management Plan can face the same destiny: it can stay only on the paper.
It feels like the current managers of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" do not need such plans. They go by business principle: "demand generates supply". If there is demand for hunting tourism – open-air enclosures for game animals are built. When demand for timber emerged – the "fight" against bark beetle started. Under the fashion for tourism new hotels, restaurants and entertaining residencies are opened. There is a danger that the administration of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" will be fulfilling only those points of the Plan which are meeting interests of the rational nature management. The points aimed to diminish the man-made anthropologic pressure on the protected landscapes might stay unrealized and unfulfilled due to glib excuses.
Plans from the Presidential Administrative Department
General Director of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" offered his plan of the rational usage of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. He proposed it in a form of candidate dissertation for a judgment of the scientific community. Ukrainian nature conservators were among first who evaluated/gave their opinion on it. They displaced this scientific work on a board of shame in the internet. In his candidate dissertation general director proposes to increase more then twice the income from the woodworking, forest harvesting operations and tourism in Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
The other official from the Presidential Department of Affairs, who is controlling the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha", informed press about plans on agricultural exploitation of "neglected" lands around the National Park, meaning the buffer zone of the National Park, which is supposed to minimize the anthropologic pressure /influence on Pushcha from outside.
The head of the state in his turn set a mission to "squeeze" Belovezhskaya Pushcha into a circle of tourist objects which gave a possibility to use the lands by new managers.
From the very beginning of controlling Belarusian national parks by the Presidential Department of Affairs it is noticed the increasing economic activities within their areas. Tourist infrastructure is developing, as well as forestry-based and other activities connected to at the first place with receiving profit, which is persistently called "rational nature management". But every management, rational or not, from the point of view of a person, is hostile to the true/actual nature protection. Nature management destroys the nature, deforming it and demolishing.
The Presidential Department of Affairs is the body with the aims and tasks which are far from nature protection. It is time now to think about practicability of subordination of national parks, organizations aimed for protection by its nature and by Belarusian law "On specially protected nature territories", to the Presidential Department of Affairs.
So what did we actually celebrate?
Pompous celebration of the 600th anniversary of so-called "wildlife conservancy" in Belovezhskaya Pushcha left unseen/hidden the other date of its history. In 1939, 70 years ago, Belovezhskaya Pushcha was granted a status of national reserve. But it could not hold it for long. In 1957 there was restarted the large-scale economic activity in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The State Reserve "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" as well as some other reserves (Krymskiy, Azovo-Sivashskiy) which existed at Soviet Union times, was reorganized into protected hunting game grounds. The let-alone principle into the reserved nature was discarded as an ideologically hostile to the soviet people. Belovezhskaya Pushcha turned again to be a sort of special forest enterprise. And it cannot get rid of this "status" till now.
In the end of 1980s there was a chance to return the status of reserve to Belovezhskaya Pushcha. However, supporters of strict reservation could not use this chance fully. At that time the protected hunting game ground was transformed into a national park. One of the arguments against reservation was that "Belovezhskaya Pushcha had been always exploited. Its ecosystem had been disturbed and it would not be able to survive without human support". (newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" on 26th of July 1989).
Existence of the lawful ground for intervention into the natural way of natural processes in specially protected natural territories, stated by the law, will always pose a threat for wildlife. Natural territories become a hostage of the political system. One can always find officials eager to "rationally" use/manage the reserved nature.
The idea of the absolute conservancy still is an asset of few scientists and activists for ecological movement.
Classic of the nature protection F. Shtilmark in one of his works called the absolute conservancy as the last stronghold of the real nature protection. He expressed the hope that "the idea of strict conservancy would be reborn, would be recognized as a science, would get public recognition and would be implemented into the practice of domestic reserves".
We can only hope that the wildlife will not be dispersed before such time comes.
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