Problems in Belovezhskaya Pushcha are still more than enough

By A. Raevskaya, website "Belarusian Green Portal", February 04, 2013

In early February, one year has passed since the signing of the Presidential Decree No 59, which provided for a significant expansion of the strictly protected area of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha". How has this event had an influence upon the situation in Belovezhskaya Pushcha? We asked PhD of Biology Heorhi Kazulka to tell about this as he was directly involved in the issues of the preservation of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha for many years.

The President has signed the Decree No 59 "On Some Issues of Specially Protected Natural Areas" a year ago. Among other things, it provided the expansion of the Wilderness Protection Zone of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha". In your opinion, what is the importance of it for specially protected natural areas today?

"I cannot tell about all protected natural areas because I do not know fully the real situation. As to Belovezhskaya Pushcha, it is not enough to say just about a big importance, because it is the historical event. Thanks to this, Belovezhskaya Pushcha has finally become de facto a strict wilderness reserve, as about two thirds of its territory is given the strictly protected status."

Heorhi Kazulka lives in Belovezhskaya Pushcha since 1985. In 2001 he was dismissed from the post of Deputy Director of Science of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" because of his position of the principle against the large-scale felling of the protected forest, which violated the environmental laws. Since 2002 to the present, he is the coordinator of the Public Project "Belovezhskaya Pushcha - 21st Century", which is fighting for the protection of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, in cooperation with international nature conservation organizations.

The fact of the enlargement of the strictly protected zone of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" became known in 2009, but the Decree was published only in 2012, exactly at a time when the negotiations on the prolongation of a European Diploma were held in Strasbourg. Is there some close relationship between these two events? Or is it a matter of chance?

Source

"Let's clarify. First plans to enlarge the strictly protected zone of the National Park became known in October 2007. That is two years earlier than stated in the question.

Yes, there is a definite connection. Since the European Diploma is a prestigious award, it gives an additional advertising and ratings not only for the National Park on a worldwide scale but also for the environmental policy of Belarus in general. It was then very important that the National Park could not get out of the infamous scandals related to the exposed anti-ecological management by its then-administration and to the suspension of the European Diploma. It was a matter of honor to obtain it back. The decision to extend the strictly protected zone became a sort of "coup trump card", when it comes to the card game analogy. That step simultaneously removed at one stroke the main problem and the main claim to the administration of the National Park and to the country's leadership.

It is important to consider one more great point. By that time it was found an alternative financial and economic solution for the National Park as a whole, which likely promises in the long term to offset the losses from the reduced wood logging within the Park. This is a priority development of tourism which started to bring a lot of money; and the construction of a bypass tourist road which gives impetus for the socio-economic development in the area, for attracting new investments and generating additional income. Without this alternative, I'm not sure whether the authority would be enough wise and willing to do Belovezhskaya Pushcha strictly protected. Only the aggregate of all these factors became the driving force that has radically changed the situation in the National Park."

What is currently the situation regarding the prolongation of the European Diploma, if you know?

"If to think strategically for the future, there is no good reason for today not to give back the Diploma for the National Park, especially after the adopted and implemented steps to serious environmental commandments to make the Belovezhskaya Pushcha primeval forest strictly protected. Therefore, the activists of "BP-21" contributed to the positive decision through their international channels."

What experiences of those that have occurred in the National Park in the past year are the most memorable for you and why?

"It is the question with subtle humor. Of course, the expansion of the strictly protected zone!"

In your opinion, what problems do currently exist in the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" and what is necessary to do that to ensure the preservation of natural ecosystems of the relict forest?

"The announcement of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Forest as strictly protected does not automatically solve all of its problems. Dramatic issues remain to be still more than enough. It is necessary:

a) Restore the hydrological situation and drained wetlands.

b) Reduce and bring to optimum the big numbers of wild ungulates.

c) Eliminate the hunting enclosure in the Pashukovskoe forestry area to stop degradation of the vast territory of the primeval forest.

d) Help out of the stymied local science from the "backward-village" to the modern level that meets international standards.

e) Raise the ecological education for tourists to an international level. The infrastructure for this purpose is available but the level of environmental awareness of the Park's employees and the quality of informational service does not meet the modern environmental challenges and requirements, sometimes it does not stand constructive criticism.

f) Significantly improve the environmental education and awareness of employees and managers of other divisions in the National Park. It is just felt ashamed when some senior managers of the National Park, not to mention ordinary workers, demonstrate their environmental literacy, including on the issues of the preservation of Belovezhskaya Pushcha.

g) Strictly implement the Management Plan and allow the changes in it only in case of force majeure. This is because this document is used today more to manipulate the situation and tasks than to guide and follow them.

Unfortunately, this list of problems does not end. The major ones are only marked here.

Finally, the thing described below is the most important and I am now making a special point to it. Belovezhskaya Pushcha is not only a unique natural ecosystem.

Belovezhskaya Pushcha is also a place of special spiritual power coming from the living Earth. Pushcha has a great spiritual potential. This is the holy and sacred place where people can feel something beyond of the visible world. There is a powerful source of spiritual energy here that feeds human hearts and human minds. Here, as nowhere else, the filling of a connection to different ages is present, and of the own place in the Grand Space and in the infinite Universe. Here it is possible to achieve a high spiritual state of consciousness, which is called enlightenment and happiness.

So it is time to transform the Bialowieza Forest through the human hearts from the biological value into the spiritual one. Belovezhskaya Pushcha is the symbol and the sanctuary of the Belarusian people. It is time to turn from the beautiful words to the truth, to the reality.

Bialowieza Forest is to get the spiritual status and become a center of spiritual rebirth and spiritual enlightenment (education). A new direction - a spiritual ecology – is arising here. That is what should become dominant in the future of mankind. This is a completely new direction and a different strategy, unusual and still unknown to many people. However, time itself and history dictate to move in this direction, and to open the spiritual potential of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Forest. More about this is possible to read in my publication "Sacred Belovezhskaya Pushcha is Centre of Spiritual Revival of People!" (in Russian, or by use of the translate.google.com).

The first step in this direction is to remove the false advertising-sign "Belovezhskaya Pushcha – 600 Years since the Establishing of the Wilderness Reserved Status" from the wall at the entrance to the restaurant of the National Park. There were no 600 years of the wilderness protection in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, except for a brief period from 1939 to 1957, but interrupted by the war. So this is nothing more than a fake and false by the current ideologists of quasi- and pseudo-conservation. This is incompatible with the spirituality and with the history of the Bialowieza Forest. I'd like to hope that 2012 was exactly the beginning of not only 600 years, but thousands of years of the future history of wilderness protection in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. I see and feel that today the consciousness of the human civilization is high enough to make impossible the fact to cancel of the strictly protected status of the Forest in the future. Otherwise, that will mean a new period of barbarism, inhumanity and uncivilized people.

Prepared by A. Raevskaya for Belarusian Green Portal

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