CONCEPTUAL APPROACHES TO ENVIRONMENTALLY CLEAN AGRICULTURAL MANAGEMENT IN BELOVEZHSKAYA PUSHCHA AND ITS SUPPORT ZONE
Nikolai N. Bambalov,
Institute for Natural Resources
Management and Ecology,
National Academy of Science,
Anatolii S. Meerovsky
Belarussian Research Institute for
Land Improvement and Meadow Culture,
Agrarian Academy of Sciences,
Minsk, Belarus
FORMS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND USE
Two different forms of agricultural use of the non-forested lands in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha have been historically developed. The first type, known as "crusted" agriculture has developed over centuries by cultivating small clearings in the midst of vast forest tracts. Such agricultural landscapes may serve as original models for ecologically safe systems of land use and, at the same time, as proving grounds to study the impact of dispersed, small-scale, land-tenures upon the environment of the protected wildlife territories.
Figure 55. White stork's
nest on a farm barn (PB)
The second type, cultivation on more of an industrial basis, is represented by the two large blocks of agricultural land: the "Pogranichnik" Collective Farm, and 31 land-tenures in the Swislotch, Pruzhansky, and Kamenetz Districts; combined these have an overall area of more than 100,000 hectares. The territories of 8 land users are completely located within the Support Zone; more than 50% of the land of 10 others is within the Support Zone, while another 8 have less than half of their land within the boundaries of this Zone. Five farms possess only 200 ha in this territory.
Agricultural lands occupy 52% of the Support Zone, two-thirds of which are arable fields. About one-quarter of the land-users' territories have been reclaimed; in fact, virtually all the streams, brooks, and rivulets have been canalised.
The large-scale type of agricultural production exerts a substantial pressure on the agro-landscapes. This is manifested by the high salinity of the surface runoff as compared to rainfall (2.5 times), its increased concentrations of potassium (5.9 times), chlorine (5.6 times), and hydrocarbonates (3.1 times). In seepage waters in the reclaimed soils, the concentration of potassium has increased by 9.3 times, and of chlorine by 12.6 times, in comparison with rainfall.
Through accelerated decomposition of organic matters, the water acquires nitrogen-containing compounds, and thus agricultural products grown on peat soils are contaminated with nitrates. The industrial system of farming, based on abundant use of fertilizers and widespread application of chemical agents, adopted on the "Pogranichnik" Collective Farm and in the Support Zone, does not assist the biodiversity conservation of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha forests.
CONCEPT OF ECOLOGICAL AGRICULTURE
Figure 56. Kolchoz buildings of the
Pogranichnik Collective Farm
at Cihavolja (OdB)
The main concept behind ecologically sound agriculture is that one should deal with the entire agro-ecosystem, not with individual elements, in managing the territory in question. This includes the general organization of agricultural production, agro-landscapes and land management, land reclamation, the system of crop rotation, fertilizer use, plant protection, measures to improve soil productivity, and the use of natural foraging grounds, all without damage to the biodiversity. This cannot be achieved unless the entire territory functions as a integrated network from both a nature and an economic perspective.
Agro-landscapes should be territorially organized with incorporation of ecological communities and spatial expressiveness, by creating sanitation and protection buffers of forest and shrubbery belts, as well as by establishing extended water and soil protection zones along the river courses and large drainage canals. All the flood plains and low-lying forest-clearings should be permanently regrassed, while the vast higher interfluvial expanses are appropriate for growing more intensive crops. Such a structural organization of the agro-landscape would not only provide spatial expressiveness, but would also help maintain the natural biological migration zones that link individual forest tracts. Small forest patches should be maintained among the agricultural lands to provide an ecological framework.
Figure 57. Bison feeding in fields
in winter (AB)
Succession cropping should be organised on a landscape-cultural basis, with strict adherence to the differential use of tillage to suit the terrain and soil properties. The use of crop rotation is required to maximise the biological benefits, which can be achieved through increasing the share of perennial grasses, catch crops, green manure crops, and the expansion of leguminous cultures. Crop rotation should consider the heterogeneity of sowing, i.e., the availability of crops with different life rhythms; at the same time, agricultural soil-improving cultures should be grown from time to time. Succession cropping should also provide for material and energy retention, in essence a complete, or almost complete, return of biogenous elements together with a fertilizer system based on the principle of nutrient balance. In connection with this, the most important task is to enrich the cropping areas and beyond with grain legumes (yellow lupines to be used on the crop rotation fields, and sundial lupines beyond the tilled fields). To maintain the humus balance, three hectares of perennial grasses need to be cultivated for each hectare of clean-cultivated crops.
The fertilizer system should be ecologically based. Primarily, it is necessary to ban the existing unbalanced application of nitrogenous, phosphoric and potassic fertilizers. Field husbandry should not be intensified by an increase in the amount of fertilizers used, but through their optimal use within a well thought out agro-system proper. This could be achieved by; using local application methods, employing slow-release fertilizer types; and applying nutrients at the most appropriate times for the various phases of plant development.
Figure 58. Burning activity in
large-scale farmland
(Dziky Nikor) (NC)
Ecologically safe and fast-decaying pesticides, produced from biological raw materials, should be used to protect against plant pests and diseases.
Prerequisites for the introduction of effective lea management are: a permanent ban on the use of a deep drainage network, maintenance of the current ground water level, renunciation of chemical means of pest, disease and weed control, and the proper regulation of fertilizer application. The foundation of measures aimed at increasing meadow fertility should predominantly be surface structure improvement practices and an increased share of leguminous components in the herbage composition. Ecologically substantiated use of natural forage areas for wildlife should take priority, since these areas form a uniform ecological system within the forest tracts.
EDITOR'S NOTE
A few years ago, the authors conceptualised the principles of ecological agriculture and produced a set of practical measures for implementing the strategy of environmentally sound agricultural management on non-forested lands within the Belovezhskaya Pushcha and on selected Collective Farms in the Support Zone. The recommended measures and activities have been published in the GEF book "Belovezhskaya Pushcha Forest Biodiversity Conservation", edited by Luchkov c.s. (Minsk, 1997).