NEWS ARCHIVE: OCTOBER 2010

October 31, 2010 Website "The Metropolitan TV (STV)" Video: The touristic business in Belovezhskaya Pushcha: Russians, Czechs and Arabs go in Belarus

The proto: a house in the Brest region
Alexander Lukashenko demanded to develop agro-tourism more intensively and not put obstacles for the potential investors. The President declared it by visiting the farm "BelovezhTur" in the Pruzhany district. In the second day of his working trip to the Brest region, on October 30, the Belarusian leader paid attention to development of the tourist potential of the country and to preservation of its natural resources.

In the own way, Nikolai Burnos has created a tourist paradise in miniature in the small village of Kletnoe, that's near Belovezhskaya Pushcha. As seemed earlier lacking in prospects, the village today looks like costing some ten millions dollars. A sports complex is nearly complete. There are already a restaurant and hotel for VIP-persons and those who have no so much money, as well as a health-improving centre with a sauna, pool and jacuzzi. There are paving slabs on some streets. Graceful marble fountains are quite combined with the village houses.

The photo. The Pruzhany district of the Brest region
The photo. The Pruzhany district of the Brest region
The photo. The Pruzhany district of the Brest region
Rather recently there was a meadow on the spot of this lake (see video as a supplement to the report, the editor's note). The ground was dug out and used to make a small mountain, then a wind turbine was placed there. The electricity getting from it shines all guest houses. 24 hours of stay in such house will cost $ 800. The overnight stay in the hotel costs $ 100 to 150. Demand for village rest is quite stable and popular. Both Russians, Europeans and Arabs stay here, as the reporter of the broadcasting company "Metropolitan TV" informs.

The photo. A wind turbine
Nikolai Burnos, businessman:
There are very many tourists - from Russia (especially from St.-Petersburg and Moscow), from Czechia and the Arabian Emirates. We are preparing a webpage to welcome here. The infrastructure will be working all the year round.

The St.-Petersburg's businessman has taken money for this project from the own pocket. The village of Klentnoe is his small native land. And today his new perspective business is also growing there. He plans to invest into it about $ 40 millions. Projects like this can also bring back to life others villages which are now considered lacking in prospects.

Alexander Lukashenko has familiarized with how his business is going on. There are some problems. There is a conflict, for example, regarding the question of how to improve the area around. The President has taken the investor's part.

Alexander Lukashenko, the President of the Republic of Belarus:
When I begin to be engaged in tourism, it is like in village issues, it does not mean that all these things are imprudence. I will already say very easy: today great Russia is large Russia but the people have no place to go. They see Belarus here. The majority of tourists visiting us are Russians, 80 % are Russians. It is no difference to us who goes here – German or Russian? If they are Russians, it is even better. We do not need interpreters as we use one language, and prices are the same. Russians today are the richest people. They go here with pleasure that to be resting here. Therefore, yet not late, while some are still dozing off there and are engaging in petroleum and gas, it is necessary to bethink of like we did it in agriculture. Why did we get the result there? It is because we started at the proper time. Here is the same situation: if we will create conditions, it means there will be the result. At the same time it is not necessary to hope that investors will come here. Such investors, as he is, are only a few.

The photo. Lukashenko is communicating with reporters in the Pruzhany district of the Brest region
In general, tourism is developing in the country not so fast but stably. Despite the crisis of this year, Belarus could minimize a fall in paces in this sphere which is only 7 %. In other countries this figure is much more. The profit from tourists is 100 billion Roubles (~ $ 33 million) higher than last year.

The success of the tourist business in the village of Kletnoe directly depends on one more building project - a detour road around Belovezhskaya Pushcha. It is clear that there are many foreigners who are delighted with our nature. There is no road which could stimulate appearance of tourist infrastructure around. Besides, the plans are also to make the motor vehicle pressure on Pushcha down. Only ecological-friendly vehicles are welcomed. The detour road around the most ancient European forest was getting from an Alexander Lukashenko's order. The length of the road line will make 182 km, as the reporter of the broadcasting company "Metropolitan TV" informs.

The photo. The Pruzhany district of the Brest region
The photo. The project of construction of a ring intersection in Belovezhskaya Pushcha
Alexander Lukashenko:
Belovezhskaya Pushcha should be in the order, so all superfluous should be removed from there. The Presidential manager Korbut will result Pushcha in an ideal condition for these years. If more one or two roads should be made somewhere, no problem, bring it in the offers and they will come and will make for one month. While builders are here, it is necessary to put the Pushcha's road to right. Nothing is necessary in Pushcha, except for roads. Isn't it? It is not necessary to economize money on it. The main is that no puddles were anywhere. You dare if I will find a puddle somewhere or some will say me about it...! Make the falciform profile and slopes and let water run down, so the road will be saved. As soon as puddles will appear, it means the road will be ruined.

With time the new road line will be surrounded by agro-farms, hotels and the road service infrastructure. 40 km of the road are already under first asphalt covering. Next year the second layer will appear. By doing it the new domestic technologies are also tested.

Asphalt covering
Besides the economic issues of the construction, there are also the aesthetic ones. The super task is very simple – the comfortable driving.

Alexander Lukashenko:
Governors, as I formerly forced the Prime Minister Sidorskiy and the Presidential Manager Domashkevich, must think of the view for a man going on a road. The man looks at on the right and sees that any house is in an ideal condition, then looks at on the left and sees that a cattle farm is in an ideal condition. All what is visible around should attract the man. He should go, be pleased and be surprised that the true miracle is made in Belarus.

The road is now divided into 11 sections, on which works are simultaneously conducted. The project provides construction of 10 bridges, the largest one (127 m) will be above the Forest River. It is also planned to build special crossings for ungulate animals and amphibian.

crossings for ungulate animals and amphibian
crossings for ungulate animals and amphibian
The President paid attention that it is necessary to develop the road infrastructure around the unique natural objects at Naroch Lake, Pripyat River and Braslav Lakes as well.

(Eugeniy Gorin, Sergei Kapustin and Andrei Novgorodtsev. The STV Company. The Brest region.

(The video-reportage can be watched by downloading the file from here, in Russian)
October 30, 2010 Website "BelTA" President Lukashenko demanded to ensure the high quality of motorways' construction in Belarus

President Lukashenko demanded to ensure the high quality of construction of a road around the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" and in the country as a whole. Head of state announced such demand by visiting a section of the detour road which is under construction around the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha", as the BelTA Information Agency's reporter informs.

President Lukashenko focused on necessity of the qualitative construction of roads with the complete observance of technology." We now will invest much into the road construction," he said and noted that it is necessary to ensure the highest quality of works to get results like, for example, in Germany. "If the construction of a road is complete, so no repair within next 15 years," head of state added.

As to the road around the territory of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha", head of state was reported that it is planned to finish its construction by November 7, the next year. The total length of the road will make 185 km (146 km in the Brest region and 39 km in the Grodno region) and about Br 330 billions (~ $ 110 million) will be spent for this purpose.

The Minister of Transport and Communications Ivan Shcherbo reported to the President that the road is divided into 11 sections, on which works are simultaneously conducted. The asphalt covering (the bottom layer) is available already at the line of 40 km (2 to 5 km for each section). The project provides construction of 10 bridges, the largest one (127 m) will be through the Forest River. It is also planned to build special crossings for ungulate animals and amphibian.

Head of state drew the special attention to necessity of both to construct the road qualitatively and to put the bordering areas and objects in order, and to make slopes. "It is necessary that there will be enough road slopes close to villages and sites where the development of the road service or agro-tourism is possible in the near future," Alexander Lukashenko said. "Do all things thriftily, without extravagances, but reliably". He said "In this way we will further put the whole country in order".

The President reminded that it is necessary to develop the road infrastructure not only around Belovezhskaya Pushcha but also around unique natural objects at Naroch Lake, Pripyat River, Braslav Lakes and all over the country as a whole.

Vladimir Matveev
October 30, 2010 Website "The Metropolitan TV (STV)" Video: Alexander Lukashenko: While some are still dozing off there and are engaging in petroleum and gas, it is necessary to bethink of tourism at the proper time

Alexander Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus is on the photo
That is the President declared by visiting the farm "BelovezhTur" in the Pruzhany district. Today is the second day of the working trip of head of state in the Brest region.

The second day of the working trip across the Brest region started from visiting the village of Kletnoe of the Pruzhany district.

Nikolai Burnos, he was born in this village and nowadays is a citizen of Russian St.-Petersburg contributed much to development of the village's farm. The businessman already invested $ 20 million into development of the village, but it is only the beginning. Nikolai Burnos admits that the call of the native land and favorable conditions for agro-tourism in Belarus became a pulse for him.

The photo. The Pruzhany district of the Brest region
The photo. The Pruzhany district of the Brest region
The photo. The Pruzhany district of the Brest region
Nikolai Burnos told Alexander Lukashenko that there are problems with co-ordination of projects between him and authorities. The President took the investor's part and demanded not to put obstacles for the acting legally financiers and for all that not to damage the environment, as the reporter of the broadcasting company "The Metropolitan TV" informs.

Alexander Lukashenko, the President of the Republic of Belarus:
When I begin to be engaged in tourism, it is like in village issues, it does not mean that all these things are imprudence. I will already say very easy: today great Russia is large Russia but the people have no place to go. They see Belarus here. The majority of tourists visiting us are Russians, 80 % are Russians. It is no difference to us who goes here – German or Russian? If they are Russians, it is even better. We do not need interpreters as we use one language, and prices are the same. Russians today are the richest people. They go here with pleasure that to be resting here. Therefore, yet not late, while some are still dozing off there and are engaging in petroleum and gas, it is necessary to bethink of like we did it in agriculture. Why did we get the result there? It is because we started at the proper time. Here is the same situation: if we will create conditions, it means there will be the result. At the same time it is not necessary to hope that investors will come here. Such investors, as he is, are only a few.

The photo. Lukashenko during the working visit in the Pruzhany district of the Brest region
In spring a Decree of head of state on construction of the detour road along the perimeter of Belovezhskaya Pushcha was issued. The road already shows its contours. Today the President studied how construction works are in progress. The road's length will be 182 km. Cafes and hotels will appear along the road line to bring an additional income for the state treasury.

The photo. The Pruzhany district of the Brest region
The photo.
Alexander Lukashenko:
Belovezhskaya Pushcha should be in the order, so all superfluous should be removed from there. The Presidential manager Korbut will result Pushcha in an ideal condition for these years. If more one or two roads should be made somewhere, no problem, bring it in the offers and they will come and will make for one month . While builders are here, it is necessary to put the Pushcha's road to right. Nothing is necessary in Pushcha, except for roads. Isn't it? It is not necessary to economize money on it. The main is that no puddles were anywhere. You dare if I will find a puddle somewhere or some will say me about it...! Make the falciform profile and slopes and let water run down, so the road will be saved. As soon as puddles will appear, it means the road will be ruined.

The village development became one more topic for today. The President visited the agro-small-town Zhuravlinniy in Pruzhany district where he familiarized with the infrastructure of the inhabited locality and communicated with the villagers.

The President answered questions of journalists. The questions about both internal and external politics were touched, in particular, about investments. Alexander Lukashenko noted investments should be direct and should give feedback, as the reporter of the broadcasting company "Metropolitan TV" informs.

The photo. Lukashenko is communicating with reporters in the Pruzhany district of the Brest region
Alexander Lukashenko:
There are all kinds of investments. It is necessary to get used that if someone finances us, it means those are returnable money and we will have to give them back. The payback projects are therefore necessary.

Today I was surprised. I paid attention that the minister reporting about the 200-kilometer motorway around Belovezhskaya Pushcha said that the road, by their calculations, will be repaid for 6.5 years. It means it is perfect that this project will be repaid. I thought that it will be the only social and hang-the-expense project. It is great. Therefore I do not see serious problems regarding investments but the direct investments are necessary. We do not count much on that someone will bring these money to us. We will create such infrastructural objects, including in this area, and will invest to get a certain feedback.

We have legislatively created the best conditions in this area - East Europe, Russia, Ukraine … Our conditions are very good. Plus to that, there are absolute predictability, stability, silence and peace. Money like silence, therefore businessmen go in Belarus, of course, they are not too numerous but we do not need this. It is necessary to do all things quietly, but for centuries.


(The video-reportage can be watched by downloading the file from here, in Russian)
October 30, 2010 Website "National TV-Channel (ONT)" Video: Tourism, social and economic development of villages to became the main issues for the second day's working trip of head of state across the Brest region

The first stop made by President Alexander Lukashenko was in the village of Kletnoe. A tourist complex with a hotel, apartment houses and a cafe was created there. A sports center is also to be in sight there. The cost of the project is about 40 millions dollars. A native of the local area, nowadays head of a big Russian enterprise, acted as an investor of the project. But the individual initiative confronted with the official circumlocution. The President charged immediately to investigate the circumstances. Head of state supported the businessman and subjected to criticism of actions of some officials. Alexander Lukashenko also visited a section of a detour road around the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" which is now under construction. The President demanded to ensure the high quality of the construction works.

(Alexander Lukashenko, the President of the Republic of Belarus)
-----------------------------
(The video-reportage can be watched by downloading the file from here, in Russian)
October 30, 2010 Website "Naviny.by" The President Lukashenko: we will apply measures concerning the environment as very strong as everyone will feel like with the bones cracking

The President Alexander Lukashenko has charged to manage the regular traffic of the Brest airport of the international lines. He has set this task today by visiting the agro-tourist complex "The Farm BelovezhTur" in the Pruzhany district as the BelTA Information Agency reports.

According to him, this will contribute to attraction more tourists to the area.

"The decision is ready, execute it. And in a year planes must fly," head of state said.

Head of state paid attention the officials to environmental issues: tourism must be developed in the way of no harm to the environment.

"We will apply measures concerning the environment as very strong as everyone will feel like with the bones cracking," he warned and charged to put all grounds to rights.

Alexander Lukashenko also noted that rhere should be an ideal order along the perimeter of Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
October 27, 2010 Website "TUT.BY" Audio-guides for tourists in the capital of Minsk to plan buying

Since June of 2011 audio-guides can appear in Minsk. The plans are to cover Top City, the capital's historical centre, by audio-guides. The financing of the project if it is approved will be carried out through the city's budget as the acting director of the Minsk Tourist Information Centre "Tour-Business 2010" Elena Plis told.

One can take the audio-guide and a map with the indicative points in the Information Centre of the capital, in hotels, museums etc. In exchange on the device, apart from the payment for hire, tourists most likely have to leave a document, for example, a passport (the cost of one board is 410 Euros).

Experts from the Czech Republic have already prepared an appropriate project for Minsk. The cost for audio-guides' purchase and application is estimated ~ 43 million Roubles (~$ 14,300) (for purchase of 20 audio-guides).

"We plan to record on the audio-guide an excursion as minimum as in five languages. The text will be dictated by a native speaker of the language," Elena Plis noted. The capacity of one audio-guide is to keep about 52 languages.

Audio-guides are already available in the Partisan camp in the village of Stankovo of the Dzerzhinskiy district as appeared in August this year. In December 80 audio-guides will be supplied to Belovezhskaya Pushcha and the plans are to apply them in the Mir and Nesvizh castles. There are negotiated with the National Art Museum, the Great Patriotic War Museum and other museums of the capital which will also examine how to apply audio-guides in their expositions.

Tatiana Tyukhay, TUT.BY
October 19, 2010 Website "The Polish Radio" There will be no expansion of the Bialowieza National Park (Poland)

The Rada of the town of Hajnowka has acted against the extension of the territory of the Bialowieza National Park. On Tuesday the Rada's members unanimously have voted against the project of the Park's expansion which was prepared by the Ministry of Environment.

On the eve of voting, there were the public consultations which participants have also expressed against the expansion of the National Park. The Rada of Hajnowka gave reasons for the decision as a care about the forest in which, as they said, a lot of wood gets out of order.

The decision in Hajnowka basically ends the attempt of expansion of the Bialowieza National Park. The municipalities were offered 100 millions of Zlotys in exchange for consent to add more 20 thousand hectares of the forest to the National Park.

The municipalities reluctantly agree with expansion of the National Park as it would give some additional restrictions in the different spheres of activity, for example, in agriculture or timber cutting.
October 18, 2010 Website "The Belarusian Partisan" The schoolboys have found refrigerators and a tractor in Belovezhskaya Pushcha for scrap metal

Schoolboys from the ecological organization "EcoPolis" have gathered 13 tons of scrap metal in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. They found basically old cars, thrown out refrigerators, washing machines and even a tractor.

The director of the Kamenyuki secondary school of the Kamenets district Sergei Mikhalochkin has told to "EuroRadio" about this action "Here Belovezhskaya Pushcha begins just behind the kitchen gardens. Besides the forest we also clean the Lesnaya River. We clean them by forces of the ecological organization "EcoPolis". Children of the second grade and older are its members. 45 % of our schoolboys then choose the study in the ecological field".

According to Sergei Mikhalochkin, money obtained from the gathered secondary raw materials were used for repairs in the school, for equipment of the school forestry and the school garden.

As it was learned from the Regional Department of Education, 13 tons are one of the best results.
October 09, 2010 "Respublika" (The Republic) newspaper Kate and the John Deere

This delicate young lady controls the powerful tractor as deftly as a seasoned driver.

Belovezhskaya Pushcha completed sowing of winter crops earlier this week. The national park has a total of nearly three thousand hectares designated for growing of maize, rape and cereals which are utilized as fodder, used for meeting the nature reserve’s own needs and purchased by the government.

This year’s winter crop sowing period was incredibly difficult because of a rainy December. The fields had been so heavily eroded that even the powerful John Deere that tractors the park operates had to be pulled out of trenches on several occasions using special equipment. Although the sowing was delayed, the park’s machine operation team managed to pull off a decent job.

Yekaterina Shestakovskaya made a widely publicized contribution to the success of the sowing effort. The farm machine geek appeared in many periodicals while working on an MTZ-82 tractor at the Novy Put farm in Kamenets District. When she learned the Belovezhskaya Pushcha management had bought US-made farm equipment, she sought a job with the farming enterprise. The Novy Put management could not go wrong when they entrusted the powerful machine to the fragile good-looking girl. The way Kate handles the John Deere, she could put to shame some seasoned machine operators, always keeping the machine perfectly tidy. She owes her skills to the training as a maintenance fitter and tractor driver, and a Category C driver’s license (for vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tons), all untypical for a lady, which she undertook at a vocation school in Malorita, Brest Region.

Pictured: Yekaterina Shestakovskaya and her John Deere.
Photo by Fedor Mukha
October 09, 2010 Website "The Secobf National TV-Channel (ONT)" The fall open air art session near Belovezhskaya Pushcha

A company of artists from Belarus and Poland spent a week in the picturesque surroundings of Kamenets with their cases and canvasses, producing works that reflected the autumn feeling.

Working in the open was a requirement for participation in the session. Some painted outdoors, while others drew sketches and then escaped from the October cold to the warmth and comfort of their studios to complete their paintings.

Anatoly Turkov, leader of the Tur association and organizer of the session, said the event was dedicated to the renowned Belarusian painter Fyodor Doroshevich. "He was born here in Kamenets – his house is right behind me now. We have ten artists here: three from Poland and seven from our association."

There are oil paintings, acrylics, landscapes, still lifes and portraits, with each of the painters expressing their own unique vision of the world around. Today the residents of Kamenets were the first to see the outcome of the painting session.
October 8-14, 2010 Website "The Brest Newspaper" Konstantin Sumar: Roads, money, potatoes, sore subjects and more

Brest Oblast government chief Konstantin Sumar’s next conference with local journalists took place on the last day of September. This is the third in a series of similar events this year. This time, Konstantin Andreyevich answered more than forty questions in the two-hour session.

The journalists were interested in the state of the local economy, and agricultural sector in particular, the investment conditions, progress in construction of housing construction, roads and bicycle paths, prospects for pay indexation, the performance of the town’s public transport system and many more. Sumar gave competent, detailed answers, at times surprising the journalists with a good command of figures and particulars, unexpected confessions and critical comments.

Here are three short extracts of some of his answers.

The road as a boost toward development

"When proposing the route for the road around Belovezhskaya Pushcha to follow, we did our best to go near populated areas to liven them up. That’s number one. And number two, to run the road close to museums and sights that could later be restored. There are plans for fourteen tourist attractions with gas stations, bars, restaurants and a motel. Land allotment and planning are under way at the moment. In the future, a lot will depend on investors’ interest.

What I’d like to say is, when the construction of that road began, the cost of cottages in the remote areas of Kamenets District, uninhabited until that time, rose from two thousand dollars to a minimum of ten thousand. That road will give a boost to village growth in Kamenets District and play a major role in infrastructure development.

It’s a matter of the future, and I believe the money we will invest within the two years will pay back. Not to mention the fact that foreign tourists will feel good there. This will be an internationally important road. It will link Poland with the Baltic Republics across Brest Oblast, specifically across [the Peschatka border checkpoint]."

....
------------------------
(The text of the news is put in the short-cut form. The BP-21 Century editor's note. The full text can be written from the original website in Russian).
October 06, 2010 "Respublica" (The Republic) newspaper, No 190 The Bialowieza BAM

The Bialowieza BAM is what the local villagers dubbed a loop road being built around the core of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha forest reserve.

At the end of last spring Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the construction of a bypass along the perimeter of the Belarusian part of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The road started taking shape as early as this spring. The 190 kilometer-long road runs across Kamenets and Pruzhany Districts in Brest Region and Svisloch District, Grodno Region. The road is not usable yet, but it has begun changing the lives of those who found themselves within its footprint. What is the nature of that change?

BAM is short for The Baikal-Amur Mainline, the historic Soviet railroad construction project traversing Eastern Siberia and the Far East.

Surrounded by forest, the village of Volkostavets is situated on the southernmost edge of Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Kamenets District, right next to the Polish border. This is the starting point for the "Belarusian BAM." A solid foundation of sand and crushed stone which will support the future asphalt road passes by a tiny village store, but not the village itself. "The work here is in full swing even on weekends," says store manager Lyudmila Malinovskaya. "Huge trucks just keep coming in. They have broken the road across the village, so now we get fewer visitors, and our sales have dropped accordingly.".

But Lyudmila believes those losses should turn into favorable change for the store. The Kamenets District Consumers’ Society will likely modernize the store, and the number of customers coming in will rise significantly.

Village elder Natalya Dudar is optimistic about the prospects for Volkostavets in view of the future highway. According to Natalya, the village’s thirteen houses are populated by roughly thirty people. The fading remote settlement will soon have a bright new future. District authorities promised to make sure the roads across Volkostavets are asphalted. In short, the villagers took an optimistic view of tomorrow once the construction project beyond the village fence kicked off.

Originating at Volkostavets, the road runs along the edge of the national park to Omelenets, then skirts around several more forest villages, crosses the tiny Belaya River, and reaches the fence of the fairly large village of Dmitrovichi, where the first phase of the road ends. The projects incorporates of a total of eleven phases, eight of these located on the territory of Brest Region. Some twenty road construction organizations are simultaneously engaged in the Belarusian BAM. The project envisages the construction of six new bridges, the most imposing of these being 128 meters long, currently under construction across the Lesnaya River near Kamenets. The road will pass by this exciting ancient town and then turn left in the direction of Pruzhany. Bypassing the villages at the western edge, it will reach Grodno Region terminating at Svisloch.

The customer, the Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park, is taking part in the construction. The park’s forestry teams have been tasked with cutting down the wood in the project’s way. General Director Nikolai Bambiza, who is attending status meetings with the contractors, said he was happy with the partnerships. No one has a stronger interest in seeing the road completed quickly, as the bypass will divert traffic from the national park itself. Belarusian and foreign conservation activists have been making the life of the unique nature reserve’s director pretty hard. The new road will absolve him of their accusations. Those who want to see the relict forest will be offered to disembark on the bypass and continue traveling into the heart of Belovezhskaya Pushcha by bicycle, cart, electric car, on foot or on horseback.

The road’s future life has been sprouting up all along its course. The first fruit of the change will be enjoyed by the owners of existing agritourist farms who were incredibly lucky to find themselves situated along the tourist route of tomorrow. But all of their luck taken together would be nothing when compared to that of Saint-Petersburg, Russia businessman Nikolai Burnas. For years he has been investing heavily into his home village of Kletnoye in Pruzhany District. Nikolai has not only landscaped the village but he has built a top-class sports and tourist center in Kletnoye. Most importantly, this village, blooming amid the backwoods, is now close to the new bypass highway. Rumor has it Nikolai foreknew the construction a decade ago.

The ancient Pruzhany District village of Lyskovo has lived to see its revival, too. It is so rich in historical sites that the planners of the Bialowieza BAM made an exception for Lyskovo by building right across the village. That choice was made possible by the spaciousness of the village. The ten-meter-wide asphalt road would not fit into the space between the houses in the other local villages. Many villages might have been erased by the construction if they had not been bypassed.

The new road will help local authorities find a use for abandoned buildings along the road. But their primary concern, according to Pruzhany District chief executive Sergei Guk, is attracting investors capable of building modern service outlets. The district has assigned ten sites along the road, providing pre-design concepts and cost estimates. So welcome!

Fedor Mukha, Alexei Pekun, Anatoliy Belous
The photograph shows the construction of the bypass road near Kamenets.
Photo by Nikolai Shum
October 02, 2010 Website "TUT.BY" The National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" has bought five electric cars

Five electric cars of a famous American company are passing a custom registration on the frontier nearly the city of Brest. They were bought by leaders of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" to use them in nature reserve’s holding.

"Now we do not need to drive a transport with internal combustion engine from one place to another, for example, to deliver guests fare ad back to the Christmas Father Frost residence," the director of the National Park Belovezhskaya Pushcha Nikolai Bambiza says. "The small electric cars, that can carry a load weighting up to 700 kg, are set in motion by storage batteries, which can work for nearly 8 hours. And if electric fuel give out it won’t a trouble, because you can recharge the battery from usual electrical transmission network with the tension 220 volt."

Electric cars will be tested also to serve tourists. They can be useful especially for children to go for the outings. Such electric "athlete" can draw several bogies full of kiddies at once. Nikolai Bambiza underlined in his speech that the purchase of electric cars that do not be produced in our country had become for our nature reserve the first step in the way towards the inner transport’s electrification. It is being put here to keep the unique nature on the instructions of Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko.

Fedor Mukha, the newspaper "Republic"
October 02, 2010 Website "21.by" Autumn and Ash

In Belarus the names of some inhabited localities, especially of villages, derive from tree species. According to statistic data, the most of names are connected with birch tree - 93 inhabited localities. A bit less - about 80 - are originated from lime-tree, cherry-tree gives about 50, maple and apple trees make the same - 10. There is also ash tree – 21 inhabited localities. So it should be said that this lyric autumn reportage was made in the most western village of Yasen (it is translated as Ash-Tree), the Pruzhany district of the Brest region.

The autumn of this year in the Yasen village is rich for mushrooms, apples, honey, potato and pumpkin, and a bit of cranberries as it is too much water in bogs and no one can reach the spots full of berries. It is interesting that there are no ash-trees in the village. Oaks and Canadian maples at trees at once seeing. The name Yasen makes a secret close even for the oldest villager and the former forestry officer Fedor Saevich (he with apples is on the photo). In his naturalistic stories published in a small book, he tells that the village appeared in the middle Õ²Õ century and forest-guards lived there. And there is no word about the origin of the name.

the former forestry officer Fedor Saevich
Until now Yasen is a gate into Belovezhskaya Pushcha. As before forest wardens, huntsmen and guards are living here. They do duties like in any village - to heat a stove in the house, to feed children and to do housekeeping... to prepare a kitchen garden ad to produce an apple juice (on the photos). And not to forget the pleasure of sunny days of Indian summer.

Anatoliy Kleshchuk.
Photo by the author.
October 01, 2010 "Komsomolskaya pravda" (The Komsomolskaya Truth) newspaper Alexander Lukashenko: I like chopping firewood

Ôîòî: kp.ru
The head of the Belarussian state told us he did not like hunting.

During the press conference with Russia’s journalists Alexander Lukashenko has told about his hobby.

"I have a hobby: I like chopping firewood. It is the hardest work, even harder then to mow. And we have arrived there (to Belovezhskaya Pushcha - editor’s comment) and a director said they had to saw a 450-jears-old pine tree. We started to saw its trunk up and we found a hollow. Somebody hollowed it out 250 years ago to settle bees there. I am sawing but the director tells me "Stop, Alexander Grigorievich, do not saw. Look at, this is a museum piece". And he started to tell me about it. He understands this, a fine fellow. And we have sawed this part of trunk and have brought it to the museum."

About hunting

"I can tell you frankly, I had never taken a gun. They say a shooting of animals must be systematic. And what about me, I say you do it yourselves that to eliminate the surplus population but I never came to Belovezhskaya Pushcha with a gun. It is my attitude. Your subordinates realize your attitude towards something and their attitude will be same."
October 01, 2010 Website "Respons.by. The Brest Portal" Two hours with the governor of Brest

The governor Konstantin Sumar has answered more than forty questions during the press conference on September 30. The similar dialogue of the head of the region with reporters was already for the third time this year. And, most likely, it is not for the last. The chairman of the Regional Executive Committee answering the journalists' questions has said as the following:

About roads and bicycle paths

"A road around Belovezhskaya Pushcha is constructed according to schedule authorized by a presidential decree. In the long-range outlook plans are to open 14 tourist objects there. There are potential investors which already have begun to invest. I think that this road will be repaid after some years. It is also important that the road, as a matter of fact, will connect Poland with the Baltic countries through the Brest region, and particularly - through the Peschaka border crossing. It will be a quite good alternative route."

....
------------------------
(The text of the news is put in the short-cut form. The BP-21 Century editor's note. The full text can be written from the original website in Russian).
October 01, 2010 Website "Wild Nature" "It is time to segregate manufacture and nature protection in Belarusian national parks!"

Igor Kochanovskiy,
head of the Department of Natural Complexes and Agriculture at the Department of Affairs of the President of the Republic of Belarus, PhD of Biology:

"The Belarusian system of especially protected natural territories, in particular, of national parks started its forming more than 15 years ago. The financing at that time was insufficient and, therefore, it was decided to create forest and game-hunting grounds and agricultural enterprises in every national park. It was supposed that money will be earned from timber cutting, hunting and agricultural activity which will then finance nature protection actions. After some years the situation has changed. Approaches to the agriculture have changed in Belarus and different requirements to the wood harvesting industry have appeared. In the modern conditions nature protection activity and ecological tourism are developing more intensively than the industrial part. Agricultural enterprises and experimental forest and game-hunting grounds created at the national parks began to hinder development of the nature protection establishments, not to stimulate them! And this is in spite of the fact that the auxiliary forest and game-hunting grounds and agricultural enterprises are now much bigger on a commercial scale, occupied areas and financial volumes, than it was designated in regulations of national parks. Things have reached a critical point to ask "What to do towards them?"

Today we study an opportunity to segregate these functions one from another and to create independent legal entities. It is supposed that one legal body will deal with wood processing, the second one will be engaged in agriculture and the national park will be responsible only for issues of preservation of natural complexes, scientific researches, eco-tourism and eco-education.

The experience of the National Park "Pripyarskiy" obviously testifies that ecological tourism can bring good benefits. If to take into account the state program of development of especially protected natural territories, so, it is possible to function just without auxiliary industries and manufactures. For example, the annual turnover of the "Pripyarskiy" makes about 40 billions of Roubles (~ $ 13.3 millions). However, almost all its profit goes to call in a credit taken earlier for development of agriculture and the wood-processing complex.

We contacted to the colleagues from Russia. Except for the next National Park "Smolenskoe Poozerie" and some others, the Russians only recently have begun to develop eco-tourism. As compared with them, we have done much more forward in this direction.

Now a team of our experts studies the situation in the National Park "Pripyarskiy". This is a huge association where over 2,000 people are employed. There are a few such big and multifunctional enterprises in Belarus similar to it. It gets clear from conversations with the experts of the National Park that time has come to reconsider the structure of our nature protection establishments.

But it is unclear yet what kind of it to do. Besides, lots of legal nuances are appearing. Only one thing is obvious - the problem has reached a critical point and time is now to solve it.