Where does this road lead?
Yalanta S'myalovskaya, "Radio Polonia" (Poland), April 15, 2005
But everyone who wishes to cross the frontier must has the passport with a visa because the visa regime is obligatory for the Belarusian and Polish state border. The nearest Belarusian consulate is located in the city of Bialostok, over hundred kilometers from Bialowieza.
Tomasz Lipoman, head of the travel agency "Bialowieza Travel", is doubtful of the new pass will be very popular among Polish tourists.
T. Lipoman. "Tourists who come to the Pushcha most often in weekend will be not ready to cross the border. I do not think they will wish to get additional troubles from crossing the border."
Moreover, the Belarusian side has difficulties to serve tourists from Poland. The free travel is forbidden in the Belarusian area of Belovezhskaya Pushcha like in the Polish one. Tourists can only be guided there. I suppose the Polish naturalists will be the most wishers to watch the Belarusian part of Pushcha.
Tomasz Lipoman considers that the tourist pass will not bring income for the local travel agencies and in general, he thinks, the pass in Belovezhskaya Pushcha is not good planned initiative.
T. Lipoman. "I worry about the mass car traffic within Pushcha because the people will want to see the state border. This will bring a negative effect to the local nature. Noise and cars' exhausts will become the common there. I'm afraid that the benefit will be too little compared with loses."
Head of the local municipality of Bialowieza Anna Baiko hopes to get some benefit from the opened pass. She do support an idea of opening the pass and is not afraid the numerous cars' traffic.
Anna Baiko, head of the municipality of Bialowieza. "Some tourists who already visited Bialowieza and know it will come to see Belovezhskaya Pushcha at the Belarusian side. Is it the same like in Poland or another?
The village of Bialowieza will also get some benefit because parkings and restaurants will be appeared while some local people will get a job.
Belovezhskaya Pushcha was the single unit in the past. The frontier divided both the forest and our families. Graves of our relatives are at the other side. Perhaps, there will be no mass visitors in Bialowieza at once who will go where they like. Perhaps, there will not be so."
Janusz Korbel, chairman of the Association for Landscape Protection, does not agree with the opinion by the head of the municipality of Bialowieza Anna Baiko. He thinks that the bicycle and foot traveling, as a matter of fact, will be limited only before the time of the frontier crossing.
Janusz Korbel, chairman of the Association for Landscape Protection. "Buses will come to Belovezhskaya Pushcha from both countries and tourists will cross the frontier on foot. This will course the intensification of the car traffic in the heart of Pushcha.
Some people say that is the bicycle and foot pass. It's clear there would be perfect if after crossing the frontier there will be possible to walk in the Belarusian area of Pushcha using tourists paths but it is impossible today. The Belarusian part of Pushcha is a national reserve and it's close for tourists. The authorities of the Belarusian part of Pushcha are going first of all to deliver tourists to the Grandfather Frost's (Santa Clause) residence, to show one thick oak tree and to deliver back. It is known the free traveling in the Belarusian part of Belovezhskaya Pushcha is restricted. The situation is another there compared with the Polish and Slovakian border at Balnica where a tourist with a backpack is allowed to cross the mounting frontier using a tourists path."
Both the naturalists and employees of the travel agency think that the best is to turn the car tourist traffic past Belovezhskaya Pushcha. It will be good not only for Pushcha but also for local landscapes. Tomasz Lipoman, head of the travel agency "Bialowieza Travel", offers to limited the car traffic to a great extent starting from the surfaced road between Hajnowka to Bialowieza.
T. Lipoman. "A railway or a tramway from Hajnowka to Bialowieza would be much more reasonable solution. It would be make a great car traffic limiting across the Pushcha's forest in the course of time and allow only the local traffic. Tourists will come from Hajnowka to Bialowieza. Car parkings and the entire infrastructure with the service of bicycle and vehicle renting could be made. Thanks to this kind of solution Hajnowka could also be won.
The crossing pass at the Polish and Belarusian border is opened on Saturday of 16th of April. But only on Monday a meeting with participation of the administration of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" and representatives of the Polish side to discuss the cooperation on tourism will be held in Bialowieza.