Foreword
Visitors from foreign countries and citizens of Belarus who come to Be-lovezhskaya Pushcha often think that its entire area is a World Heritage Site. They are usually surprised to learn that only (?) 7 % of the protected forest is under juris-diction of UNESCO. People are surprised about it since everybody knows how won-derful, valuable and unique Belovezhskaya Pushcha is! Is it reasonable in this view to say that Belovezhskaya Pushcha is a World Heritage Site? To conserve Be-lovezhskaya Pushcha it is necessary to enlarge the World Heritage Site so it will cover the whole surface of the primeval relic forest which meets the appropriate crite-rions of the UNESCO. Why doesn't the World Heritage Site cover the entire primeval forest? Why isn't it enlarged? Don't its managers know about the benefits such enlargement brings? Do any other reasons exist not to protect the Pushcha as a World Heritage Site of Mankind?
Many Belarusians are not aware what the concept of World Heritages is and what the criterions of nomination are. They do not know why Belovezhskaya Pushcha is partially included on the List of World Heritage Sites and what kind of rules should be followed to conserve the reserved forest. Citizens of many other European countries are more familiar with the concept.
The present book targets to answer the questions specified above. In the context of this book we hope to help our readers to understand the value of Belovezhskaya Pushcha as a World Heritage Site better. In this book we also formulate a dilemma which the World Heritage Site Belovezhskaya Pushcha faces and we propose a suit-able solution. The book is called "Will Belovezhskaya Pushcha Become a True World Heritage Site?", although it already called World Heritage by UNESCO. This is the contradiction in the preservation of Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
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| The only little part of the unique relic forest of Belovezhskaya Pushcha is desig-nated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site | |||
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| Belovezhskaya Pushcha Primeval Forest | |||
(Photos made by the author)