UNESCO World Heritage Committee concerned about impact of Poland’s border barrier on Belovezhskaya Pushcha
A report on the preservation of the UNESCO World Heritage site – Belovezhskaya Pushcha – was adopted at the 45th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Saudi Arabia with a recommendation to Belarus and Poland to urgently invite a joint mission of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the International Union for Conservation of Nature for responsive monitoring of the site. In addition, the document expressed extreme concern about the construction of a border barrier without first providing the World Heritage Centre with materials for assessing its environmental impact. It is emphasised that if urgent measures are not taken to eliminate negative impacts, the object may meet the conditions for its inclusion in the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Belovezhskaya Pushcha – which recently celebrated its 80th anniversary – is located on the border of Poland and Belarus and is considered one of the largest protected areas of Europe. Information about the forest, which stretches over an area of more than 150 thousand hectares, is also found in works of the ‘father of history’, Herodotus, and later in the Ipatiev Chronicle of 983. According to specialists, the site is home to over a thousand species of flora and 12 thousand species of fauna, and the average age of its trees is about a hundred years. Moreover, there are even true old-timers – such as 600-year-old giant oaks.
The artificial fence, which cut almost the entire Belovezhskaya Pushcha, caused indignation among environmentalists and animal rights activists who note that such a ‘barrier’ violates the migration processes of animals and harms the environment.
The work of Belarus’ representatives at the UNESCO site made it possible to draw the organisation's attention to the environmental aspect of the situation developing along the Belarusian-Polish border and its potential impact on the state of the transboundary object, as well as to adopt an appropriate decision of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
The Committee requested Belarus and Poland to submit an updated joint report to the World Heritage Centre by February 1st, 2024 on the state of preservation of Belovezhskaya Pushcha and the implementation of the recommendation of the 2018 responsive monitoring mission for its subsequent consideration at a regular session.
In the near future, the efforts of the Belarusian side will be focused on the implementation of the points of this decision.
