20 June 2003
New nature reserve established in Brest region
The government placed under its protection an area of 7,950 hectares in the Brest region, designating the territory Pribuzhskoye Polesye.
The measure should be conducive to conserving the area's unique landscape and rare and endangered species of flora and fauna, Nina Tikhonenko, a chief nature reserve expert with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, told BelaPAN. The ministry seeks to preserve unique forest habitats and terrain features of the Polesye region, she noted.
The reserve is inhabited by seven species of reptiles, 12 of amphibia, 40 of fish, 50 of mammals and 214 of birds. Eighty-one out of the 180 threatened species of animals entered in the Red Book of Belarus live in the area. The ministry plans to cooperate with Ukraine and Poland to incorporate the territory into a large international nature reserve, Ms. Tikhonenko said. Belarus has 26 national landscape reserves, according to the official. Efforts are underway to establish a new reserve in the Shchuchin district of the Grodno region, she noted.
http://brestonline.com/en/news/news426.html