Two major international forums devoted to wetland conservation were held in Belarus last week.

On June 19-21, Pinsk (Brest region) hosted a seminar “European Polesie – Economic Importance and Environmental Risks” organized by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus under financial support of the UNDP project “Catalyzing sustainability of the wetland protected area system in Belarusian Polesie through increased management efficiency and realigned land use practices” in partnership with the Central European Initiative. The leading Belarusian and foreign environment protection and nature management experts gathered to consider economic and environmental challenges facing the Polesie region with the goal to contribute to development of technological regulations of economic activity, reduction of possible negative consequences of technogenesis and extreme nature phenomena.

Located in the centre of Europe, Polesie is a unique biogeorgaphical area with vast forests, wetlands and floodplains which have retained their natural condition and are of enormous economic and environmental importance. Covering 52 administrative districts of Belarus and over 30% of the national territory (6 million hectares of lands in total), Polesie is greater in area than Denmark, the Netherlands or Switzerland.

“In the course of the seminar we heard a great number of reports made by experts in various fields,” said Galina Volchuga, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection. “This comprehensive approach as well as knowledge and experience which we derived from the seminar will lay a foundation for our future scientific work and help carry out an objective analysis of the causes of the ongoing processes.”

On June 20-21, the III International Conference of the Michael Otto Foundation “Wetland Protection and Climate Change in Belarus” was held in Minsk. The forum was organized by UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and NGO APB-BirdLife Belarus. The main objective of the conference was to review the political, scientific and economic grounds for restoration and protection of wetlands in Belarus for the benefit of preservation of biodiversity and mitigation of climate change – the major challenge facing the world today.

The key measures taken to prevent climate change, apart from reducing emissions of industrial greenhouse gases, include conservation and restoration of peatlands and forests as natural sinks of carbon dioxide, which is the most abundant greenhouse gas. Peatlands are able to absorb considerable quantities of carbon only in natural state, i.e. when the peat layer is waterlogged. Wetlands are also important as home for numerous species of plants and animals.

The Minsk conference demonstrated possibilities for implementation of nature conservation activities, which contribute to climate change mitigation efforts, while simultaneously providing socio-economic benefits and promoting biodiversity preservation. The conference also looked into opportunities for Belarus to benefit from carbon emissions trading through rewetting and sustainable management of peatlands.

On June 21, the Pinsk seminar participants joined in an ecological-technical tour on the route Pinsk-Turov. It is to note that half of the way was made by a river motor boat. The tour was used for presentation of the major directions of nature management optimization in connection with the regional land reclamation. On June 22, the participants of the Michael Otto Foundation Conference went on a field trip to the degraded peatland Bartenikha (Volozhin district, Minsk region) that is being restored under the UNDP-GEF project on renaturalization and sustainable management of peatlands.

For more information, please contact UNDP Communications Associate, Vladislav Khilkevich, at 227 38 17, e-mail: .

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