Neil Bune Is Ready To Take Participation In Negotiations Between Public And Belarusian Authorities On Problems Of Belovezhskaya Pushcha

Minsk, January 13, 2003.

Head of the UN representative office in Minsk Neil Bune agreed to take participation in dialogs between public and Belarusian authorities on the problems of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. He declared this in Minsk on January 13 during a meeting with the editor-in-chief of "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" Newspaper, head of public ecological initiation "Terra-Kanvencyay" Valery Dranchuk.

As it was said earlier, twelve well known Belarusian and Russian journalists, V. Dranchuk among them, addressed to N. Bune with proposal to organize a 3 day press-tour to Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park together with public and scientific representatives, who are working on the problems of this oldest European forest. The main occurrence of this action, as journalists proposed, should be discussion on the topic of industrial consumption and destroying the biodiversity in Belovezhskaya Pushcha.

Speaking on behalf of the other journalists, V. Dranchuk said:

"Belarusian non governmental media has expressively established the fact that the preserving quality of Belovezhskaya Pushcha as a global reservation is in doubt. Nevertheless the journalists' anxiety is addressed not only to Belarusian Government. We would like to see that the voice of the public is heard and taken into consideration by the UN representative office, by the organization that can skillfully estimate the level of preserving of Global Nature Heritage of UNESKO in according to signed international convinces. Our proposal was pointed on dialog, with public participation, which are under anxiety about the state of this National Park and implementing of nature conservation responsibilities taken by Belarus. We hope that this dialog will be taken not in offices but at the "site of the occurrence" which Belovezhskaya Pushcha is".

As N. Bune noticed, Belovezhskaya Pushcha as a part of Global Nature Heritage should keep its natural temper. Its nature conservation policy, high-level status and proper management might contribute to this. According to the words of N. Bune, the information that he has known "will be carefully estimated in close cooperation with Belarusian Government". "We should be oriented on dialog and contribute to solving tense situation in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in every possible way", - emphasized N. Bune. He does not exclude the opportunity of a press-tour to Belovezhskaya Pushcha in the frame of such a dialog, and to get international experts as well, in case of the interest of Belarusian authorities.

Marat Gorevoy, BelaPAN.
BelaPAN Company
News communique
January 13, 2003