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EUROPE AND THE COMMONWEALTH OF
INDEPENDENT STATES
BELARUS
QUICK FACTS
Total UNDP-GEF and Co-Finance: $26,065,354
Total UNDP and Co-Finance: $1,317,636
Total: $27,382,990
SPOTLIGHT
New Integrated Management Programme Secures
Important Biodiversity Habitat 1
RUSSIA
POLAND
LITHUANIA
Grodno
LATVIA
Vitebsk
Minsk
BELARUS
Located near the centre of Europe, Polesie is a unique biogeographical
area of 13.2 million ha covering all of south-
UKRAINE
ern Belarus, northern Ukraine and adjacent areas in Poland
and Russia. During the 1960-1990s, a sweeping drainage
campaign was implemented by the Government, which took
no account of conservation needs. The resulting destruction of natural habitats caused a substantial decline
in biodiversity. But despite the large-scale drainage, hundreds of hectares of fen and floodplain mires located throughout Polesie
still remain in near-natural condition.
In 1999, UNDP, together with the national NGO, APB-BirdLife Belarus, launched a project to secure conservation and sustainable
management of Polesie biodiversity. The project assisted the Government in the implementation of integrated
management plans for key biodiversity sites and the facilitation of better coordination of the
stakeholders involved in management and conservation of natural resources. The initiative was
financially supported by the GEF, the UK’s Darwin Initiative and RSPB.
This design-phase (1999-2002) was pioneering in producing management plans for 3 key
biodiversity ‘hotspots’of Polesie, the national reserves of Sporovsky, Dikoe and Zvanets. The
second phase (2002-2006) – a full GEF-supported project of US$2.9 million and $9.09 million
in co-financing, submitted for approval in June 2005 – will assist the Ministry of Natural
Resources and APB in the implementation of practical nature conservation activities in the
area through realization of the urgent measures laid out in the management plans for the
3 reserves.
By targeted onsite interventions and improving local capacity of the reserve, the programme
has been successful in securing a sustainable future for the biodiversity hotspots of Belarusian
Polesie. It has stimulated positive changes to the overall system of protected areas in Belarus by raising
public awareness of and participation in biodiversity protection as well as increasing the capacity of
the government and local agencies in protected areas management.
BIODIVERSITY
Gomel
RUSSIA
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