TEXT 3 Protection of Birds in Belarus
Which of us hasn’t been dreaming about feeling a free flight of a bird at least for a moment? Even the most colorful landscapes are looking differently from a bird’s-eye view. We often raise our eyes up in the sky to find a rare common kestrel or a jay there. Meanwhile, it can be so interesting to watch how our feathery neighbors, sparrows, are bathing in a puddle or how city pigeons are sharing grain crumbs.
In total there are 312 bird species in Belarus. Among the rarest of them are the black stork, the big spotted eagle, the falcon. Each of them should be noticed and paid attention to. Belarus is a country of bee-eaters and great grey owls, terek sandpipers and great white egrets.
Swampy forest is a quite typical habitat through the country. Woods of black alder is good isolated habitat of three-toed woodpecker, black stork and lesser spotted eagle. However, the beautiful Belarus mires and rivers are just remnants of the habitat mosaic that existed only 40 years ago. Thousands of kilometers of good rivers have been canalized. Two-thirds of peatlands have been transformed into farmlands. The destructive excavation of peat for fuel still continues. Woods, especially mature oak and ash woods, are overexploited.
How can people be convinced to use nature in a traditional sustainable way? How can the home of endangered species be saved at the same time as needing to feed people? How can people be good neighbors to nature reserves? How can the country be rich and still save our nature?
Belarusian ecological organization “Protection of the Birds of Nativeland” does its best to find answers to those questions and make the international slogan"Save the birds -- save the future" as popular in Belarus as anywhere else in the world.
Belarus is an important migratory stopover area for birds of the Western Palearctic. Our country is located right on the main migratory "highway" for numerous water birds flying from northern regions of Russia and Scandinavia to Africa and Western Europe. Thousands of raptors, storks and waders cross the country every year. Therefore, it is of utter importance for Belarus to cooperate with other countries in the area of conservation and wise use of renewable natural resources.
Thus, not so long ago ornithologists from Belarus and representatives of “Bird Life International” organization from Great Britain and Sweden met on the session of bird protectors in Minsk. By the way, “Bird Life International” is a global environmental protection association which is responsible for protection of birds, their habitat and nature in general.
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On this meeting the Head of the Republican public organization “Protection of the Birds of Nativeland” Alexander Vinchevsky said that “blanks” in the data about birds should be filled up with information. For this purpose the specialists and scientists of our country are working at the “Atlas of Birds of Belarus”.
This organization which is an official representative of the international association Birdlife International became an initiator of the national campaign “Bird of the Year”. The goal of the company is to attract the attention of citizens to birds as one of the most important element of nature the quality of which effects the health of people.
Since the year of 2000 such rare species of birds as white stork, white wagtail, gold-hammer, sparrow, city swallow, lapwing and nightingale have been called “A Bird of the Year”. Belarusian Post traditionally issues stamps from the series "A Bird of the Year" with the assistance of organization “Protection of the Birds of Nativeland”. Moreover, the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus regards a matter of issuing coins with a bird of the year.
Besides taking part in this bird-saving campaign Belarus has also been participating in the European project on separation of key ornithological territories. The system of key ornithological territories includes the main points of habitat of rare and endangered bird species.
The international status “key ornithological territory” does not convey any practical direction, that is it doesn’t give any foundation to forbid economic activities in such places. At the same time it is the additional serious argument for creation of environmental regime here. Nesting of birds, their migration processes and quantitative index are the main criteria determining the status of a “territory important for birds”. Such measures can help save even globally endangered species of birds which are not able to survive without human protection. Europe has twenty bird species of that kind while Belarus has only five of them.
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Specialists like ornithologists and ecologists choose the places vital for population support of rare and endangered bird species at the time of their nesting or migration. Scientists have worked out a list of criteria of the threshold number of such species.
It’s necessary to note that ornithological territories have to meet the requirements of a whole set of different criteria. When specialists come to such places they watch the birds inhabiting them and try to find out if these sites correspond to the status of “territories important for birds”.
“One of the most widely-known species of endangered birds in Belarus is the restless warbler. It is the only representative of globally endangered sparrow-like birds of Continental Europe. By the way, our country has near 60 per cent of the whole world population of this bird. That is why we can say that Belarus is responsible for preservation of the restless warbler more than any other country in the world. If we don’t protect places of nesting of these birds they will simply disappear. The problem is that restless warblers make their nests only on a definite kind of sedge bogs of a lowland type. There are practically no such places in Europe – all of them have already been drained. Our country has preserved some of them.
Let take Zvanet Bog for example. It is the place of nesting of the restless warbler. A great amount of warblers inhabiting this marsh made scientists include it into the list of territories important for birds. Thus, Belarusian specialists gave a full description of Zvanet Bog and all the information was included into the world base. And only after that Zvanet Bog was given the status of the “territory important for birds” with all the following consequences.”
Olmany mires situated in the central part of the Polesie region is a key nesting site of the globally threatened Spotted Eagle and other rare or endangered species of birds.
In 1998 Olmany mires got national and international statuses of protection. This site was recognized “important for birds” and was included into the list of key ornithological territories. By the way, the same status was given to 40 more sites of Belarus.
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As we see, serious measures are taken by Belarusian specialists in order to protect bird habitat and conserve globally endangered species of birds which are not able to survive without human protection.
UNIT 6
TOPIC “C ULTURAL LIFE OF BELARUS”
TOPICAL VOCABULARY
| principality (n) | княжество |
| foreword (n) | предисловие |
| publicist (n) | драматург |
| playwright (n) | публицист |
| serf (adj) | крепостной |
| engraver (n) | гравер |
| potter (n) | гончар |
| weaver (n) | ткач |
| fiendishly (adv) | дьявольски |
| disastrous (adj) | гибельный |
GETTING STARTED
1.What do you know about the development of culture in Belarus in the 16th -18th centuries?
2. What examples of architectural development of our country do you know?
3. What national Belarusian holidays can you name?
4. What do you know about Belarusian national food?
ACTIVITY A
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