The problem of the harmonious coexistence of man and nature becomes more and more daunting these days. It is this topic that the scientific journey of the Flying University was devoted to.
It was Naliboki forest and its surroundings that were chosen as a place that should have been conductive to the disclosure of the topic of the journey by Anna Sidorovich, the candidate of life sciences, who acted as a presenter. The participants of the journey got acquainted with different landscapes step-by-step, starting from the least exposed ones and finishing with those where basically no traces of nature in its primeval state have remained.
Anna Sidorovich told the participants of the journey about the influence of different arrangements on nature usage made by human: for instance, reclamation arrangements on the wetlands or felling of woodlands.
Alongside with the travel in space the journey was accompanied with frequent mental travels in time. And of course, travels to the past: the history of nature development on the Belarusan soils, the history of Naliboki forest and that of natural history research in our country.
On Belarusan soils, as everywhere in the world, nature often fell a victim to the intensive human nature development activity. Many animal species died out because of the uncontrolled hunting. The number of other species declined as well since the abrupt decrease in their natural habitats after the deforestation or the reclamation of the wetlands. Forced placement of species from far abroad to our environment became a new problem for the animals that have long since inhabited our lands. Thus, American minks all across Europe force out smaller European congeners, and raccoon dogs that came from Asia are a serious threat for the survival of the whole line of medium-sized predators (such as, for instance, foxes) traditional for these places.
One of the most impressive moments of the journey was seeing the beaver dam and the story told by Anna Sidorovich about the role beavers play in the transformation of the landscape in their habitats. These lovely animals sometimes cope with the task of waterlogging much better than the huge sophisticated equipped human organizations. And while in Germany vast sums of money are spent in order to return the conducted bog reclamations backwards, Belarusan methods of struggle do the same job with no less success absolutely for free.
The question about how one can lessen the negative impact of nature management on species diversity wasn’t disregarded as well. At the same time Anna Sidorovich dwelled on the issue of the activity of different government bodies which this way or another are involved in the process of decision making and which are important for the preservation of the species diversity on the territory of Belarus.
Thus, the Department of the Interior and the Department of the Environment lack influence among other state bodies so that to efficiently protect nature landscapes from the excessive human interference. And the Department of Transportation, however eager to help scientists and ecologists, often complains of insufficient funds appropriated for the nature conservative measures.
If we start talking about the Departments of Forest and Agriculture, the questions of financial viability are of top priority for these bodies of state administration. Though often a long-term negative impact is neglected for the short-term economic profit.
Perhaps Belarusan officials should have go on such kind of tours to the wilderness nature more often. As after one has visited Naliboki forest once, it would be difficult to sign the decision about yet another deforestation or bog reclamation.
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