Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park

Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park is a national park within parts of the Brest Region (Kamyanyets and Pruzhany districts) and Grodno Region (Svislach district) in Belarus adjacent to the border with Poland. It is a preserved part of the UNESCO WHS Białowieża Forest, Belarus, Poland, the last primaeval forest fragment of the Europe's woodlands, that once stretched across the European Plain. It is home to a large population of European bison the continent's heaviest land animals. The border between the two countries runs through the forest, the Białowieża National Park is on the Polish side of the border. Within the forest since May 2015, there is a visa-free regime for hikers and cyclists at the border crossing Pererov-Białowieża.

Geography

The Belovezhskaya Pushcha Biosphere Reserve occupies the area of 216,200 ha (2,162 km2; 835 sq mi) (2015), subdivided into transition, buffer and core zones. The National Park occupies 150,069 ha (1,500.69 km2; 579.42 sq mi) (2015). It is located 70 km (43 mi) north of Brest. The Nature Reserves and the National Parks cover 2.7% of the Brest Region territory and 2.6% of the Grodno Region.

History

In the Second Polish Republic most of the Białowieża Forest was declared a national park on 11 August 1932. After World War II, the forest was divided in accordance with the Polish–Soviet border agreement of August 1945 between the People's Republic of Poland and the Byelorussian SSR of the Soviet Union. Poland reopened the Białowieża National Park in 1947.

The park's headquarters are at Kamyanyuki. In 2009, the Belovezhskaya Pushcha celebrated 600th anniversary of its reserve status. All hotel, cafes were rebuilt, new ones appeared. A center of ecological education was built that houses the Museum of Nature. Annually, about 300,000 people come to see the Pushcha.