APPROVED
Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus 
dated November 11, 2010 No. 1707

STRATEGY
on conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity  for 2011-2020

CHAPTER 1 
INTRODUCTION

At present, the decrease of biological diversity and ecological systems is among most serious ecological problems of the modern world with its own peculiarities. Currently, we are witnessing intensive transformation of natural ecological systems with many living organism species disappearing. The natural ecosystems have transformed completely in the fifth part of the terrestrial part of the world. The Red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature currently includes over 17,000 species of wild animals and plants, which have become rare or are under threat of extinction. 21 percent of mammals, 30 percent of amphibians, 12 percent of birds, 28 percent of reptiles, 37 percent of freshwater species of fish, 35 percent of the spineless and 70 percent of wild plants are under threat of extinction right now. 
Further decrease of biological diversity may result in destabilized biota, loss of biosphere integrity and its ability to sustain most important characteristics of the environment that are vital for the life itself. Conservation of biological diversity on the Earth is an indispensable condition for the survival of the human being and the civilization sustainable development. 
So as to solve these problems, on June 5, 1992 in the city of Rio de Janeiro, there was signed the Convention on Biological Diversity; its aims are as follows: conservation of biological diversity, sustainable utilization of its components and fair and just distribution of benefits obtained as a result of utilizing genetic resources, including that via granting the necessary access to genetic resources, appropriate submission of the corresponding technologies with all the rights for such resources and technologies taken into account, as well as via sufficient financing.
In accordance with the Ordinance of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Belarus dated June 10, 1993, "On Ratification of Convention on Biological Diversity" (“Vedamasti Vyarkhounaga Saveta Respubliki Belarus”, 1993, No. 27, p. 347) the Convention on Biological Diversity was ratified by the Republic of Belarus.
To fulfill the provisions of the above Convention there was adopted a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated June 26, 1997, No. 789 “On Approval of the National Strategy and Action Plan for Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Biological Diversity of the Republic of Belarus” (the Collection of decrees, Presidential edicts and ordinances of the Government of the Republic of Belarus, 1997, No. 17 – 18, p. 653). 
The analysis of the fulfillment of the above mentioned documents proved that the Republic of Belarus had taken serious measures for the sake of conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity. At the same time, with the changes, that had taken place since the adoption of these documents (global warming, foreign species invasion etc.), as well as the resolution of the X Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (city of Nagoya, Japan, 2010), taken into account, there was worked out the strategy on conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity for 2011-2020 (hereinafter – the strategy).

CHAPTER 2
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS  

Natural complexes and ecological systems occupy 11,891.6 thousand ha, or 57.3 percent of the territory of the country (20,759.8 thousand ha). These are forest areas and areas covered with hardy-shrub species (9064.8 thousand ha – 43.6 percent), natural meadow areas (1029.9 thousand ha – 5 percent), marshy areas (889.6 thousand ha – 4.3 percent), areas with water bodies (470.2 thousand ha – 2.3 percent) and territories with lands that are not utilized (437.1 thousand ha – 2.1 percent).
In Belarus one can observe a steady tendency of forest areas increase. The average forest age is 51.5 years.
The territory of the Republic of Belarus belongs to two geobotanical regions which are Eurasian coniferous forest (taiga) and European broad-leaved forest.
Among all the ecological systems the following ones are of special importance for biological diversity: broad-leaved, broad-leaved and spruce and sticky alder forests, humidified or seasonally inundated meadows, lowland and upland swamps, lakes, as well as ecosystems of river valleys and beds. 
The territory of the country may be subdivided into 5 landscape provinces and 55 landscape zones. The most valuable landscape types are the following ones, which are rare in Europe: 
swamp (4.3 percent of the territory of the country);
inundated territories (4.2 percent);
forest (2.3 percent);
kame, morainic and lake complexes (1.3 percent).
The flora is represented by 12,000 species (2,100 species of higher plants and over 9,000 species of lower plants (water grass, lichen) and mushrooms). During the recent century the Belarusian territory has lost about 70 indigenous species of wild plants.
The fauna is represented by 472 species of backboned animals and over 30,000 species of invertebrate animals. The ichthyofauna is represented by 63 species, including 3 species of lampreys and 60 species of fish with 46 of them being indigenous ones. There are 13 species of amphibians including 2 species of efts and 11 species of the tailess (toads, frogs etc.). There are 7 species of reptiles: 
1 specie of turtles, 3 species of lizards and 3 – of snakes. The mammals are represented by 6 orders: the insectivore – 10 species, bats – 15, the predaceous – 16, lagomorphs – 2, gnawing animals – 24, the artiodactyle – 6. There have been registered 316 species of birds with 227 of them nestling. 

CHAPTER 3
STATE ADMINISTRATION IN THE SPHERE OF CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE UTILIZATION OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY 

For the sake of conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity in the Republic of Belarus there were enacted the following laws of the Republic of Belarus: “On Protection of Environment” dated November 26, 1992 (Vedamasti Vyarkhounaga Saveta Respubliki Belarus, 1993, No. 1, p. 1; the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 2002, No. 85, 2/875), “On Specially Protected Areas” dated October 20, 1994, (Vedamasti Vyarkhounaga Saveta Respubliki Belarus, 1994, No. 35, p. 570; the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 2000, No. 52, 2/171), “On the vegetable world” dated June 14, 2003 (the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 2003, No. 73, 2/954), “On the Safety of Genetic Engineering Activity” dated January 9, 2006 (the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 2006, No. 9, 2/1193), “On the Animal World” dated July 10, 2007 (the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 2007, No. 172, 2/1354), as well as some other regulatory legal acts. 
The Republic of Belarus is a party to several international agreements concerning conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity, including:
The Convention on Biological Diversity (the Ordinance of the Supreme Soviet "On Ratification of Convention on Biological Diversity" dated June 10, 1993 (“Vedamasti Vyarkhounaga Saveta Respubliki Belarus”, 1993, No. 27, p. 347); 
The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity (the Law of the Republic of Belarus dated May 6, 2002, “On Accession of the Republic of Belarus to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity” (the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 2002, No. 53 – 54, 2/846);
The Convention on the Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Wildlife Habitat (the Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus dated May 25, 1999, No.  292 “On Legal Succession of the Republic of Belarus in respect of  the Convention on the Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Wildlife Habitat” (the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 1999, No. 41, 1/377);
The Convention on Migratory Species (the Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus dated March 12, 2003, No. 102 “On Accession of the Republic of Belarus to the Convention on Migratory Species” (the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus,  2003, No. 32, 1/4443);
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (the Ordinance of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Belarus dated December 20, 1994 “On Accession of the Republic of Belarus to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora” (“Vedamasti Vyarkhounaga Saveta Respubliki Belarus”, 1995, No. 24 – 25, p. 339). 
There were worked out and are being carried out the National strategy of development and administration of the system of nature conservation territories up to January 1, 2015, and the Strategy of fulfilling the Convention on the Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Wildlife Habitat, approved by the Ordinance of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated December 29, 2007, No.  1920 “On Approval of the National strategy of development and administration of the system of nature conservation territories up to January 1, 2015” (the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 2008, No. 27, 5/26646) and “On Approval of the Strategy of fulfilling the Convention on the Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Wildlife Habitat” No. 177 dated February 10, 2009 (the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus, 2009, No. 44, 5/29297).
The state policy in the sphere of conservation of biological and landscape diversity is carried out by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Protection, as well as other republican authorities of state administration, local executive-administrative bodies and other organizations. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Protection performs the function of coordinating the actions of the state authorities and other organizations in this sphere. 
Conservation of biological diversity in the Republic of Belarus as well as providing its sustainable utilization are among the top priority tasks of the state policy in the environmental sphere and fulfilled by means of various mechanisms, among which one should mention:
Keeping the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus, which contains rare and endangered species of wild animals and plants. At present, among them one can find 188 species of wild animals and 274 species of plants and mushrooms. In order to provide their conservation, the areas of their habitat and growth are submitted to the owners of land lots and (or) water bodies for them to control and protect such areas. As of January 1, 2010, 2039 areas of habitat of 71 species of wild animals and 1040 areas of growing of 103 species of wild animals, included into the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus, were placed under such control and protection;
Providing functioning and development of the system of specially protected natural areas in the territory of the Republic of Belarus. As of January 1, 2010, the system includes 1 nature reserve (the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve), 
4 national parks (the Belovezhskaya pushcha national park, the Braslav lakes, the Lake Naroch National Park and the National Park "Pripyatsky"), 433 partial reserves (85 republican and 348 local ones) and 847 natural monuments (305 republican and 542 local ones). The total area of specially protected natural territories is 1595.6 thousand ha or 7.7 percent of the territory of the country. The specially protected natural territories of the Republic of Belarus have been internationally recognized. Thus, the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve, the Belovezhskaya pushcha national park and the republican partial reserve “Pribuzhskoye Polesye” got the status of biosphere reservations, 57 territories got the international nature conservation status (key botanic territories, territories, that are important for birds, sites of wetlands of the international importance);
Defining natural sites that are subject to special protection (water conservation zones, landside of water bodies, water-conservation forest, protective forests, special protective forest areas, areas of habitat and growing of rare and endangered species of wild animals and plants and other territories, which have got special nature conservation regime of protection and utilization). The total area of such natural sites is 3000.6 thousands ha or 14.4 percent of the territory of the country;
The state administration of utilization of objects of the animal and vegetable world as far as tools, methods, terms, the volume of withdrawal of such objects are concerned;
The state ecological expertise and estimation of the impact that business and other activity may have on the environment in case such activity may affect biological diversity;
The compensatory measures (compensation payments) when certain business or other activity affecting the biological diversity takes place;
Controlling the process of accommodating new species of wild animals and plants in the territory of the republic (based on authorizations issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Protection subject to the approval of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus), struggle against invasive foreign species (there was established the Centre for dealing with invasive foreign species of animals and plants under the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus, the plan aiming at preventing and minimizing the harmful impact of  invasive aggressive foreign species of wild animals and plants for 2006 – 2010 is being fulfilled); 
The cadastre of the animal and vegetable world;
Monitoring the animal and vegetable world, complex monitoring of ecological systems at the specially protected natural sites;
Creating microorganism collections as well as zoological and botanic collections;
Other mechanisms in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus. 

CHAPTER 4
MAIN PROBLEMS IN THE SPHERE OF CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE UTILIZATION OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY IN THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS 

In spite of the achievements in the sphere of conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity we still witness the impact of negative factors upon natural ecological systems and populations of wild animals and plants in the Republic of Belarus.
One of the main factors of natural origin is the climate change which results in tough competition between indigenous and foreign species of wild plants and animals, conditions favorable for illnesses and depredators. In conditions of the global climate change the republic experiences decreasing number of  areas for boreal species of wild plants and animals, while there appear some new species typical for steppe and forest-steppe zones, and the number of populations of some species of wild plants and animals of inundated, riverside and wetland ecosystems is decreasing.
As far as human-caused factors are concerned, the most dangerous ones are the following:
Changing of the established types of extensive land-utilization;
Weediness of open natural meadows and lowland swamps with shrub vegetation;
Plowing of meadows, mechanized haymaking without observing the terms and rules set with the wild animals and plants conservation taken into account;
Polluting natural ecological systems; 
Fragmentation, violation and degradation of natural wildlife habitual area as a result of high degree urbanization of separate regions and intensive development of the transport communication system;
Violating natural hydrological regime of natural ecosystems (rivers, swamps, lakes) due to irrigation and drainage measures;
Decrease of areas of forests, complex in their composition, including broad-leaved forests, and substituting them with monodominant forest plantation;
Forest and peat fires, as well as fires caused by burning down grassland vegetation;
Anthropogenic stress, caused by recreation activity and tourism.
Moreover, some species of wild plants with low degree of ecological flexibility are affected by radioactive contamination in the zone suffered as a result of the Chernobyl Atomic Power Station accident.

CHAPTER 5
AIMS AND MAIN DIRECTIONS OF THE STRATEGY 

The aims are as follows: 
Preventing the decrease of the population and diversity of species of wild animals, plants and ecosystems; restoring rare and endangered species of wild animals and plants, their populations and genetic diversity, sustaining their number which is necessary for their sustainable existence;
Utilizing biological diversity in such a way and with such intensity so as not to lead in the longer term perspective to its depletion and so as to allow conserving its ability to satisfy economic, esthetic and other needs of the present and future generations.
The strategic aims are planned to be attained via complex measures with the following directions taken into account: 
Improved legal basis and economic mechanisms of conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity (including reviewing the current regulatory legal acts and working new ones out for the sake of conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity); 
Providing efficient biological diversity protection and the state regulating of its resources utilization including optimized system of specially protected natural sites, forming the national ecological network and providing of its functioning, announcing biosphere reservations, developing tourism at specially protected natural sites, with all the normative standards of permissible anthropogenic stress for these territories taken into account, and a network of “green routes” as an alternative type of biological diversity resources utilization, utilizing objects of the animal and vegetable world in such a way so as not to exhaust them in case of hunting, fishing and forestry activity, and other measures; 
Developing the system of information and scientific support in the sphere conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity, raising the awareness level of the public, local citizens, representatives of the state authorities and other organizations as well as involving the public, local citizens, representatives of the state authorities and other organizations into the process of solving the issues in this sphere; 
More active international cooperation in the sphere of conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity, including working out suggestions on entering into new international agreements in this sphere and requesting international technical assistance for the sake of carrying out the corresponding projects. 

CHAPTER 6
THE EXPECTED RESULTS OF THE STRATEGY 

As a result of the strategy fulfillment it is planned to achieve the following: 
To provide complete and system legal regulation of public relations concerning conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity;
To develop instruments to effect economic estimation of the resources of conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity and ecological and economic mechanism of stimulating conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity based on the ecological rent and target budget financing;
To form national ecological network and create conditions for its integration into the pan-European ecology net;
To optimize the system of specially protected natural sites in the territory of not less than 8.3 percent of the territory of the country, having taken into account the increase in the structure of specially protected natural sites based on the types of dominating ecosystems of the share of swamp and meadow ecosystems, as well as managing the specially protected natural sites of international importance on the basis of the plan of managing these territories (not less than 20 management plans);
To minimize negative impact of invasive foreign species of wild animals and plants upon the state of populations of indigenous species and ecosystems, to improve mechanisms that prevent invasion of new foreign species of wild animals and plants, as well as to decrease their negative impact upon the environment;
To provide conservation of populations of rare and endangered species of wild animals and plants (greater spotted eagle, serpent eagle, fish-hawk, golden plover, black-tailed godwit, double snipe, aquatic warbler etc.) via protecting their main biotopes (open lowland swamp – 30,000 ha, inundated meadowy lands – 40,000 ha, upland and transition swamp – 160,000 ha);
To identify and place under control and protection minimum 1500 habitats of wild animals and minimum 1000 places of growing of wild plants which are among the species included into the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus;
To provide within the framework of the system of nature protection territories the protection of more than 85 percent of species of wild plants and not less than 95 percent of wild animals, included into the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus; 
To prevent further decrease of the number of species of wild animals that are under the threat of global extinction, including aquatic warbler, greater spotted eagle, corncrake, double snipe, bear, otter;
To work out at least 10 national action plans aiming at conserving species of wild animals and plants, included into the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus, and provide their fulfillment; 
To create new populations containing at least 5 species of wild animals and plants included into the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus in-situ; 
To restore viable populations of at least 5 species of wild animals and plants, included into the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus, or that used to live in the territory of the Republic of Belarus, but disappeared; 
To develop reproduction technologies ex-situ for at least 10 species of wild animals and plants, that are under threat of extinction and included into the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus;
To include conservation of biological diversity into plans for land-utilization in the regions (at least 20); 
To decrease the share of monodominant forest plantation when effecting reforestation with simultaneous increase of woodiness of sparsely wooded regions, to decrease the area of valuable forests growing for a long time, as well as to implement the concept of conserving forests with high level of biological diversity, to carry out forest utilization with the international forest administration certification and forest utilization requirements taken into account;
To restore at least 15 percent of degraded or transformed ecosystems;
To provide ecological tourism development in the specially protected natural sites which offer many opportunities for tourism development;
To work out and approve normative standards for the acceptable level of anthropogenic stress in case of specially protected natural sites, utilized for tourism (at least 15 specially protected natural sites);
To provide functioning of the “green routes” network;
To carry out efficient monitoring so as to provide safety of the genetic engineering activity; 
To improve methods of monitoring the animal and vegetable world, complex monitoring of ecosystems in specially protected natural territories,  на особо охраняемых природных территориях, cadastral registering of the animal and vegetable world; 
To establish a network of “green schools” and provide their functioning;
To establish at least 15 ecological centers, museums so as to make the elements of folk culture and traditions more popular in order to conserve wild nature;
To obtain new up-to-date fundamental and application-oriented scientific knowledge in the sphere of ecology, biology, geography, economics of environmental management;
To raise the level of education and awareness among the state authorities, other organizations, as well as ordinary people in the sphere of conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity; 
To guarantee that the Republic of Belarus will fulfill all of its obligations under international agreements in the sphere of biological diversity conservation; 
To request international technical assistance so as to solve main problems in the sphere of conservation and sustainable utilization of biological diversity.
The efficiency of the strategy implementation is determined by the indices, reflecting changes in qualitative and quantitative composition of biological diversity based on the results of monitoring (number, habitat area) species of the animal and vegetable world of the Republic of Belarus, on the scientific data about the composition of types of ecosystems and its changes.