BY-129654 Belovezhskaya Puscha

Today I received a beautiful postcard with a baby Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa), from Alexandra (Belarus).

The postcard was issued by Belarus Post in 3000 copies in 2009 when it was celebrated the "600th anniversary of Belovezhskaya Puscha reserve status".

"The Belovezhskaya Puscha national park is located on the territory of Kamenets & Pruzhany districts of Brest region and Svisloch district of Grodno region. The administrative centre of the national park is in Kameniuki village of Kamenets district. The state national park “Belovezhskaya Puscha” of Belarus forms a single nature reserve with Poland’s Belovezhski National Park.

The first records about the intact wood on the territory of the present Belovezhskaya Puscha were made by Gerodot in the 5th century B. C.  It was also mentioned in the Ipatiev Chronicles in 983. At the end of the 14th century Lithuanian Prince Yagailo proclaimed these lands a reserve. He put a veto upon hunting in Belovezhskaya Puscha. Since 1588 the felling of trees was also forbidden there.

In 1992 UNESCO put Belovezhskaya Puscha on its World Heritage List. In 1993 the park acquired the status of a biosphere reserve, and in 1998 — the status of the key international ornithological area. In 1997 Belovezhskaya Puscha was awarded with a diploma of the Council of Europe for an immense contribution to environment protection.

Belovezhskaya Puscha is one of the oldest nature reserves in the world. In 2009 the Belovezhskaya Puscha National Park marks the 600th anniversary of its reserve status. This date is put into the List of memorable dates of UNESCO."