Site Code BY IPA 003

Country: Belarus

Central coordinates: 55^o 0' 0" North (55.00^o), 26^o 30' 0" East (26.50^o)

Administrative region: Gomel, Grodno, Minsk

Area: 1600 km²

Altitude: 150 - 250

Site Description
This site is one of the best preserved lowland bog and wet meadows sites in Belarus.

Botanical Significance
The site holds 35 nationally important species and 4 regionally threatened species. The bog habitat is in particularly good condition because of the preserved natural hydrology.

Management guidance notes
This site was created by merging two smaller sites
This site is a transboundary protected area with Poland

Notes
Drainage ditches need to be unblocked on the eastern edge. Deer numbers need to be monitored.

This site is one of the best preserved lowland bog and wet meadows sites in Belarus.

The site holds 35 nationally important species and 4 regionally threatened species. The bog habitat is in particularly good condition because of the preserved natural hydrology.

There are several long running botanical research projects from the Institute of Experimental Botany Minsk.

The large area of bog land is largely protected and used for research now, although there was peat cutting in the past. The wet meadows have some limited grazing and there is small scale fishing on the lakes and rivers.

This site is particularly well known for its dragonfly populations and there are also 15 nationally or regionally important bird species at the site

The site has a high level of legal protection at the national level but it is not recognised internationally.

The main threats to the plants & habitats at the site are changes to the water management system & the potential peat extraction over the whole southern area.

Land use

Land use	% Cover	Level
agriculture (animals)		Minor
fisheries/aquaculture		Minor
tourism/recreation		Major
agriculture (arable)		Minor
nature conservation and research	100	Cover
forestry		Major
urban/industrial/transport	3	Cover

Protection

Designation	Protected Area Name	Relationship with IPA	Overlap with IPA
National Park	Prypyatski	protected area contains IPA	82500
Zakaznik	Boloto Moh	protected area contained by IPA	4840
Zakaznik	Porechsky	protected area overlaps with IPA	1500
Zakaznik	Bykchansky	protected area is adjacent to IPA	0
Zakaznik	Golubue Ozera	protected area contains IPA	1500
National Park	Narochansky	protected area overlaps with IPA	1500

Management

Type	Description	Year started	Year finishes
Species Management Plan	Gentianella anglica	1999	2005
Species Management Plan	dry grasslands habitat action plan	1975	2008
Habitat Management Plan	Peatlands Management Plan	2000	2004
Protected Area Management Plan			1999

Threats

Threat	Importance
development (recreation/tourism)	high
forestry (afforestation)	high
agricultural intensification/expansion (general)	medium
agricultural intensification/expansion (horticult)	medium
foresty (intensified forest management)	medium
habitat fragmentation/isolation	medium
agricultural intensification/expansion (arable)	low
burning of vegetation	low
construction/impact of dyke/dam/barrage	low
development (infrastructure/transport)	low
water (drainage)	low
water (extraction/drainage/canalisation/management	low

Threatened Species

Species Name	IPA Assess.	Species Assess.	Abundance	Data quality	Criteria
Angelica palustris (Besser) Hoffm.	2003	2003	dominant	poor
Cypripedium calceolus L.	2004	2004	<1%	poor	A(ii)
Drepanocladus vernicosus (Mitt.) Warnst.	2004	2004	rare	good	A(ii)
Meesia hexasticha (Funck) Bruch	2000	2000	51-75%	medium
Pulsatilla patens (L.) Miller	2004	2004	frequent	good	A(ii)
Salvinia natans (L.) All.	2003	2003	abundant	medium

Botanical Richness

EUNIS level 2 code & name	IPA Assess.	Habitat Assess.	% of indicator species	No. Species	National Biotope	Data quality	Criteria
C2 Surface running waters	2004	2004	10	0		unknown	B
C1 Surface standing waters	2004	2004	0	0		unknown	B
D1 Raised & blanket bogs	2004	2004	0	0		unknown
G4 Mixed deciduous & coniferous woodland	2004	2004	0	0		unknown
G3 Coniferous woodland	2004	2004	0	0		unknown

Threatened Habitats

IPA Habitat code & name	IPA Assess.	Habitat Assess.	Area	Data quality	Criteria
3140 Hard oligo-mesotrophic waters with benthic vegetation of Chara spp.	2003	2003	300	medium	Cii
6450 Northern boreal alluvial meadows	2003	2003	200	poor	Cii
7110* Active raised bogs*	2003	2003	700	good	Ci
7210* Calcareous fens with Cladium mariscus and species of the Caricion davallianae*	2003	2003	100	poor	Ci
7230 Alkaline fens	2003	2003	0	unknown
22.416 [Aldrovanda] communities	2003		2	poor	Cii
51.1 Near-natural raised bogs	2003		700	medium	Cii
54.2 Rich fens	2003		0	unknown
9010* Western Taïga*	2004		120	good

References

There are several research articles and 2 PHD disserations on the site from the Institute of Experimental Botany Minsk. The peatland management documents are available at the following website.

Contact Information

Contact	Contact Type
Oleg Maslovsky	Site report compiler