The Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure requests a joint decision among the governments of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine, if the E40 waterway project is to be implemented. This needs to be based on sound economic and environmental assessments. The Ukrainian authority stated this in a letter sent to the Save Polesia partner NECU as response to … Read more
During the first weekend of June, Save Polesia partners – APB-BirdLife Belarus and Bahna – held the fifth annual “High Five Pripyat!” kayak tour. The event aims to draw attention to the beauty, and huge value, of the Pripyat and its tributaries if they are left in an unaltered, natural form. Overall about 30 people … Read more
The German Television channel, ARTE, just released a brand-new documentary about the wonders of Polesia – Europe’s Amazon – and the threat of the E40 waterway that would destroy it. The stunning footage shows why the landscape is so unique. It is one of the most biodiverse and culturally rich areas of Europe and a … Read more
This Saturday at Peat-Fest 2021, the ‘Save Polesia’ and the ‘Polesia – Wilderness without borders’ projects will showcase their commitment to protect Europe’s Amazon. The 24-hour long online festival is ‘dedicated to facilitating conversation about peatlands and larger ecological questions’. The free event is organised, for the second time, by a youth-led group RE-PEAT, in … Read more
The Ukrainian State Agency for Exclusion Zone Management (SAZM) kept their promise and removed the E40 waterway from the updated draft 2030 Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Development Strategy. Hence, the previous section on the “Development of transport infrastructure” is not included anymore – as requested by several organisations, who argued that these plans were unacceptable. The … Read more
About a week ago, a group of swimmers from all over Poland protested against a hydroelectric dam. Their way of protest was remarkable: the activists swam in the eight degrees cold Vistula river near the planned construction site in Siarzewo. The proposed dam would severely impact one of Europe’s last big free flowing rivers, namely … Read more
On the 27th of April 2021, Save Polesia partners APB-Birdlife Belarus and Bahna will hold an online roundtable discussion on the “Potential of agro-tourism and ecotourism in Polesia”. The event will be supported by a number of environmental organisations, as well as the business community. Themes to be covered include the potential for ecotourism in … Read more
The Government of Ukraine have approved the ‘Action Plan for the Implementation of the National Transport Strategy until 2030’, which includes the development of the E40 waterway. The ‘Transport Strategy’ serves as a guidance document for the development of the Ukrainian transport sector. According to the ‘action plan’, the Ministry of Infrastructure as well as … Read more
Polesia has enormous potential for the development of sustainable nature-based tourism, finds analysis by tourism specialists from the region. The authors carried out a four-month desk-based review and laid out a roadmap for the development of nature-friendly tourism in the area. They found that: If developed in the right way, nature-based tourism has massive potential … Read more
Belarus’s Council of Ministries officially announces a 10,000-hectare expansion of the Almany Mires Nature Reserve. The reserve now covers more than 104,000 hectares – about the size of Hong Kong. Almany is Europe’s largest intact transition mire, and together with protected areas across the border in Ukraine, it forms the largest complex of bogs and mires on the continent. This unique landscape is one … Read more