Tourism has a large role to play when it comes to nature protection. Besides the very important role of education and information supply, the tourism sector can stimulate local farmers to produce in a nature friendly way or implement nature management on their own land.

Nature is inside and all around us. But more and more plants and animal populations are getting isolated in Protected Areas only. They became very vulnerable because of in- breeding and climate change. The bird research institute SOVON expects that the warmer climate will move European bird populations about 500 km north until the end of this century (SOVON 2008). 33% of the Dutch bird species risk to be extinct because new territory in the north is not available. Niches that are left are taken by southern species, but 25 to 65% of the bird populations in Europe will diminish with 50% if no management measures are taken to create natural “stepping stones”.  

In Europe, a group of Nature Protection organisations and the Council of Europe developed a network of land and water that should function as “Eco-Corridors”: strips of land managed in a nature friendly way between important nature hot spots. In some EU countries, like in the Netherlands it became official policy. The Dutch government has the aim to finish this network in 2018.
 
In Eastern Europe, ecocorridors can have a major impact on the protection of large carnivores, such as Brown Bear, Wolf and Lynx. North Belarus is such potential bridge between the large Russian populations at one site and the small European populations at the other side. A new tourism route area that is currently been developed in North Belarus (see www.greenways.by) accommodate the largest national populations of the Lynx. Although hunting of large carnivores is controlled by the central government and the Belarusian government signed the Bern Convention, hunting permissions for the Lynx are still issued as result of lobbying by hunters.
    
Hunting doesn’t bring revenues for the local population and from the ecosystem point of view it is not necessary because large carnivores are still available in Belarus. It is time that hunters admit that hunting in Protected Areas is done only for pleasure, and sometimes food, and not as a form of management. The most effective “management” is done by the Lynx, the Wolf and the Bear.  

The large carnivores represent a major potential tourism value. All around the world these animals are the major tourist attractions in Protected Areas.  For European foreigners and visitors from Minsk the protected areas of Belarus can potentially build up a good reputation. The local population has in general a positive attitude towards the Lynx, although they fear Wolves and Bears. It is a tough discussion whether or not Wolves and Bears have a place to live on our earth because of this safety issue. But it is in fact also an awareness raising issue, because wolves and bears are far less dangerous than is normally perceived because our folk stories and myths give them characteristics they do not have in reality. No single human has been killed in Belarus in the last century because of attacks. In the United States, with huge bear populations, 50 deaths have been recorded in the whole history because of bear attacks, against 8 times higher this amount by spiders, 13 times higher by snakes and 34 times higher by domestic dogs (Schneider, p.9). Studies show that the more people know about large predators and their behavior, the better is the acceptance of them.

Through the GREENWAYS you can visit certified farmsteads, either by bicycling, hiking, horse riding or canoing through nature areas. How GREENWAYS will manage visitor impact is a question still to be answered.

More reading:

www.greenways.by
www.sovon.nl/pdf/Klimaatboekpresentatie20080115.pdf
www.minlnv.nl
www.ecnc.nl/IndicativeMapAndTech/Index_605.html
https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=2321
www.birdlife.org/worldwide/national/belarus/index.html
www.wsl.ch/land/products/predator/paper1.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/conservation/species
Bear Aware, The Quick Reference Bear Country Survival Guide. Bill Schneider 2001