Green Economy

The lands of the Naliboksky Republican Landscape Reserve are rich in berry and mushroom places: blueberries, lingonberries, raspberries, quite a lot of strawberries, cumanicas, black currant and red currants, viburnum, mountain ash, boletus, aspen, boletus, boletus. In the marshy pine forests can be found growing areas of cranberries, blueberries, wild rosemary.

But the situation with the collection of wild berries and mushrooms in the reserve was quite tense because of the underdevelopment of the procurement network. Excessive anthropogenic pressure falls on landscapes near highways and large populated areas. On the one hand, this causes damage to ground cover, disturbance of populations of protected species of wild animals (capercaillie, black grouse). On the other hand, residents (mainly pensioners) of settlements that are located deep in the forest of the reserve, it is problematic to hand over the collected products (berries and mushrooms), since for this it is necessary to arrive at procurement points located at a distance of several kilometers.

The pilot initiative resulted in the creation of the conditions for the establishment of a system for collecting wild berries and mushrooms and a complex for freezing them in the Republican Landscape Reserve “Nalibokskiy”.

The implementation of the pilot initiative included the following activities:

• -through the cofinancing provided, an assessment of the biological yield of the main species of berries and mushrooms on the territory of the Republican Landscape Reserve “Nalibokskiy” was conducted. In total, up to 1084 tons of edible berries and 847.6 tons of mushrooms grow ripe in the reserve

• -technical specifications of various equipment for the establishment of the complex for freezing wild harvests were prepared and reviewed

• -through the co-financing provided, a building was bought out to accommodate the complex for storing and freezing wild berries and mushrooms, design estimates for the reconstruction of the building and organization of the production of frozen berries and mushrooms was developed, and the design estimates received positive conclusion based on the results of their examination

The procurement and installation of the equipment for the establishment of the production of frozen berries and mushrooms was not completed within the framework of the pilot initiative since no co-financing was provided as originally envisaged for the implementation of the reconstruction of the building to organize the production of frozen berries and mushrooms.

Meanwhile, within the framework of the pilot initiative, all the preparatory works and activities were carried out to allow establishment of a system for harvesting wild berries and mushrooms and a complex for freezing them in the Republican Landscape Reserve “Nalibokskiy”.