Problems of division of forests of Belarus into recreation areas | К вопросу о рекреационном районировании лесов Беларуси

The improvement of the Belarusian forestry management system is inextricably related to the formation and further development of a zone system of forestry. In the territory of Belarus the author has distinguished two main zones – recreational exploitation and recreational protected areas. The recreational-protection area occupies the most part of the territory of Belarus – 6059.7 thousand hectares (63.8%) and covers 73 administrative districts, were forests serve important recreation functions. The special-purpose zone occupies 3994.3 thousand hectares (42.7%) and covers 47 districts. The recreational-exploitation zone is considerably smaller in area – 3290.4 thousand hectares (35.2%) and includes 45 districts. Within recreational-protection zone the ecological functions served by forests are used to estimate their economic importance. As the ecological and economic needs are supplied, the recreational component decreases in importance , however, the possibility to serve ecological demands high enough. The division of forests into zones permitted the author to establish by way of examination the recreational value depending on the intensity of the forest plantation productivity decrease, as well as of their recreational attraction. The division of forests into zones is the necessary condition of the development of a highly profitable and economically independent system of forestry including cases of its recreational utilization, as it may serves as a major tool to control the multipurpose use of forests. Well-defined boundaries between the recreational-protection and special-purpose recreational-protection zones will prevent an excessive recreational load and other adverse environmental impacts resulted from the public recreation in forests. Within the recreational-exploitation zone consideration must be given to the fact the recreational activities are to be combined there with a full-scale forestry bases on timber utilization.