is a unique European forest. It is situated in the west of the republic within Grodno and Brest regions and occupies the territory of 87.36 thousand hectares. The administrative centre is situated in Kamenyuki settlement Kamenets district at a distance of 60 kms from Brest. 20 kms from Belavezhskaya Pushcha the town of Kamenets is located, it was founded by Prince Vladimir Volynski in the 13th century, a watch-tower (Belaya Vezha) rises above there and the name of Belavezhskaya Pushcha comes probably from this name. In the centre of the pushcha there is a small village Viskuli, where an attractive palace was built in 50-s and which served the leaders of the former USSR and now Belarus for the residence. In 1991 the famous "Belavezha" agreement about independent republics dropping out from the USSR was signed here and Viskuli got the world fame. A wide reputation to the pushcha is given by: the only availability of the last remains of vast in 13th century European forests with the presence of relic plants and animals populations (aurochs, first of all); diversity and riches of biogeocenoses and ecosystems on a comparatively small territory with homogeneous geologic texture and the climate similar to that of the Central Europe (the average annual temperature is +6.6 C). In immediate proximaty to the borders of Belavezha forest tract there is a watershed of the Baltic and the Black seas. The Narev river springs from beyond the borders of the pushcha, crosses the Dikoye marsh, then the northern part of the pushcha from east to west and has swamped narrow flood-lands. Its main tributary is the Narev. The river Pravaya Lesnaya which basin is separated from the one of the Narev by Belavezha ridge, springs from the territory of Poland, runs to the south-eastern direction and crosses the southern border of the pushcha. There it interflows with the Levaya Lesnaya making up the Lesnaya river which falls into the Bug northward of Brest. The Narev, Narevka and Pravaya Lesnaya take a number of small rivers and brooks, such as Gvozna, Solomenka, Pererovnisa, Perevoloka and others which river-heads are situated within the pushcha. There are no natural lakes on the territory of the pushcha. The largest of ten artificial ponds have been created in the flood-lands of the Perevoloka river (the lake Lyadskoye - 345 hectares and the lake Khmelevskoye 75 hectares), where great numbers of waterfowls stop during their flights. The flora of the pushcha are represented by 900 species of vascular cryptogamous and seminal plants, which make up 64% of specific composition of plants that grow on the territory of the Republic. About 10% of species are arboreous suckers, among which there are 25 species of trees, 35 of shrubs and suffrutices, 12 species of dwarf shrubs. Conifers are represented by Scotch pine and Common Spruce as well as by Silver Fir, rare in this region. About 260 species of mosses, more than 290 species of lichenes and 570 of fungi grow in the pushcha. Belavezha forests are distinguished by the presence of lots of virgin forests. They are mainly (more than a half) represented by old-aged standing trees (100-200 years old), which have formed and developed in comparatively natural conditions. There are 250-350-year old lots, several trees at the age of 300-600 have preserved here. Conifer woods make up 68.8% of the forest-covered area and mainly are represented by pine (58.0%) and spruce forests (10.7%). There are 5.8% of broad-leaved forests in the pushcha and approximately as much again there are narrow-leaved ones. Root deciduous marsh forests are spread there (18.7%). Moss and grass marshes occupy the area of 3.16 thousand hectares. Marshes as the regulators of gas composition of atmosphere and hydrologic regimen play an important part in keeping up the stability of Belavezhskaya Pushcha ecosystems and in preserving its biodiversity. The fauna of the pushcha number more than 10 thousand species. More than 59 species of mammals dwell here including the biggest representative of the modern European fauna aurochs. Rodents are the most numerous, there are more than 20 species of them. The most remarkable among them is beaver. Out of carnivores wolf ,fox, lynx, pine marten dwell in the pushcha. Big ungulates such as wild boar, red deer, roe and elk are animals for hunting and their total number is optimised. Aurochs also used to be a species for hunting in its past, but it hat been completely exterminated by 1919. The biotechnical measures that had been carried out let re-establish the head of livestock and led the number of aurochses up to 300 in the pushcha. 227 species of birds are taken stock of in Belavezhskaya Pushcha, 40 of them are put in the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus. The herpetofauna number 11 species of amphibious and 7 species of reptiles. 24 fishes dwell in reservoirs. The most numerous is pike, roach, tench, ruff and perch. Belavezhskaya Pushcha has got rich fauna of invertebrates. Only here there are about 8500 species of insects.