IDENTIFICATION OF SPECIALLY VALUABLE FOREST SITES IN THE FOREST FUND
Within the framework of the scientific research carried out a set of activities aimed at identification of rare and typical biotopes, habitats of wild animals and plants listed in the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus in the forest areas of SSFE "Vetkovskiy special forestry enterprise" and SSFE "Narovlyanskiy special forestry enterprise". To solve this goal, the following tasks were solved: review of forest inventory data of forestry enterprises; assessment of the data on previously identified highly valued forest sites in forestry enterprises; review of reports and other data on current forestry activities and operational forest management in forestry enterprises; identification of highly valued forest sites to be listed as conservation sites in accordance with national legal and regulatory acts; amendment of attributive and map data on the identified forest sites based on information obtained from various sources; drafting of conservation documents with the description of protection regimes in compliance with the existing technical legal and regulatory acts. A network of the identified highly valued forest sites was created for conservation purposes, including promotion of natural succession growth and development of forest communities. Social impacts include using of the study outcomes for education, building environmental awareness and changing attitude towards wildlife and natural sites, conservation of highly valued forest sites, as well as creating a network of facilities for ecological education of local schoolchildren, university students and adult population.