'' , iucn_category = II , photo = Bialowieza National Park in Poland0029.JPG , photo_caption = Fallen tree in the

Białowieża Forest Białowieża Forest; lt, Baltvyžių giria; pl, Puszcza Białowieska ; russian: Беловежская пуща, Belovezhskaya Pushcha is a forest on the border between Belarus and Poland. It is one of the last and largest remaining pa ...

Park logo with

European bison The European bison (''Bison bonasus'') or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent ( or ), the zubr (), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, along ...

, map = Poland , relief = 1 , map_caption = Location in Poland , location =

Podlaskie Voivodeship Podlaskie Voivodeship or Podlasie Province ( pl, Województwo podlaskie, ) is a voivodeship (province) in northeastern Poland. The name of the province and its territory correspond to the historic region of Podlachia. The capital and largest c ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, nearest_city =

Hajnówka Hajnówka (; be, Гайнаўка, ''Hajnaŭka''; uk, Гайнівка, ''Hainivka''; yi, האַדזשנאָװקאַ, ''Hachnovka''; russian: Хайнувка) is a town and a powiat seat in eastern Poland (Podlaskie Voivodeship) with 21,442 i ...

, embedded1= , coordinates = , area = , established = 11 August 1932 , visitation_num = 140000 , visitation_year =2005 , governing_body = Ministry of the Environment , url = http://www.bpn.com.pl/ Białowieski park narodowy 06

Białowieża National Park ( pl, Białowieski Park Narodowy) is a

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

, in Eastern

adjacent with the border with

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

. The total area of the park is . It is located southeast of

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Białystok is located in the Białystok U ...

(Poland). It is known for the protection of the best preserved part of the

, Europe's last temperate primaeval forest fragment that once allegedly stretched across the

European Plain The European Plain or Great European Plain is a plain in Europe and is a major feature of one of four major topographical units of Europe - the ''Central and Interior Lowlands''.

. It is home to the world's largest population of

( pl, żubr), the continent's heaviest land animals. The border between the two countries runs through the forest, the Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park is adjacent on the Belarus side of the border. There is a border crossing for hikers and cyclists within the forest. According to one study, the park brings in tourist revenues of about 72 million zloty per year. The characteristic feature of the park is its biological diversity. Białowieża National Park is the only Polish natural property designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. The park is the most important – central zone of Białowieża Forest Biosphere Reserve.

History

The park's formal beginning was the Forest Reserve inspectorate ( pl, Rezerwat) established in 1921. The inspectorate was transformed into the National Park in Białowieża on 11 August 1932 by the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the forest was divided between the

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million ne ...

and the

Belarusian SSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор� ...

of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. The People's Republic of Poland reopened the Białowieża National Park in 1947. The park headquarters is in

Białowieża Białowieża ( be, Белавежа, Biełavieža) is a village (population 2,000 as of 2002) in Poland's Podlasie Province, in the middle of the Białowieża Forest, to which it gave its name. The village is some east of Hajnówka and southe ...

. Currently, the park consists of three administrative units: The Protective Orłówka Precinct, the Conservation District Hwoźna and the Bison Breeding Centre (with three reserves, breeding and demonstration Bison Reserve).

Orłówka

The Orłówka Protective Unit has an area of , of which 4784.46 ha is under strict protection, 235.48 ha under active protection and 53.27 ha under landscape protection. The area is subdivided into two protective districts: Sierchanowo (2303,24 ha) and Dziedzinka (2769.97 ha).

Hwoźna

The Hwoźna Protective Unit has an area of 5169.50 ha, of which 941.64 ha is under strict protection, 4203.68 ha is under active protection, and 24.18 ha is under landscape protection. The area is subdivided into four protective districts: Cupryki (area of 1243.17 ha), Gruszki (area of 1426,52 ha), Masiewo (area of 1120.29 ha) and Zamosze (area of 1379.52 ha).

Bison Breeding Centre

The European bison Breeding Centre has an area of 274.56 ha which is under the landscape protection. The area comprises three breeding reserves, and the European bison Public Access Reserve. The responsibilities of the personnel of European bison Breeding Centre cover the bison's habitat in all of the Polish part of the Białowieża Forest. The idea of creating a national park locally is about 200 years old. However, the genuine protection efforts which are being continued today are centuries older.

Features

Often called the "last untouched wilderness of Europe", the Białowieża National Park is the only one of its kind among the 23 national parks of Poland. Its inner zone belongs to the realm of

old-growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological feature ...

which has been living without much human intervention for almost 800 years. Only scientists can navigate the strictly protected area freely. Each group of tourists is limited to no more than 20 people, and the presence of an official guide is mandatory. A classic road tour leads through the southern part of the reserve area, totalling 4,747

hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

The headquarters are located at the

village in the Museum of Nature and Forest of the Białowieża National Park (pictured). The museum complex, built in the 1960s, occupies the place of the former palace of Polish King

Augustus III Augustus III ( pl, August III Sas, lt, Augustas III; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as Elector of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire where he was known as Frederick Aug ...

, which was destroyed by the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

in July 1944. Above the roof of the museum, there is an observation tower available for tourists during the opening hours. The exhibition presents the local species of plants and animals shown through displays, but also through multimedia exhibits with the use of lighting and sound. Almost all living species in the region can be heard in audio recordings. Guides in foreign languages are available for an additional fee. In almost every room of the museum, there are computers with information on the subject in different languages. However, the tour guides are also likely to repeat the same information for their listeners. All exhibits in the museum have been prepared professionally by scientists, with the general public in mind, and therefore are recommended for visitors of all ages. At the turn of the 20th century during the

Russian Partition The Russian Partition ( pl, zabór rosyjski), sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Po ...

of Poland a Palace Park ( pl, Park Pałacowy) was founded around the so-called

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

's Palace in Białowieża. At the park, is a historic manor house from 1845 that has been refurbished. At present, it serves as the Centre for Nature Education. File:Rezerwat ochrony scisłej BPN 11.jpg, Swamped forest in Białowieża park File:2005-09 Białowieski Park Narodowy 2.jpg, A fallen tree in Białowieża park File:Poland Białowieża Hunters Mansion 1.jpg, Center for Nature Education at the Białowieża National Park File:Rezerwat ochrony scisłej BPN 07.jpg, Rotting

coarse woody debris Coarse woody debris (CWD) or coarse woody habitat (CWH) refers to fallen dead trees and the remains of large branches on the ground in forests and in rivers or wetlands.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition) ...

in the bio-reserve It is an endangered

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Inte ...

of Poland. Bialowieza Forest
a fact sheet of

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bialowieza National Park National parks of Poland Białowieża Forest Parks in Podlaskie Voivodeship Protected areas established in 1932 1932 establishments in Poland Important Bird Areas of Poland Central European mixed forests