Degradation of Belarus lands: current situation
and main directions of its improvement

V.I. Belsky and N.I. Solovtsov - National Academy of Sciences of Belarussia

1. Geographical situation and use of Belarus land resources

Republic of Belarus is located in the central part of Europe. The number of population is around 9,9 mln. people, population density - 48 people per km^?. City population of the country is 71,1%, rural - 28,9%. Administrative division of Belarus includes 6 oblasts and 118 regions. There are 212 cities and around 24 thousands rural settlements on its territory. Geographical position, biological and landscape diversity, with their international significance taken into account, make Belarus territory one of the important elements of common European ecological network (EECONET).

According to State scheme of integrated territorial organisation of the Republic of Belarus, the following territory types classified by prevailing use purpose are available in our country: agricultural, forestry, urban, preserved nature and recreational. A special group of territories are those affected by radioactive contamination as a result of catastrophe on Chernobyl atomic power station. At present zone of radioactive contamination covers about 23% territory of the republic, including 1,3 mln. ha of agricultural lands and 1,6 mln. ha of woodlands.

Total land area of the Republic of Belarus is 20 759 thousand ha, of these agricultural lands - 9 106,7 thousand ha (43,9%), including arable lands - 5 568,7 thousand ha (26,8%), woodlands and lands covered by shrubbery - 8 750,2 thousand ha (42,1%), undrained bogs - 923,5 thousand ha (4,4%), lands under water - 477,4 thousand ha (2,3%), under buildings and roads - 843,1 thousands ha (4,1%), lands that are not utilised in any way and other lands - 658,1 thousand ha (3,2%).

By the amount of agricultural lands per capita (0,92 ha), of which arable lands - 0,56 ha per capita, Republic of Belarus vastly exceeds similar indices in many countries of Europe. The distinctive feature of agricultural lands is high share of ameliorated lands in their structure. The total area of ameliorated lands is more than 3,4 mln. ha (more than 30%). Of these 975,1 thousand ha (10,6%) are agricultural lands on drained peat lands.

2. Factors and forms of land degradation

Land degradation is one of the most pressing ecological problems of Belarus and one of the factors that restrict the country's sustainable development. Land degradation in its different forms is caused by the peculiarities of functional use of Belarus territory, by non-observance of norms and rules of rational land use and land resources protection.

Underdevelopment of legal base and of economic mechanism of incentives to preserve land, neglect of ecological safety and absolutisation of economic profit in modern land use have affected negatively its condition.

Increase of land degradation processes is related in many respects to the presence on Belarus territory of ecologically unsustainable lands. The significant part of these is used for agricultural purposes or is under populated settlements, industrial and other economy units. The typical feature of Belarus land resources is a high degree of its involvement in economic activities. This situation has developed as a result of a long-term state policy the purpose of which was agricultural land area expansion - large-scale development of lands and involvement of more and more new lands into agricultural turnover - of huge bog tracts and of small hollows on arable lands, etc. In many cases development of these lands was not enough justified neither from economic nor from ecological position, but the most important point is that all this has led to increase of lands degradation scale.

Despite implementation of a range of programmes, strategies and action plans that touch upon protection and rational land resources use, so far these problems have not yet been resolved effectively enough in the republic. The main restricting factors are: absence in the Republic of Belarus of strategy and of a coordinated action programme against land degradation, dissociation of efforts of state bodies, insufficient participation of non-government organisations, low awareness and low involvement of land users and land owners in this process.

During the last decade land degradation processes have tended to increase as a result of climate change and, in the first instance, due to increased frequency of droughts, frosts and other extreme climatic phenomena.

Depending upon natural, regional conditions and specific features of economic use of the territory of Belarus, land degradation reveals itself in the following main forms:
- water and wind erosion of soils;
- chemical, including radionuclide, contamination of lands;
- degradation and deterioration of soils' properties, particularly of peat soils in the process of their use for agricultural purposes;
- degradation of lands as a result of peat cutting and construction materials mining, roads construction and other types of construction, as well as a result of their flooding and submerging;
- degradation of peat soils on drained bog tracts as a result of peat fire;
- woodlands degradation as a result of irrational exploiting of forests, forest fires; - land degradation in the process of excessive recreational, technical and other anthropogenic land loads.

The total area of eroded and erosion-prone soils on agricultural lands is more than 4 mln. ha, of which on arable lands - about 2,6 mln. ha. The share of lands that suffered from water erosion is 84%, from wind erosion - 16%. The most intensive processes of water erosion of soils take place on slopes of 3 and more degrees, which occupy 34,6% of arable lands.

Water and wind erosion of soils causes significant economic and ecological damage. Losses of yields on eroded lands, depending on erosion level, are: grains - 12-14, flax - 15-40, perennial herbs - 5-30, arable crops - 20-60%. Soil erosion products lead to contamination of water objects, to deterioration of surface and ground waters quality, negatively affect biological diversity of water and near-water ecosystems.

Territory of Belarus is characterised by broad spreading of bogs and swamped lands. In the times before intensive economic use started, peat soils of different types and with different peat thickness occupied over 14,0% of total area of the republic. The majority of peat lands (over 66,5%) is concentrated in the region of Byelorussian boggy woodlands called Polessye. In Belarus, peat bogs of low-lying type prevail. These comprise around 82% of total amount of peat resources in the republic. Long-term research conducted by the Institute of ecology and natural resources use of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus has shown that in natural conditions peat complexes perform diverse functions that contribute to control of ecological situation. These are: landscape, accumulative, biological, regulation of gas, geo-chemical, hydrological and climatic functions.

The peat lands that suffered most are those that were subjected to hydro-technical amelioration and to cutting peat for fuel and organic fertiliser purposes. At present within the territory of Belarus, around 1,45 mln. ha of peat lands are drained, of which for agricultural purposes - 1,1 mln. ha. Over 65% of such soils have peat thickness up to 1 metre, while 90% of peat soils in Byelorussian Polessye are under laid by loose sandy sediments.

The processes of peat soils degradation during drainage and their subsequent agricultural use are characterised by a rather rapid decomposition and organic matter drawoff. It was calculated, on the basis of long-term observations of peat drawoff on drained peat lands under different agricultural crops, that peat soils of 1 metre thickness may completely lose all their peat in 18-40 years.

Currently in the Republic of Belarus the peat layer on the peat soils area of 190 thousand ha is already ruined completely, while on the area of 18,2 thousand ha low fertility sands have reached soil surface.

A serious but not completely resolved problem in Belarus is the use of worked-out peat fields. The total area of these fields with disturbed peat soils is over 330 thousand ha. One of the priority objectives of land improvement campaign is the restoration of nature protecting and environment-shaping functions of worked-out peat fields. This is to be done on the grounds of scientifically justified recommendations on how to treat these peat fields.

The most dangerous type of chemical contamination of soils in Belarus is their radionuclide contamination caused by the catastrophe on Chernobyl atomic power station. The scale of radionuclide contamination of soils on the territory of Belarus has no analogue in the world. At present the area of radionuclide contaminated soils covers 23% of the country's territory, including 1,3 mln. ha of agricultural lands and 1,6 mln. ha of woodlands. 265 thousand ha of lands are excluded from agricultural turnover.

Chemical contamination of soils is also registered in the areas that are affected by economic activities of large cities and industrial centres of the republic and also on side strips of main motorways and railways.

The positive trend is that the expansion of chemical contamination of soils with heavy metals and stable organic compounds is practically not registered.

As a result of diversified economic activity, houses and roads construction, irrigation and drainage construction, minerals mining, lands in some regions of Belarus are subjected to radical technogenic transformation.

The best example of complete technogenic transformation of land surface is the region where potassium salts mining takes place. There, around 30 mln. tons of rocks per annum is mined. More than 20 mln. tons of salts and saline rocks goes to salt dumps. During the period that productional amalgamation "Belaruskalii" exists, which is from the beginning of 60-ties, 20th century, on the area of about 2 thousand ha of previously fertile lands, over 730 mln. tons of hard clay-and-saline sludge accumulated. As a result of subsurface mining, processes of deformation and shifts of rocks take place. This has led to surface slumps on the territory 120-130 km?. Within slumps that are quite often 3,5-4 m in size, soil degradation takes place, the processes of bogging and under flooding develop.

Technogenic transformation of lands not only directly affects earth surface, but also activate many processes which can lead to land degradation (development of dumps, screes, scours, landslips, gullens, destruction of water objects' coasts, soil deflation development and so on).

Transformation of lands takes place due to military constructions and polygons, the total area of which is around 2% in republic.

The processes of land degradation are also typical for the territory occupied by natural vegetation, including wood vegetation. A significant share of eroded and erosion-prone lands belongs to forestry. In the recent years their area increased significantly due to transfer of low productive lands that are not even covered with trees and quite often are damaged, to the forestry balance sheets. Continuous wood cutting which remain dominant in current forest use in the republic, contributes to activisation of water erosion and wind erosions (on sandy soils). There are frequent cases of overdrainage of woodlands which take place under the influence of the adjoined hydro melioration objects used for agricultural purposes.

Great threat to soils of the republic are fires in forests and on peat lands caused by natural (long-term droughts and droughty phenomena) and anthropogenic factors.

3. Priority directions and measures aimed to implement in the Republic of Belarus the UNO Convention on struggle against land degradation

A special UNO Convention is one of the major international agreements in the area of sustainable use of land resources. It is aimed at resolving land degradation problem. The Republic of Belarus is a full-rights member of the UNO Convention on struggle against land degradation since November 27th, 2001 - in accordance with the Decree no 393 of the President of the Republic of Belarus dated July 17th, 2001.

One of the priority directions aimed at improving the degraded lands is an increase of land use efficiency. In this particular case efficiency means receiving a useful result: economic, ecological, social, etc. The activities in this area are based on the following main principles:
- priority is given to optimal land use which means that the main criterion, when deciding which purpose to use a certain land plot for, is not that this plot belongs to this or that land category but what useful result can be achieved if to proceed from its location, ecological condition, natural, historical, technological and other features;
- an integrated approach to territories development. Such an approach assumes the need, when making management decisions, to take into account the mutually coordinated perspectives of development of all elements of territory organisation, including measures against land degradation;
- consensus of private and public interests which means that the procedure of making management decisions in the discussed area must as much as possible be public and must take into account the public opinion and opinions of individuals;
- a combination of ecological and economic approaches that assume the justified ecological criteria and norms obligatory;
- an interdependence of land reform and agrarian reform (with priority importance of the first) which means that it is inefficient to conduct them separately;
- an introduction of incentives system for different categories of land users that will promote rational land use and contribute to improvement of degraded lands.

Setting up new land relations is a key objective in increasing efficiency of land resources use and protection.

The principles mentioned above are fundamental for the national action programme devoted to struggle against land degradation that is being developed in Belarus. This action programme is part of the strategy of sustainable development of the Republic of Belarus.

It is expedient, in view of the urgency of land degradation problem in Belarus, to adopt a law on land protection. This law should be aimed at providing measures on rational use and protection of land resources in this country.

Optimisation of Belarus land resources remains the important issue in the area of lands and soils protection. This means taking low production and unsustainable lands out of agricultural turnover and changing their functional purpose, revision of land cultivation systems on ameliorated peat lands, obligatory introduction of actions against erosion on hillside lands, rehabilitation of degraded lands. The total area of agricultural lands recommended for its function change is 791 thousand ha.

In the immediate years, it is planned to increase the amount of forests at the expense of afforestation of low production lands unsuitable for agricultural use and also to expand the protective afforestration system with the aim to preserve biological and landscape diversity on the territory of Belarus. The following objectives are still pressing: to set up new territories where nature is preserved, to establish in Belarus ecological network and integrate it into Common European ecological network, to preserve typical and unique landscapes and to actualise Red Book of the Republic of Belarus. This book will include main soil types that have important ecological, scientific and cognitive value for Belarus. The State register of degradation-prone lands requires improvement. It is advisable that it lists the lands by their contamination level, by the degree they were disturbed in the process of different agricultural activities, by proning to erosion, etc.

The long-term directions include the development of impartial diagnostics of land degradation that will contain land degradation categories, evaluation criteria definitions of land degradation levels and necessary diagnostic parameters (genetic and morphological, physico-chemical, biological, water, energy, production, etc.) required to determine these criteria and define land degradation processes (types). Revision of content, rules and technology of monitoring degraded lands as part of national system of monitoring environment in the Republic of Belarus is advisable.

When implementing prime measures on lands protection and rehabilitation, the priority should be given to development of projects aimed at rehabilitation of disturbed lands, their ecological reclamation and alleviation of social consequences of this problem, at development of information resources and monitoring means.

Projects on ecological rehabilitation of bogs left from worked-out peat deposits and reclamation of degraded peat soils may become an important direction of international cooperation that will ensure interaction within UNO Conventions on climate change, on biological diversity preservation, on lands degradation and within Ramsar Convention on wetlands. In natural and economic conditions of Belarus, the priority directions in the area of struggle against land degradation are also pilot projects on protection and rational use of ecologically unsustainable sandy soils, eroded lands, on recultivation of techogenically disturbed soils and contaminated with radiation soils.