Lukashenka Selling Out Land By Thousands Of Hectares

Kletsk district has tendered large hunting areas.

The winner of the tender will make it to the top-8 biggest users of hunting areas in our country.

The tender for the right to rent the hunting areas from the reserve fund of Kletsk district for 10 years will take place on December 19 this year. The invitation says, the total area of the offered lands amounts to 60 680 Hectares, forest lands being 24 700 Ha, field lands - 33 900 Ha, and aquatic- swamp lands - 2 080 Ha.

The initial price of the object of the auction is Bn 21,228; the participants are supposed to transfer the up-worth sum in the scope of 20% of the said amount to the bank account of the Chief Administration of the Ministry of Finance of Belarus in Minsk region.

Legal entities can participate in the tender: they are supposed to attach the biological-economic substantiation for the hunting areas applied for rent, to the package of documents, ej.by writes.

Top-8 biggest users of hunting areas in Belarus

The biggest user of hunting areas in Belarus is the Belarusian Society of Hunters and Fishermen, which exploits 10 million Ha.

About 80 thousand people are members of the biggest renter of the country’s hunting areas (about 60% of the whole fund), 50 thousand of whom are hunters. The hunting areas of this public organization cover all the regions of Belarus, the Belarusian Society of Hunters and Fishermen has its branches in over 100 districts. The “public” wild boar, elk, European roe deer, red deer, grouse, black grouse, and otters remain the main goal of the Belarusian and visiting hunters.

The second renter by the area is the Ministry of Forestry of Belarus. It has 3,4 million Ha.

The specialized enterprise “Belgosokhota” has handled monetization of the hunting areas used by the Ministry of Forestry of Belarus since 1998. It is allowed to hunt for about 55 species of wild animals in the forest hunting ranges of the organization. The biggest area of the hunting lands is in the forestries of Minsk region - 756 thousand Ha. Then come Mahiliou region with 698 thousand Ha, Homel region (630 thousand Ha), Brest region(563 thousand Ha), Vitsebsk region (541 thousand Ha) and Hrodna region (269 thousand Ha).

Lukashenka’s administration of affairs rents about 840 thousand Ha of hunting areas.

In the mid-1990s, the former manager of Lukashenka Ivan Tsitsiankou achieved inclusion of the National Parks - the Bialowieza Forest, the Biarezinski Biosphere Reserve, the parks "Narach" and "Prypiat" and the Braslau Lakes – into the structure of the institution he controlled. Over time, they grew geographically and in the commercial direction. Hunting grounds providing a full range of services – from picking up at airports to cutting trophies – were organized at every major National Park. Also hunting services are provided by the enterprise "Krasnoselskoe" in Minsk and "Teterinskoe" in Kruglaye districts.

The fourth largest user of the hunting areas is the Belarusian military-hunting company with about 300 thousand hectares.

The military hunters have no hunting areas only in Homel region. Before the collapse of the USSR, the Belarusian military-hunting company owned 18 hunting entities, created at the premises of the military fire grounds. Since 2005 and until today, the company owns 12 hunting entities, the largest of which are Shatskaye in Minsk region and Damanauskaye in Brest region. About 3 thousand people are members of the Belarusian military-hunting company. It used to be 30 thousand hunters in better times.

The Luninets district executive committee rents about 180 thousand Ha.

In 2004, the hunting-fishing entity “Luninets”, which was a part of the Belarusian Society of Hunters and Fishermen, decided it can earn more as a free agent and quit the public society. Today, “Luninets” is owned by the local district executive committee. About 300 people can simultaneously hunt for all species of hoofed animals, wolf, waterfowl, migrating goose and duck. The commercial fishing pond, leased for recreational and industrial fishing, is stocked with pike, carp, and bream.

The fourth biggest hunter in the country is “Belagroprombank” (about 130 thousand ha of hunting areas).

The second largest bank of Belarus owns the “Turaushchyna” JSC, the multi-profiled company, the structure of which includes a hunting entity “Elk Island”. Its more than 130 thousand Ha stretched out at the territories of Zhytkavichy and Lelchytsy districts of Homel region and the Stolin district of Brest region.

The biggest private user of the hunting areas is the company “Belaya Tropa” (100 thousand Ha).

In 2006, former functionary of the Belarusian Society of Hunters and Fishermen Mikalai Tumashchyk decided to do away with the old occupation and start something new, so he opened his own hunting business. He created the entity “Belaya Tropa”, which now covers almost all the land in Masty district, as well as a small part of Hrodna district.

The joint business of Aliaksandr Shakutsin and Mikalai Varabei, the company "Interservice" occupies the seventh place (about 60 thousand Hectares).

The biggest Navapolatsk company leases about 60 thousand Ha in the landscape reserve "Krasny Bor". The eponymous hunting territory covers two districts – Rasonski and Verkhniadzvinski. In the past two years, Mikalai Varabei and his partner by "Interservice" Minsk businessman Aliaksandr Shakutsin carried out the completion of the animals populations. In particular, they brought a few dozen of red deer from Lithuania.

The Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus with about 58 thousand Hectares occupies the eighth position.

One of the companies that provide tourism and recreational services to members of the official trade union of the country is a sports and hunting entity “Launiki”. It is located on over 58 thousand Ha in Barysau and Lahoisk districts.