MINSK, 1 June (BelTA) – Belarus has earned nearly $4 million on the export of grapevine snails over the past five years, Belarus' Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Andrei Kovkhuto told the media, BelTA has learned.
“Last year alone the country exported more than 23,000 tonnes of vegetable products, including mushrooms, fresh berries and processed products worth nearly $60 million. A grapevine snail, an exotic product for our country, earned Belarus some $4 million in the past five years,” said Andrei Kovkhuto.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has been actively cooperating with Russia, first of all, in the preservation and sustainable use of the biological and landscape diversity. Belarus and Russia have set up a group on cooperation and have already reached an agreement to work out an intergovernmental agreement on developing a cross-border specially protected natural area that will include Belarus' Osveisky and Krasny Bor reserves, and the Russian National Park Sebezhsky.
“We discussed the matter at the recent meeting with the Minister of Natural Resources at the 8th International Environmental Forum in St Petersburg. In the near future we will establish a regime of the joint use of the area,” noted Andrei Kovkhuto. There are similar joint areas with Poland and Lithuania.
A joint plan has been adopted between Belarus' specially protected areas and the Association of Reserves and National Parks of North-West Russia on cooperation for 2017-2020, including eco-tourism development. The minister stressed that the efforts to maximally preserve natural resources open an opportunity for those interested to see the intact nature.
