Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve to offer floating cabin vacations

The Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve is working on the floating homes project on Lake Plavnoye, BelTA learnt from the guide of the reserve Viktor Rovdo. The project is due to be complete in 2014.

These will be floating log cabins with reed roofs, moored to special pontoons. The interior of the houses on the water will be made from environmentally friendly materials.

There are plans to power the houses with a motor gear, which will allow tourists to travel around the lake, and go ashore when needed.

Water houses will cater to all kinds of tourists - from romantic couples to groups of 5 to 6 people. "We are not planning to build one-place houses as this will be hardly profitable," added Viktor Rovdo.

According to him, floating cabins is the unique project for Belarus. “People get used to perceiving the world feeling the solid ground under their feet. Guests of the reserve will get a rare opportunity to fall asleep and wake up being on the water, to see the world in a new way," said Viktor Rovdo.

The Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve is the oldest among the protected natural heritage sites in Belarus. It was founded in 1925. It is located in the north of Belarusian Lake District, Dokshitsy and Lepel Districts (Vitebsk Oblast), and Borisov District (Minsk Oblast). The natural protected area is 85,200 hectares and includes a variety of southern taiga forests, wetlands, floodplain meadows, lakes and rivers.

The flora features more than 2,000 species of plants, 78 of them have been entered into the Red Data Book of the Republic of Belarus. Among them are such rare and unique for Europe species as Ladies’ Slipper Orchid, Crisped Lily, Bladder Fern, and Red Helleborine. The Reserve is an ideal habitat for numerous animal species that until recently were widely known in Belarus and are either extinct or exceptionally rare today. The Reserve’s vertebrate animals are today represented by 56 species of mammals, 230 species of birds, 17 amphibia. Rivers and lakes are home for 34 fish species.