Siaredniaja Prypiać, Landscape reserve in Stolin, Pinsk, Luniniec, and Žytkavičy Districts, Belarus.
Siaredniaja Prypiać is a landscape reserve protecting the middle course of the Pripyat River, a 120-kilometre stretch from the Yaselda mouth to the Stviha mouth, with a floodplain 4 to 22 kilometres wide. Meadows and bogs cover over 38% of its 93,062.15 hectares, forests 22.7%, and shrubs 12%. Black alder stands dominate the woods, and the floodplain holds Europe's largest natural alluvial landscapes.
The reserve was created by Resolution No. 1105 of the Council of Ministers of Belarus on 19 July 1999, merging the state biological reserves Nizovye Yaseldy, Ustye Lani and Nizovye Sluchi, with a total area of 90,447 hectares. In 2001 it was added to the list of wetlands protected under the Ramsar Convention. On 22 November 2013 its area was increased by 2,615.15 hectares to 93,062.15 hectares.
The name Siaredniaja Prypiać is Belarusian for Middle Pripyat, after the stretch of the river between the mouths of the Jasiołda and the Stwiha. The reserve is managed from Pinsk by a state institution that also runs the neighbouring Prostyr reserve. In the floodplain, haymaking and grazing continue, alongside beekeeping, forestry, hunting and fishing; the Pripyat itself carries boat traffic.
The reserve is managed from Pinsk by the state institution that also runs the Prostyr reserve. The Pripyat floodplain floods for 3.5 to 4 months in spring, and smaller tributaries for 40 to 45 days, so visit outside the high water. Mushrooms and berries may not be gathered or eaten because of residual Chernobyl contamination.
The reserve is managed, together with the neighbouring Prostyr reserve, by a state nature-protection institution based in Pinsk. Its floodplain is still worked: meadows are mown and grazed, and beekeeping, forestry, hunting, fishing and navigation on the Pripyat continue. In spring the river floods the plain for 3.5 to 4 months.
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