Ecologists handed over 10 copies of the updated Red Book of Belarus to the collections of libraries in Vitebsk and the Vitebsk district.
Ten copies of the updated Red Book of Belarus were handed over by ecologists to the funds of the regional library and the central library systems of Vitebsk and the Vitebsk region.
The fifth edition of the Red Book of Belarus was published in December 2025. It includes 523 species of plants and animals.
As noted during the presentation by the Deputy Chairman of the Regional Committee for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Alexey Markovsky, compared to the fourth edition, 55 species of plants and animals have been added, and 38 have been excluded. Many have changed their conservation status. For example, ten years ago, the brown bear was on the brink of extinction and had the first category; now it has been reclassified to the fourth category, which means that there is no threat to the population decline. The fourth category has also been assigned to the badger and the bison instead of the third.
The Red Book is the main document summarizing materials on the current state of rare and endangered species of plants and animals, based on which scientific and practical measures are developed aimed at their protection, reproduction, and rational use.
The red data list of the Vitebsk region includes 45 species of animals and 73 species of plants. There are 931 places of their habitat and growth under protection.
The director of the V. Lenin Regional Library, Tatyana Adamyan, thanked for the gift and emphasized that the cultural institution pays great attention to ecological themes – exhibitions are organized, and various meetings on relevant topics are held. Therefore, the fifth edition of the Red Book will be a good aid in their work.
The first edition of the Red Book of Belarus was published in 1981 and included 85 species of wild plants and 80 species of animals.