The
territory of the National Park is separate and
is in the Braslaw
Raion in the northwest of Belarus, near the border with Lithuania. In the north it is adjacent to Belarusian-Latvian
border. The park is elongated from southwest to northeast. In this direction it
is 55 km (34 miles) long and between 5 km and 29 km (3 to 18 miles) wide. The
total area of the park is 69,100 hectares or about 270 square miles. The
southern part of the park consists of lowlands covered with forests. Much of
the area is occupied by different types of bogs. There are several beautiful
forest lakes, including Boginskoye - considered to be one of the most beautiful
in the Braslav area. The forests here belong to coniferous-deciduous group, and
occupy 31,000 hectares (120 square miles). One can distinguish the following
woodlands: Borunsky, Belmont, Boguinsky,
Druiskaya Dacha. Pine woods and fir
woods are widespread.
There is
a network of 30 connected large and small lakes, spread over an area of 114 km²
(44 square miles). The biggest lakes are Drivyaty, Snudy, Strusto, Voiso,
Volosovo, Nedrovo, Nespish, and Berezhe. This group of lakes makes up the core
of the Braslav Lakes National Park.
Of the
rare species listed in the Belarusian Red Book, the area is the home of the badger, lynx, brown
bear, and swan. The swan was almost extinct in this area but now
inhabits the Braslav lakes. Other native species include the black stork, common
crane, silver seagull, willow grouse, and dunlin. The lakes of Braslav are rich with different kinds of
fish. Pike perch, bream, whitebait, tench, whitefish are widespread. Eel is of special value. Also widespread are boar, roe
deer, squirrel, brown and white hare, fox, raccoon, wolf, marten, otter, and
mink.
