The interactive educational guide «Dnieper and Sozh Reserve» was created to support preserving biodiversity and to popularize natural, touristic and educational potential of the south-east of Belarus.
The guides will allow you to make a virtual journey along the Belarusian interfluve where very different landscapes and objects can be found very close to each other: sand dunes, floodplain oak groves, flood meadows, the village of Abakumy, the ferry crossing across the Dnieper and the urban settlement of Loyev. Its own set of cards is dedicated to each of these unique places.
The set consists of a general map of the reserve and cards that can be put together in an unusual puzzle picture (on the back of the cards there is a hint). The cards depict plants, birds, insects, fish and animal footprints that can be found in these places. Besides, facts from the history of Loyev are mentioned and information about the peculiarities of forest beekeeping, which was an ancient local trade.
To learn more, you can use the QR codes on the back of the cards. In addition, on each folder there is a QR code, which can be used for switching to drawings — coloring pages and methodical materials for using the manual.
The reserve is located in the very south-east of Belarus, namely in the Loyew district of the Gomel region. It spread its lands in the interfluve of two big rivers. The transparent waters of the Sozh flow here in a rapid stream into the gray Dnieper, and ancient Loyev is observing the confluence of the two water giants from the high banks.
The territory of the reserve is not too large, only 14.6 thousand hectares, but its space is a real scientific and demonstration laboratory between the two rivers that have their own distinctive characters but exist in an indivisible unity.
The reserve was founded in 1999 with the aim of preserving valuable forest and meadow ecosystems with many species of rare plants, a big number of which is threatened with extinction, as well as animals listed in the Red Book of Belarus.
The territory of the reserve is a biological corridor where nature itself has created favorable conditions for the safe migration of new species of plants and animals.
Sand dunes spread out in the floodplains of the Dnieper and Sozh rivers are favorite landscapes for local residents. Scientists note that this is a typical landscape of the territory of the reserve, thanks to which it has its unique look.
The relief created by the sand dunes on the flat territory of Palesse looks like real mountains and plains stretching along the rivers. The shape of dunes is most often oval or rounded. Their height is usually no more than 3–4 meters, although sometimes it reaches 5–7 meters. The width can be 15–30 meters, and the length varies considerably, from only 25 up to 200 meters. Most of the dunes are quite steep: the slope angle can be up to 15–20 degrees.
Sand dunes are the result of work of unbridled winds. Scientists also call them Aeolian ranges – after the ancient Greek god, the ruler of the winds, Aeolus.
The sands that make up the dunes are quite poor soils with a minimum of nutrients and no water supply at all. That’s why Palesse dunes are most often covered with pine trees.
While studying them, ecologists and biologists identified a special type of pine forests, typical for the dunes of the entire south of Belarus, including the Dnieper and Sozh Reserve. The main feature of these forests, thanks to which they are distinguished into a separate type, is not the pine trees themselves, but the ground cover. Scientifically, their name sounds complicated: “Palesse pine lichen-bush forests with gorse and broom in the undergrowth”. This means that under the canopy of the pine crowns there grow young pines mixed with oak, aspen, broom and gorse, and the sand of the dunes is covered with numerous types of lichens.
River ferries are a kind of movable bridges, reliable and very necessary for people. Their task is to transport passengers and vehicles from one riverbank to the other.
Ferries are different. The Loyew ferry is non-self-propelled, that is, it does not have an engine and therefore it is towed across the wide river by a small boat called Vit.
The 360 meters that separate the banks of the Dnieper the boat “flies” quickly in seven minutes, and it needs about the same time to dock.
Small, but really maneuverable Vit pulls a small platform of the ferry which is only fifteen by fifteen meters in size but is able to accommodate up to sixty tons of cargo: in one trip it can transport up to eighteen passenger cars or seven cargo vehicles, including tractors and other heavy machinery. Twenty-seven life jackets are fixed on the passenger deck – that’s how many people the ferry can take on board.
A trip on the Loyew ferry can be a great excursion. The wonderful scenery of the Dnieper fascinates both romantic tourists and local residents. Besides, only from the ferry you can see a local attraction – the Loyew geological outcrop, which is a natural monument.
On the left bank of the Dnieper a floodplain oak grove stretched. Indescribably beautiful landscapes can be seen from the bank of the Dnieper. The peculiarity of the floodplain oak groves is their ability to grow in conditions of periodic floods. The strength of the oak is in its ability to withstand both spring floods and summer heat and drought.
Flooded oak groves with trees that are 100–150 years old are the wonder and wealth of the reserve, as a special and unique ecosystem has formed here.
Ancient oak forests are of great importance for the preservation of biological diversity. A big variety of rare plants grow here, many of them are included in the lists of protected species. High hills, slender tree trunks, deep hollows, as well as a lot of insects – thanks to all this the reserve has become a real paradise for many birds. Many species of animals also live in the reserve, especially those that like to feed on acorns.
Another natural treasure of Belarus is floodplain meadows. In the river valleys of the Dnieper and Sozh on the territory of the reserve, natural grass stands of such meadows are preserved.
Flood meadows are meadows that lie on both sides of the rivers and are flooded with flood waters in spring (that’s why they are called «flood meadows»). When meltwater goes away, it leaves river silt together with remains of zooplankton and aquatic plants on the land. It enriches the soil with nutrients, that creates very favorable conditions for the growth of meadow vegetation.
Among other plants, a lot of rare species listed in the Red Book of Belarus grow in the floodplain meadows of the reserve, including a big variety of medicinal herbs, which our ancestors once used for curing themselves and their cattle. Many herbalists and healers still live in the surrounding villages.
What is interesting, all flood meadows are different, each of them is special. Each has its own plants, its own birds, its own animals. This can be explained by the fact that the topography of floodplain valleys is diverse, and levels of groundwaters are different. In the immediate vicinity of the river the soil can be completely dry as the underground water is deep under the surface, but you can also come across a real swamp, as the groundwater there is very close to the surface.
The floodplain meadows of the reserve are a wonder of the Belarusian Palesse and a real wealth of the Loyew region as this is where the greatest diversity of plants and insect species can be found.
Abakumy is a small village in the Loyew district bounded on one side by the Dnieper and on the other by the Sozh. Not many residents are living here now, and probably today no one will remember that once the village was of a high importance. It was located on the border of settlement areas of Radimiches, Drigоviches, Northerners and Polanen. The area at the mouth of the Sоzh was already inhabited in prehistoric times, from the Neolithic period. The first settlement here arose on a dry sandy hill about 5–6 thousand years ago. Traces of hearths, stone arrowheads, knives, scrapers, cutters, pins, scatterings of sherds of ornamented clay vessels were found in the ground here.
Abakumy remains a frontier village even now. The border between Belarus and Ukraine runs along the Sozh fairway straight opposite Abakumy.
Today, across the vast disappeared Herodotus Sea, the Dnieper and Sozh Biological Reserve is spread, and Abakumy can be called the gate of the reserve as from here the protected territory begins.
Loyev is an urban settlement on the south–eastern edge of Belarus.
The small town is located on the right bank of the majestic Dnieper near the place where the waters of its tributary, the Sozh river, flow into it.
Loyew landscapes and the Dnieper itself could be called the main attractions of the town, but the history of the ancient settlement has also preserved a lot of fascinating things for us.
The heritage of the trading town is vivid and full of events: the establishment of the settlement, the obtaining of the Magdeburg Law, growth of trade and crafts, administrative changes, formation of a peculiar multinational environment, transport communications, wars and destructions, restoration…
Today, Loyew is a modern district center on the border. A lot has changed, each successive generation of its inhabitants adds something of its own to the face of the town, building on the historical heritage.
To feel the spirit of ancient Loyew, you need to stand on the Loyew Hill above the Dnieper and carefully watch the rapid flow of the river, which unites different generations of local residents.