[4] In 2015, the Belarusian Biosphere Reserve spanned 216,200 ha (2,162 km2; 835 sq mi), subdivided into transition, buffer and core zones.

[5] The forest has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site[6] and an EU Natura 2000 Special Area of Conservation.

The Białowieża Forest World Heritage site covers a total area of 141,885 ha (1,418.85 km2; 547.82 sq mi).

There is also the Białowieża Glade (Polish: Polana Białowieska), with a complex of buildings once owned by the tsars of Russia during the Partitions of Poland.

On the Belarusian side, the forest is protected as the Belavezhskaya Pushcha National Park with an area of 1,771 km2 (684 sq mi).

[citation needed] The Belovezhskaya pushcha headquarters at Kamieniuki include laboratory facilities and a zoo where European bison (reintroduced into the park in 1929), konik (a semi-wild horse), wild boar, Eurasian elk and other indigenous animals may be viewed in enclosures of their natural habitat.

[citation needed] The entire area of northeastern Europe was originally covered by ancient woodland similar to that of the Białowieża Forest.

[citation needed] The first recorded piece of legislation on the protection of the forest dates to 1538, when a document issued by Sigismund I instituted the death penalty for poaching a bison.

In 1639, King Vladislaus IV issued the "Białowieża royal forest decree" (Ordynacja Puszczy J.K. Mości leśnictwa Białowieskiego).

The tsars sent bison as gifts to various European capitals, while at the same time populating the forest with deer, elk and other animals imported from around the empire.

During three years of German occupation, 200 kilometres (124 miles) of railway tracks were laid in the forest to support the local industry.

However, German soldiers, poachers and Soviet marauders continued the slaughter until February 1919 when the area was captured by the Polish army.

After July 1941 the forest became a refuge for both Polish and Soviet partisans and Nazi authorities organised mass executions.

(Hermann Göring directed anti-partisan operations by Luftwaffe security battalions in the Białowieża Forest between 1942 and 1944 that resulted in the murder of thousands of Jews and Polish civilians.

The chairman of the Polish Committee of National Liberation, Edward Ochab, wrote in his memoirs regarding the negotiations about the demarcation of the border in the area of Białowieża Forest.

According to his view, the Soviet officials repeated many times that they were not interested in enlarging their vast state, but only in sorting out the issue of Belarusian and Ukrainian nationalities in the borderland area (Kresy).

He told his associates from the PKWN that he would resign from his position as the chairman of that body, as he could not find enough spiritual strength and inner conviction to promote Polish–Soviet friendship.

The conversation was interrupted and the delegation was escorted to the premises in the seat Union of Polish Patriots and waited for news from the Soviet government.

[26] In December 1991, the Belavezha Accords, the decision to dissolve the Soviet Union, were signed at a meeting in the Belarusian part of the reserve by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

[29] Andrzej Kraszewski, Poland's Environment Minister from February 2010 to November 2011, sought to increase protection over the whole forest, starting with a more modest 12,000–14,000-hectare (30,000–35,000-acre) expansion, against opposition from the local community and the Forestry Service.

[29] Environmentalists say that logging is threatening the flora and fauna in the forest, including species of rare birds, such as the white-backed woodpecker, who lost 30% of their population in forestry-managed areas in the 1990s and 2000s.

[citation needed] On 25 March 2016, Jan Szyszko, Poland's Environment Minister, former forester and forestry academic, announced that he would approve a tripling of logging in the forest, from the 2012–21 limit of 63,000 m3 (2,200,000 cu ft) – almost exhausted at the time – to 188,000 m3 (6,600,000 cu ft), offering the excuse of "combatting an infestation of the bark beetle".

[32] Robert Cyglicki, head of Greenpeace Polska, argued that logging to fight the bark beetle would "bring more damage than benefits", gathering more than 120,000 signatures to petition Prime Minister Beata Szydło to reverse Szyszko's move.