Białowieża Forest

Białowieża Forest is a large forest complex on the border between Poland and Belarus. It is one of the last and the largest remaining part of the immense primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain. The forest is home to more than 800 European bison, Europe's heaviest land animal. UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme designated the Polish Biosphere Reserve as Białowieża in 1976, and the Belarusian Biosphere Reserve as Biełavieskaja pušča in 1993.

In 2015, the Belarusian Biosphere Reserve spanned 216,200 ha (2,162 km²; 835 sq mi), subdivided into transition, buffer and core zones. The forest has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an EU Natura 2000 Special Area of Conservation. The World Heritage Committee, through its decision of June 2014, approved the extension of the UNESCO World Heritage site "Belovezhskaya Pushcha / Białowieża Forest, Belarus, Poland", which became "Białowieża Forest, Belarus, Poland". It straddles the border between Podlachia historical region in Poland and Brest and Grodno Oblasts in Belarus, and is 62 kilometres (39 miles) southeast of Białystok, Poland and 70 kilometres (43 miles) north of Brest, Belarus. The Białowieża Forest World Heritage site covers a total area of 141,885 ha (1,418.85 km²; 547.82 sq mi). Since the border between the two countries runs through the forest, there is a border crossing available for hikers and cyclists.