VI International Training Seminar “Dynamics, State and Monitoring of Forest Ecosystems in Specially Protected Natural Areas” for students, undergraduates, graduate students and teachers of the specialty “Forestry”, devoted to the International Day for Biological Diversity (22 May), was held on the base of the Braslav Lakes National Park on May 16–22.

State Scientific Institution “The V.F.Kuprevich Institute of Experimental Botany of the NAS of Belarus” together with scientific and environmental institutions and specialized leading universities from Belarus and Russia were the organizers of the seminar.

The seminar brought together 39 scientists, teachers, students, undergraduates, graduate students from the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Forest Inventory Republican Unitary Enterprise “Belgosles”, “Dallesprojekt” branch of FSBI “Roslesinforg” and 5 Belarusian and Russian higher schools, namely the Belarusian State Technological University, the Moscow State Forest University, the Bryansk State Academy of Engineering and Technology, the Altai State Agrarian University and the Izhevsk State Agricultural Academy.

At the seminar 18 reports and 3 video films were presented. In the reports of the participants changes in biodiversity status and trends were shown, main tendencies in development of the ecological situation in the forests were determined and main threats to biological and biotopic diversity of the Belarusian and Russian forest ecosystems were identified. The seminar participants noted that the Eastern European countries made significant progress in assessing the state of forests and vegetation in general.