Increasing importance is being attached to the use of Belovezhskaya Pushcha as a natural reference standard against which to assess rising human pressure on the natural environment as a result of industrial development, drainage activities, intensive farming, enhanced recreational pressure, transport, and other economic loads.

Belovezhskaya Pushcha was declared a national nature reserve as far back as 1939. However, the reserve was transformed into a State Hunting Reserve in 1957. As time has passed (and especially in recent decades), it has become clear that the status and activity of the hunting reserve is inconsistent with the main role of Belovezhskaya Pushcha as a model and reserve of nature and that substantial degradation of this natural complex has occurred as a result.

Contrary to scientific recommendations and the requirement of a hunting reserve project, the Belovezhskaya Pushcha area supports a high density of hooved game (wild boar, red and roe deer), which is maintained by supplementary feeding and which consequently depletes natural food sources, eliminates undergrowth, and changes the tree stand structure in a harmful way. As a result, natural regeneration has stopped, forests, rivers, plants, and animals are losing their model value, and the integrity and functioning of the natural ecosystems have been disturbed.

Data from studies conducted by the Research Department of Belovezhskaya Pushcha since 1948 have emphasized that wild ungulates were the essential determinants of forest regeneration in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. In the period 1948 to 1950, the relatively low density of hooved animals (10 wild boar, 9 roe deer and 7 red deer per 1000 hectares) ensured that the composition of the natural undergrowth did not differ much from that of the maternal tree stand, while the incidences of damaged trees were just over 1% for pine and birch and 9% for hornbeam and oak trees, with almost no damage to spruce trees being noted. In contrast, the results obtained in the period 1972 to 1992, when ungulate density was substantially greater (24 red deer, 11 roe deer and 16 wild boars per 1000 hectares), indicated that even spruce trees were used by the animals for feed. Between 1% and 5% of the spruce trees 0.5 to 2.5 meters high were damaged, as were of 20-30% of the birch trees, 50-80% of the pine trees, and 60-90% of the oak and hornbeam trees. Similarly, while up to 5000 understory oak trees per hectare were recorded under the oak wood canopies in the 1950s, this count in 32 test plots fell to as little as 100 to 400 per hectare in 11 plots in the 1970s. About 60% of the trees were damaged by ungulates. Meanwhile, two experimental plots within a metal fence had oak regrowth with 15,000 to 20,000 trees per hectare.

The threat to bison populations posed by a high incidence of disease is another causes of great anxiety. A total of 27 bison died in the period 1982 to 1987, and 45 were culled. This figure includes 15 animals with eye disease and 21 with lesions of the external genitals. No careful investigations of the causes of the diseases have been made. There are cases of farm stock grazing and herding.