1 Rouble Berezinsky Biosphere Nature Reserve. Beaver

Belarus launched its wildlife conservation series in the early 2000s partly as a matter of national identity — the Berezinsky Reserve, established in 1925 in the Vitebsk region, is one of the oldest biosphere reserves in Europe and was among the first Soviet-era protected zones to receive UNESCO biosphere status in 1978. The Eurasian beaver had been hunted to near-extinction across the continent by the early twentieth century; Berezinsky became one of the key breeding refuges responsible for the species' recovery in the western USSR.

Copper-nickel circulation-quality commemoratives from this Belarusian series were struck in modest numbers and saw little actual commerce.