The area of the Reserve is 12,280 hectares, it is one of the 15 small­est reserves in Rus­sia. The ter­ri­to­ry of the Bryan­sk For­est makes up three tenths of a per­cent of the area of the entire ter­ri­to­ry of the Bryan­sk region and about one and a half per­cent of the area of forests in the region. In 2001, the reserve was award­ed the sta­tus of a bios­phere reserve under the UNESCO Man and the Bios­phere pro­gram. In the lan­guage of sci­ence, this means that the ter­ri­to­ry of the Bryan­sk For­est is intend­ed for find­ing ways and devel­op­ing mod­els of bal­anced inter­ac­tion between man and nature. The black stork became the sym­bol of the reserve. This rare bird is list­ed in the Red Books of Rus­sia and the Bryan­sk region and a num­ber of oth­er states. Cut­ting down old forests is destruc­tive for the black stork — it deprives it of its only pos­si­ble habi­tat in our area. Pre­served forests also pre­serve this amaz­ing bird.