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The EU must save the Bialowieza Forest

DISCLAIMER: All opinions in this column reflect the views of the author(s), not of EurActiv.com PLC.

By Luc Bas | IUCN

28 Apr. 2016 (updated: 29 Apr. 2016)

ouch. sorry .. can't reproduce the image .. - European Bison roam free in the Bialowieza forest. [Francesco Carrani/Flickr]

The future of Poland’s pristine Bialowieza Forest is at stake, but short-term commercial interests
should not prevail over the long-term protection of Europe’s last primeval forest, writes Luc Bas.

Luc Bas is the director of the European Regional Office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Europe has just a few truly wild places left in its heavily industrialised and urbanised environment. One such spot is the world-renowned Bialowieza Forest, which is just a small reminder of the once immense primeval forest that covered much of the European Plain.

Sharing a border between Poland and Belarus, Bialowieza boasts exceptional biodiversity full of unique species, is home to Europe’s largest free-roaming population of bison and has been protected for many hundreds of years. Bialowieza is not just a Polish heritage but a true European one: the Bialowieza primeval forest is a World Heritage Site .. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/33/ .. and forms part of the Natura 2000 network.

But in March, because of an outbreak of bark beetles that attack and can kill thousands of spruce trees, the Polish Ministry of the Environment gave a permit which is reported to increase the amount of timber logging more than threefold for a ten-year period, to around 188,000 cubic meters annually. In the event that logging activities are so dramatically expanded, scientists warn that the future of the forest could be at stake. It could well turn into a place with less biodiversity and more human interference, becoming just another ‘managed’ forest.

Scientists are sceptical

Renowned Polish scientists, NGOs and local groups are all challenging the government’s approach. In several open letters and reports, scientists state that the measures applied to Bialowieza will do more harm than good.

More .. https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/opinion/the-eu-has-to-act-to-save-the-bialowieza-forest/