Poland to resume the felling of Belovezhskaya Pushcha

Problems

• The importance of Belovezhskaya Pushcha

  The Bialowieza Forest is the largest remnant of a relic primeval lowland forest that grew on Europe's territory in prehistoric times. It was gradually cut down, but in a relatively undisturbed condition in the form of a large massif, it has survived only in the Bialowieza region in what is now Belarus and Poland. Belovezhskaya Pushcha belongs to the ecoregion called "Sarmatian mixed forest".
  
  To preserve the unique nature in Belovezhskaya Pushcha four functional zones with different protection modes have been set aside: a Wilderness Protection Zone, a Regulated Use Zone, a Recreation Zone, and an Economic Zone. In addition, a protection (buffer) zone has been created around Pushcha.

• Resumption of deforestation

  Poland is set to resume logging in the Białowieża Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was the center of controversy between the EU and Poland from 2016 to 2018. The government says logging is necessary to clear paths and protect trees from a spruce bark beetle infestation. Warsaw decided to sanitize a part of the relic forest in Bialowieza Forest infected by the bark beetle, explaining that this step is necessary to stop the process of infestation of the rest of the Bialowieza Forest. Environmentalists criticized the measure and demanded that the forest copes with the renewal process.
  
  Officials in Poland are working on new quotas to increase tree cutting, and the Ministry of Climate and Environment has signed new quotas for two of the three forest districts.

• EU reaction

  The European Commission has threatened Poland with financial penalties if it does not comply with the European Court of Justice ruling. It also states that Warsaw has still not canceled the annex to its forest management plan for 2012-2021, which includes a significant amount of logging from the unique Bialowieza Forest.

• Response of the Polish government

  However, at a press conference in Bialowieza, Deputy Minister of Climate Edward Siarka said that signing documents allowing more logging is not a violation of the court's decision. Sarka added that the Commission has challenged the proposed quota in one of the three forestry districts of the Bialowieza region. He said that logging would not begin in the other two districts until the breeding season of wild birds is over and that logging would not take place in those parts of the forest that are more than a century old.
  But Adam Bogdan of the environmental NGO Wild Poland Foundation said the decision was a "spit in the face." Another nongovernmental organization, ClientEarth, said the plans were poorly prepared and the protected old trees would eventually be cut down.