Białowieża Park being abused by Polish government – Greenpeace

The Ministry of Environment’s management plan of eastern Poland’s Białowieża National Park is inconsistent with the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) documentation and expectations, according to the environmental rights group Greenpeace and five other NGO’s.  The comments were written in a press release on Tuesday. On January 3rd, the Ministry presented a draft framework for integrated management of Białowieża, in recognition of its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Six non-governmental organizations (including Wild Poland, Greenpeace Poland and WWF Poland) in their publication indicated the Ministry’s document, which served as a summary of consultations, contained six errors. “In the document, the Ministry [has been] silent about the fact that UNESCO recognizes the universal values ​​of the Bialowieza Forest as having outstanding values […] instead, it [Poland’s Ministry of the Environment] offers its own list for [reasons for] extending human activity. As a result, the value of the Forest will depreciate if it is continually used by humans [and it is] a harmful move, contrary to the facts,” the environmentalists wrote in their summary. In their view, the draft guidelines for the wilderness management plan are in many places inconsistent with the documentation of UNESCO. They added that, unfortunately, the Ministry’s document does not say that the continued harvesting of timber and artificial planting of trees, which are taking place in the park under the government’s stewardship, are a threat to the many rare and endangered species living there. The environmentalists claim that the government is not protecting the park at the exceptional level at which it should be doing so. The Ministry of the Environment said that consultations on the plan for the forest could take several years.