Paulina Hennig-Kloska, Poland’s new climate minister has announced plans to limit logging in 10 of the country’s most treasured woodlands.
Hennig-Kloska, who was appointed climate and environment minister last month after far-right and nationalist parties failed to form a coalition, said that the half-year moratorium in forests across the country was the first step to limiting logging.
Recall that the government had promised in its coalition agreement to protect 20% of the country’s forests.
The new measures affect just 1.5% of state-managed woodlands but include biodiverse forests such as the Carpathian forest in the south-east, Knyszyn forest in the north-east and those surrounding the city of Wrocław in the south-west.
Reacting, Mikołaj Dorożała, who is the deputy climate minister, said: “These are the most valuable natural places that have a very important social aspect, including being near large urban centres.”
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Poland is said to be home to some of Europe’s last surviving ancient woodlands but its forests have been devastated by an onslaught of logging. Nature groups have stressed that the country is home to threatened animals that have been killed off in many parts of Europe, such as brown bears, grey wolves and bison.
Poland’s forests have seen “enormous devastation” and the state-owned companies that care for them require thorough reform, said Aleksandra Wiktor, a nature campaigner from Greenpeace Poland.
“Such a situation should never happen again,” she said. “They should serve society and protect nature, not be a money-making machine for politicians and forest barons.”
Poland’s new government has also promised stronger climate action than the last, with pledges to build more clean energy, hasten the switch from coal to renewables and cut planet-heating pollution faster. Also, it promised stronger protections for nature. In one of her first acts as climate minster, Hennig-Kloska travelled to Białowieża national park, a Unesco heritage site on the border of Poland and Belarus, and announced plans to create a constitution for the forest along with stronger partnerships with local communities, environmental groups, foresters and scientists.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
