Deep in the forest, along a dirt road off-limits to tourists, the trunks of centuries-old fir trees lie waiting to be hauled to a sawmill — felled giants from Europe’s last primeval forest.
Further in, old oak and ash trunks wait to be turned into planks, furniture or matchsticks: proof, say ecologists, of illicit logging that is endangering the ancient Bialowieza forest in eastern Poland.
“Some of the trees have been cut down illegally by Poland’s National Forests service, in violation of European Union legislation,” said Polish environmentalist Adam Bohdan,
State forestry officials deny any logging for commercial purposes in Bialowieza, saying only diseased or infested trees are being felled in the vast woodland area that is home to wild bison, lynx and wolves.
“We are also ecologists,” said Andrzej Antczak, head of the Bialowieza forest service. “We log only to protect the forest from bark beetles — insects that pose a grave danger to trees. We want to help nature defend itself and we do it according to Polish legislation.”
Last year, forest authorities allowed the logging of 100,000m³ of wood in Bialowieza, or 0.35 percent of all timber produced in the country.
Ecologists are unconvinced. Last month, they filed a complaint with the European Commission against Poland for alleged non-conformity with EU environmental rules.
Days later, Greenpeace held a love-in for Bialowieza, hoisting a banner with an enormous heart reading “I love puszcza” (I love the forest) across the facade of the environment ministry in Warsaw.
The move paved the way to an agreement with the ministry to halt logging in Bialowieza until the end of last month.
Sprawling across 150,000 hectares, the Bialowieza forest reaches across the Polish border with Belarus, where it is entirely protected as a nature park.
Named a World Heritage site in 1979, it is home to 20,000 animal species, including 250 types of bird and 62 species of mammals — among them Europe’s largest, the bison.
Europe’s tallest trees, firs towering 50m high, and oaks and ashes of 40m, also flourish there, in an ecosystem untouched by human hand for more than 10 millennia.
“Bialowieza is unique. The forest has been there since the ice from the last Ice Age melted 12,000 years ago,” said Zdzislaw Szkiruc, director of the Bialowieza national park.
The park spreads over about 16 percent of the Polish part of the forest. Another 20 percent is strictly protected and the remainder is administered by Poland’s state-run National Forests organization.
Green activists have focused their energies on the battle to expand the designated national park area to cover the entire Polish part of the forest.
However, the mayor of Bialowieza, a town of 2,400 residents, is lukewarm about the plans.
“We cannot forget about people who live near the forest,” Albert Litwinowicz said.
“Residents are divided over the prospect of the park being expanded,” he says. “Previous enlargements brought more inconveniences than advantages. The government promised money, but not a cent was paid into our coffers.”
“Today residents are afraid they won’t be able to enter the park to gather mushrooms or berries as they have always done. Those who work in the woodland are afraid they’ll lose their jobs,” the mayor said.
What residents think matters because under existing legislation it is up to their local representatives to decide on the park’s extension — another thing that environmentalists would like to see change.
“Certainly, the Bialowieza forest doesn’t belong only to us, it belongs to all Poles, it belongs to all of Europe and the residents of the region cannot be the only ones to decide about its future,” Litwinowicz said. “But why should they be the only ones to pay the price?”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of