Bold Moves Made to Preserve Ancient Woodlands

Poland is implementing concrete measures, like limiting logging in ten of the country’s most treasured forests, to preserve some of Europe’s last surviving ancient woodlands.

“We are ending an era in which strategic decisions regarding the natural environment in Poland are made from behind a desk in Warsaw,” states Paulina Hennig-Kloska, Poland’s new climate minister. “We came to the Białowieża national park to show a new style of work and decision-making.”

The half-year moratorium in forests across Poland is the first step to limiting logging. In its coalition agreement, the government promised to protect 20% of the country’s forests. The new measures affect 1.5% of state-managed woodlands and include biodiverse forests like the Carpathian Forest, the Knyszyn Forest, and those surrounding the city of Wrocław and by extension, protecting forests results in protecting threatened animals like brown bears, grey wolves, and bison. Poland’s new government promised more decisive climate action than the previous one, pledging to build more clean energy, accelerate the switch from coal to renewables, and cut planet-heating pollution faster.