BIALOWIEZA FOREST, POLAND
Page: 20806
Mr IAN COHEN [6.20 p.m.]: Tonight I speak about the Bialowieza Forest in Poland, which is over 8,000 years old and is mainland Europe's last primeval forest. Members of this House may have seen a full-page article in the travel section of last weekend's Sydney Morning Herald detailing the beauty of the forest, with its bison, wolves and many species of birds. What the article did not mention, however, was the host of threats that this forest currently faces. It is timely to speak about these threats tonight as this Friday there are actions planned around the world to bring the area to the world's attention and to urge the Polish Government to protect this important environmental treasure.
Bialowieza is Europe's last natural lowland old growth forest. It is located on the border of Poland and Belarus. In recent years, real protection for the forest has deteriorated. Centuries-old oaks and other trees have been cut for timber, new roads have been opened to public traffic and each commercial management unit applies different plans for the forest, while only a small fragment is protected as a national park. This fragment is in the order of about 15 per cent. It is unacceptable that this world heritage disappears before our eyes due to the lack of a well co-ordinated protection plan for the whole forest. Many rare and wild animals, including the invaluable European bison, which moves throughout the whole forest, need a plan that makes the protection of natural processes its highest priority. The forest contains the last of the European bison, large carnivores such as wolves and lynxes, and thousands of other species, including elk, badgers, otters, bats, and woodpeckers and countless other species of birds.
Interestingly, it is not Poland but Belarus that has its side of the forest protected entirely as a national park. However, one of the most pressing threats facing the forest comes from the recently established border crossing with Belarus, where a terminal has been built through the middle of the Bialowieza Forest. This concern, when added to forestry activities, a proposed adventure train ride for tourists in a national park nature reserve and new roads through the forest, pose an imminent threat of forest fragmentation, making it difficult for species to cross between these units and for the forest to maintain its ecological integrity.
Additionally, the current plans for timber harvest could follow the plans of the last several years, which saw an enormous amount of timber, much of it centuries old, cut under the pretext of bark beetle attack. The Bialowieza Forest is not an ordinary forest, but a treasure among the world's natural areas, and should be treated with the care reserved for such places. I would like to see the Bialowieza Forest protected in a way that lets natural processes occur unimpeded by commercial interests. The forest should be first and foremost a natural area, not merely a site of human entertainment, with attractions and infrastructure to suit the leisure needs of tourists at the expense of the forest's most valuable characteristics. Nor should the forest serve as a source of commercial timber looked after by several management units and with a small national park at its core.
This tiny fraction of the European landscape should be protected equally on both sides of the Polish/Belarusian border in one transboundary national park. The European Union has been disappointing in its approach to preserving this forest. Most of Europe's old forests are long gone, so one would think there would be even greater impetus to protect this primeval forest. However, while the European Union pays around 30 million euros in tree plantation subsidies to Polish farmers, it has failed to come up with 6 million euros needed to preserve its oldest forest. For many hundreds of years royalty protected the forest against clearing and other excesses. It was used for hunting by Polish and Lithuanian royalty and thus preserved. In the 19th century it became a part of Russia and was used for the same purpose by the tsar. Poland has an obligation to care for this heritage, so rare and wild, which makes it precious, particularly in Europe.
I urge the Polish Government to take a strong position by affording the whole forest the status of national park. This is the highest form of protection and, as mentioned, already exists for the forest on Belarusian territory. This Friday, 3 March, the Bialowieza International Solidarity Network, together with the Lismore Rainforest Information Centre, is organising international visits to Polish embassies around the world as part of the campaign to save the Bialowieza Forest as a national park. This issue is of great importance. Without a doubt this is the most important forest in Europe and it contains the last wild European bison. Events on 3 March are planned in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, Romania, Germany, Austria, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Uganda, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra, South Korea, Canada, Japan, Ukraine and the United States of America, to name a few.
As a part of this international day of action I will meet with the Polish consul-general, who has very generously agreed to meet with me at the Sydney Consulate, and deliver a letter of support to preserve this amazing forest as a national park. I suggest that this forest is iconic for the world in a similar way to our many forests in Australia, but in Europe it is a real rarity to see something of this magnificence survive. I would ask members to give some thought to penning a letter to the Polish embassy to support what is a very positive cause for a great icon. This is an opportunity for a very successful outcome in the conservation and maintenance of this forest.