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Associated Press

Participants in a Unesco World Heritage Committee session threatened to put the oldest part of Europe’s last pristine forest on a list of endangered heritage sites and urged Poland on Wednesday to stop logging there immediately.
Meeting in Krakow, the UN committee called on the government to “maintain the continuity and integrity of protected old-growth forest in Bialowieza Forest” and said it “strongly urges” Poland to “immediately halt all logging and wood extraction in old-growth forests”.

The committee also requested that a mission of World Heritage experts visit and evaluate the situation at the site. It obliged Poland to submit by the end of 2018 a report on how it is protecting the forest.
In addition, the panel warned it might put the forest on its List of World Heritage in Danger, a step that would open the path for immediate help from the World Heritage Fund.
Deputy Environment Minister Andrzej Konieczny said Poland would respect the committee’s call.
Poland’s environment minister, Jan Szyszko, has been criticised by ecology groups and the European Union for having increased logging three-fold in the Bialowieza Forest, parts of which are Europe’s last unspoilt woodland.

The EU has threatened sanctions for what it says is a threat to the forest, which is on the Unesco list of World Heritage sites.
Szyszko claims old-growth trees are cut only to control a bark beetle infestation and calls it “sanitation.” Ecologists say it is done for profit.
Logging in newer parts of the forest has been done for decades and is less controversial.
The forest covers tens of thousands of hectares in Poland and in Belarus, and is home to hundreds of animal and plant species, including bison, lynx, moss and lichens.


Poland urged to stop logging in Europe’s last pristine forest

People take part in a demonstration against massive logging in Bialowieza primeval forest (Puszcza), in Krakow, Poland. Photo: AFP

People take part in a demonstration against massive logging in Bialowieza primeval forest (Puszcza), in Krakow, Poland, on July 4, 2017 in front of congress hall where the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee takes place. Polish Environment Minister Jan Szyszko, whom green activists have criticised for allowing large-scale logging in the ancient Bialowieza forest, called for the vast woodland to be stripped of UNESCO's natural heritage status, which bans any human intervention. / AFP PHOTO / JANEK SKARZYNSKI

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