Old Forests Protect Us | Let Us Protect Old Forests!
In 2020, i travelled to South Poland, to Support the Movement "Inicjatywa Dzikie Karpaty". With Videos and Photos i tried to help them, in there Important Mission - to save the last Primeval Forests of Europe.
Here you can read the Words of Janina, one of the Activists i met there.
"Clean air, water retention, carbon absorption, peace and relaxation. All of this is provided by old, wild forests - if we let them stay this way. It is our insurance policy for the times of the climate catastrophe. It is our opportunity to remember that we are part of nature. Why are we not protecting forests, that protect us?"
- Janina Jana
Old Forests Protect Us - Let Us Protect Old Forests!
Clean air, water retention, carbon absorption, peace and relaxation. All of this is provided by old, wild forests - if we let them stay this way. It is our insurance policy for the times of the climate catastrophe. It is our opportunity to remember that we are part of nature. Why are we not protecting forests, that protect us?
Have you heard of the Carpathian Forest - the most valuable mountain forest in Poland? A place where bear, wolf, and lynx live next to each other, where soaring fir trees and ancient beeches grow.
Once a forest like this grew all across the Carpathian arc, but to this day only small fragments survived - in Poland mainly in Bieszczady and Pogorze Przemyskie. Part of this forest is protected by the Bieszczady National Park, but most of it is left under pressure from the reckless overexploitation led by the State Forests.
Trails in the National Park are bursting at the seams with people seeking contact with wild nature, while the wildlife right next to the park could provide the same beautiful experience if not for the roar of saws, mud flowing logging roads and the horrible view of the clearcut forest.
Trees, many of them not planted by human hands, are being cut down everyday, logging roads ruin the mountain slopes; day by day tens of trucks full of logged trunks leave the forest.
Our loss is multiple - the old forest is disappearing, and also all the money pumped for years into the scarce Carpathian Forest Districts is lost.
Find out more:
Wild Carpathian Initiative
We are a social grassroots movement, started in 2018. The Initiative is an independent, apolitical and open movement - everyone can join in. We organise forest patrols, nature walks, and educational meetings.
We have three demands:
- Protection of the Carpathian Forest - the most valuable mountain forests in Poland. We demand that the Turnicki National Park, that has been planned for 30 years, is finally established. We demand a creation of a network of buffer zones around Bieszczady National Park.
- End of hunting - animal protection in the Carpathian Forest. We want hunting to stop in the planned Turnicki National Park as well as in the buffer zone of the Bieszczady National Park, and on a wider scale - a ban on organised collective game hunting and in particular shooting during deer rutting.
- The local inhabitants are important - we believe in nature protection and solidarity between people. As a society, we are obliged to ensure that the costs of nature protection are compensated for the inhabitants of the Carpathian forest region. Timber harvesting should be limited to meeting their needs. We want a forest that is open for people, where people can walk freely, pick berries or mushrooms.
If you want to help, join us! Write to us!
https://dzikiekarpaty.org/
