During the last couple of years, the growing number of logging operations in Białowieża forests has been noticed. The Białowieża forest in under Poland protection, also in the Natura 2000 network and the UNESCO World Heritage list, which area covers nearly 1500km2 of the Poland eastern border with Belarus. The primeval forest with trees older more than 100 years, offers a habitat for many rare species of birds and animals, not to mention thousands of fungi and insect species. Although that, the most important and outstanding factor in the Białowieża forest is its ability to offer a home to the largest European bison herd where hundreds of specimens. Over the years, it was possible to keep logging in the forest within normal limits, thereby increasing the boundaries of protected forest area. But in 2016 Polish government decided to increase the number of cutting rights. This was immediately noticed by environmentalists, Greenpeace's members, who decided to prevent forest destruction at all costs by organizing spectacular protests. The activists stood with slogans such as "stop the logging of the Białowieża forest" in the felling work, linking themselves to forestry machines, to hinder wood cutting operations. Protests to protect the forest have often become violent and resulted with several arrests of environmental activists. “Foresters have crossed a red line, they are devastating Poland’s biggest natural treasure for the sake of ad hoc profits. We will not be looking on passively,” said Greenpeace member Robert Cyglick. In July 2017, the European Commission sued Polish government to the European Court of Justice. Poland received a warning letter that said it had to immediately stop the felling work, but the authorities avoided it and proceeded. The government said that the work was necessary to resolve the problem of spruce bark beetles, and if this were not done, environmental damage would amount to 750 million euros, according to the Minister of the Environment. Scientists and ecologists said that beetle outbreak is only a cover to manage in the protected Białowieża forest for economic purposes. According to sources, the Polish government has already expanded its operations to the protected area, which covers 17% of the entire Białowieża forest. “They are logging in UNESCO zones where timber harvesting is forbidden, they are logging 100-year-old tree stands in contravention of European law, they are logging during breeding season and destroying habitats occupied by rare species. It is disrupting natural processes which have been continuing there for thousands of years. We are losing large parts of the last natural forest – my worst nightmares are coming true,” said Adam Bohdan of the Wild Poland Foundation. In the next year, the judgment of the court will reveal Poland's guilty verdict. If the state loses, it must immediately pay penalty more than 4 million euros and if it breaks the law again, it will be required to pay a fine of 300,000 euros a day. At present, nearly 1,500 trees are cut every day, which also has no contact with the bark beetles, meanwhile, about 70 foresters watch over forestry equipment. We can only hope that the Polish government will be convicted and back down for destroying Białowieża forest and its ecosystem.

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Logging in Białowieża primeval forest, Poland