The Polish Ministry of the Environment did not comply with the request of the Court of the European Union from Friday and does not comply with the temporary measure on the suspension of logging in the Białowieża Rainforest, which is protected by UNESCO.
The loggers of the State Forests even beat the crew of the private television Polsat that came to record a report on whether the ban is being respected.
On Saturday, the television crew was filming in the last large remnant of the rainforest that covered the European plains for centuries, whether the government of Prime Minister Beate Šidlo respects the temporary measure of the EU Court to immediately stop the logging, when the cameraman was attacked by two loggers, stole his camera, destroyed the video material, stole battery and after that they even tried to run him over with a car.
Cameraman Vojtek Zdanovič ended up in the hospital with head and neck injuries, and Polsat reporter Pšemislav Slavinjski, who was filming the report, said that this is not the first time that loggers from the State Forests attack journalists who are just doing their job in Bjalovježa.
The Polish police announced that they had arrested the two attackers, and the spokesman for the State Forests, Jaroslav Kravcik, expressed regret and emphasized that the State Forests do not allow such riots by their employees, but that the two loggers from a local company were engaged in the Białowieża Rainforest due to the large volume of felling.
Although the spokesman of the Ministry of the Environment, Aleksandar Bžuzka, confirmed for Polsat television that the Ministry had received an official verdict imposing a temporary measure, he said that the Ministry would issue an official statement only on Monday and did not want to comment on why the order of the European Court is being ignored and the logging continues. continues.
"The Minister of the Interior Blaščak and the Minister of Justice Žobro would have to react immediately. It cannot be done in such a way that someone is cutting down the most precious part of Polish nature against the law. It cannot be done in such a way that someone is making money at the expense of Polish natural heritage, and Minister Jan Šiško is deaf and blind. to any arguments. This biggest pest in the history of Polish nature does not need scientific or legal arguments," said the former Polish Minister of Justice from the opposition Civic Platform, Boris Butka.
The government of Prime Minister Beate Šidlo and her Minister of the Environment Jan Šiško tripled the cutting of trees in the Białowieża rainforest on the border of Poland and Belarus, justifying it by the invasion of a pest - the eight-toothed spruce bark beetle. For almost a month now, they have been ignoring the request of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, under whose protection the rainforest has been since 1979, to immediately stop the cutting.
Just takie maszyny wycinają Puszcz Białowieską. Ścietan jednego drzewa and pocietan na fragmentsy do transport to 30 sekund. #SZYSZKODNIK pic.twitter.com/B4Ag4WhpfE
— Kurier Polityczny (@KurierP) July 29, 2017
The European Commission sued Poland to the European Court of Justice for violating the current European laws on environmental protection due to the cutting of the rainforest and asked for a temporary measure and ban on cutting until the final verdict, which the court did on Friday.
According to the EC's analysis, the volume of logging and exploitation of wood, although it did not hit the first strictly protected zone, exceeds the means that may be applied for the sustainable development and exploitation of the rainforest.
The environmental organization Greenpeace has warned that there is heavy machinery in the rainforest, not only classic chainsaws, which further destroys the soil and endangers both plant and animal species and the unique ecosystem of the rainforest.
Of the total complex, 1.500 square kilometers of the former rainforest in Belarus is under the protection of a UNESCO reserve of almost 900 square kilometers, in Poland about 100 square kilometers of the zero zone where more than 1.000 old trees are registered - even 600-year-old oaks, 350-year-old pines and 250-year-old dishes.
Bjalovježa is also the habitat of rare and endangered plant and animal species, and its symbol is the European bison, which was saved from the fate of extinct species precisely in Bjalovježa, where they now live on both sides of the border with hundred-headed herds.
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