"economic progress threatens the primeval forest of Poland's Rospuda valley. Local opinion is... divided
On one side of the argument there are... orchids; on the other side there are endless heavy lorries and burgeoning economic growth... Europe's new environmental battleground. .. valley in north-east Poland... has been earmarked as the route for a... motorway to the Baltic states. The clash of priorities has... divided public opinion in Poland itself and has now set the country on collision course with the European Union. ... the struggle to save the Rospuda valley is... the first of many conflicts likely to arise between economic development in the new EU member nations of central and eastern Europe, and their wildlife heritage. ... The Rospuda valley... The Rospuda river flows through the ancient Augustow Forest near Poland's border with Lithuania... and the river's course is bracketed by a peat bog which is... rich in... plants... it sits... astride the route for... the so-called Via Baltica expressway from Warsaw to Helsinki, which will pass through the Baltic states. The section of the new road which is intended to be the bypass for the small town of Augustow, where two routes from Warsaw join, is planned to go right through the valley... Environmentalists contend that the road will irreparably damage the valley, and insist an alternative route, further to the west, must be used; the Polish government... to upgrade its transport links with its neighbours as quickly as possible, insists that the Rospuda route is the right one... ... people of Augustow, who are sick of the unending procession of heavy lorries through their town... agree. ... Among a profusion of rare wildflowers, there are 20 orchid species [could you name them ?] in the valley, including the last colony in Poland of the musk orchid Herminium monorchis... The Polish centre-left national daily newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, has taken up the cause of saving Rospuda, and has given away green lapel ribbons for supporters to wear. An electronic petition on its website, to shift the road to an alternative route, has attracted 150,000 signatures, and last month, when it was thought the first tree-cutters were about to move in, a group of green activists from all over Poland set up a camp in the snowy forest and climbed into the trees to stop them. ... Two weeks ago last Sunday, several hundred people from Augustow, encouraged by local politicians, came out to confront the greens, shouting: "Ecologists, murderers!". They distributed wooden crosses which they said represented the children knocked down and killed by the heavy lorries passing through the town. A heavy police presence was necessary to stop... clash turning violent. Now the conflict has intensified still further, and moved on to an international level. The European Commission... is taking up the case, and the Polish government is finding that EU membership carries duties as well as benefits. Poland's membership of the European Union... means the government may have to think again about Rospuda... Rospuda is... part of the Augustow primeval forest special protection area (SPA)... if a development is likely to harm a protected site, alternatives have to be explored. Polish environmentalists have complained... that this has not been properly done with Rospuda, nor has it been done in four more SPAs that the Via Baltica is likely to damage. The EU environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas... asked the Polish government to refrain from pushing the road through the valley - or face prosecution in the European Court of Justice... ... a core of activists remains on the site to watch for the approach of bulldozers or... chainsaws." article URL : http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2359088.ece *********** Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
