保護か伐採か共生か　欧州最大の原生林めぐる対立　ポーランド

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】ポーランドとベラルーシの国境沿いに広がるビャウォビエジャの森は、欧州に現存する最大規模の原生林だ。生物多様性の宝庫であり、二酸化炭素の巨大な吸収源でもある。（写真はビャウォビエジャの森）
　この森をめぐり、保護を訴える環境保護活動家、伐採を進めたい政府森林当局、そして森で暮らす地元住民が三つどもえの形で互いに反発している。
　森の玄関口であるビャウォビエジャ村に置かれたワルシャワ大学科学部門のディレクター、ボグダン・ヤロシェビチ氏は、この地域は約１万２０００年前からずっと森だったと言う。「ビャウォビエジャの森は、人が介入することなく進化してきた生態系を見ることができる巨大な屋外研究施設です」
　広さ１５００平方キロの森の４２％はポーランド側に広がっている。その３分の１は国連教育科学文化機関（ユネスコ）の世界遺産に登録された区域を含む保護区となっているが、それ以外は国の森林当局の管理下にあり、伐採の対象となっている。
　森には、約１万２０００種の生物（主に無脊椎動物）と約１０００種の植物が生息・生育している。外周６メートル、高さ４０メートルほどのブナ科の木の他、５０メートルに達するマツ科の木もある。これは１２階建ての建物とほぼ同じ高さだ。
　森林当局は２０１６年、害虫の拡散を防ぐ目的で大規模な伐採プロジェクトを開始し、環境保護活動家と欧州連合が激しく反発。欧州司法裁判所はポーランドが環境法に違反しているとの判断を下し、政府は２０１８年に伐採を中止した。

■森林の利用
　他方で、地域共同体のハイヌフカに暮らす多くの人々は、森の保護範囲拡大に反対している。
　約３０００人が暮らすこのコミュニティーの首長は「対象範囲が広がると、キノコ狩りやベリー摘みができなくなる。暖をとるためのまきも確保できなくなる」と反対の理由を述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/11/15-13:12）

Stopping by a giant oak tree in Europe's largest surviving primeval forest, environmental journalist Adam Wajrak pauses in admiration.
The trees here were born when the United States did not exist yet, when electricity had not been invented, said the journalist, who moved to a village in the vast Bialowieza forest 25 years ago.
It's shocking that we protect historical monuments that are 400 years old but we cut down living organisms of the same age.
The forest, which is divided by the Poland-Belarus border, is a treasure of biodiversity and a giant carbon sink.
It has become a battlefield between environmentalists eager to protect it, and the state forestry agency keen to log it and many local residents who like to forage in it.
Forests have covered the area continuously for some 12,000 years, according to Bogdan Jaroszewicz, director of the University of Warsaw scientific unit in Bialowieza, a picturesque village of mostly wooden homes that is the main access point to the forest.
Bialowieza is a giant open-air laboratory that allows us to study ecosystems evolving without human intervention.
It's a window on the past... from the point of view of the future, it's a priceless natural genetic reservoir, he said.
While other forests in Europe were cut down to make way for arable farming and then either grew back naturally or were replanted, Bialowieza has grown wild, virtually untouched.
The Bialowieza forest covers an area of 1,500 square kilometres and is dissected by the border between Belarus and Poland.
Some 42 percent of it lies on the Polish side, and over a third of this is protected -- including with a UNESCO heritage listing -- but the rest is managed by the state forestry agency and subject to logging.
On the Belarusian side, the forest is entirely protected.
- Carbon reservoir -
Strolling deep in the forest, Wajrak stopped to pull some hairs caught on a tree trunk.
A bison has passed here, said Wajrak, who works for the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
An emblematic animal for Poland, bison were hunted for centuries and disappeared from Bialowieza, its last habitat in Europe, before World War II. They were reintroduced using specimens reared in zoos.
There are currently estimated to be 715 bison in the forest -- around half of Poland's bison population -- along with around 40 wolves and 15 lynxes.
In total, there are around 12,000 animal species in Bialowieza -- mainly invertebrates -- and around 1,000 plant species.
Some of the oaks have a circumference of six metres (20 feet) and are 40 metres high. Spruces can grow even higher -- up to 50 metres, the equivalent of a 12-storey building.
In the forest, dead trees are as important as living ones.
What makes Bialowieza different from commercial forests is the abundance of dead trees. Most of the animal species are linked to them. It's a habitat for insects, mushrooms and lichens, said Adam Bohdan from Wild Poland, a non-governmental organisation.
Wajrak said that Europeans have become used to manicured pseudo-forests.
But the norm is Bialowieza -- chaos, mess, trees lying on the ground rotting and giving life to other organisms, he said.
A primeval forest is more resistant to climate change and constitutes the best and most stable carbon reservoir in existence.
- Breaking environmental laws -
In 2016-2019, an infestation of spruce bark beetles led to the greatest crisis in Bialowieza's recent history.
The state forestry agency embarked on a major logging operation in Bialowieza with the justification of combating the spread of the wood-boring insects, angering environmentalists and the EU.
Campaigners said the government just wanted to sell more wood.
In order to stop the clearing, they chained themselves to trees and logging equipment.
Bohdan said he was taken down from a harvester by officers who slashed his harness with a knife, cutting his skin.
According to Bohdan, more than 700 hectares were logged, including many trees that were more than a century old.
The European Court of Justice ruled against Poland for breaking environmental laws and the government ceased logging in 2018.
- 'Not logging' -
In October, a limited amount of logging resumed in Bialowieza.
Bohdan said the felled trees included large oaks that were nearly 90 years old and the authorities used the ridiculous pretext that it was to make space to plant other oaks.
Environmentalists have called for a halt to the logging.
But Jaroslaw Krawczyk, a spokesman for the state forestry agency in the nearby city of Bialystok, said the activity was not logging.
It's management, conservation, protection and renewal, he said.
In the rural commune of Hajnowka, many residents said they were opposed to expanding the protected area in the Bialowieza forest.
If the park is expanded, we won't be able to pick mushrooms or berries, or use the wood to heat our homes, said Lucyna Smoktunowicz, mayor of the commune, home to around 3,000 people.
Local communes benefit from taxes paid by the forestry agency and from additional spending on infrastructure such as roads.
The possible expansion of the national park protected area triggers strong emotions.
If we say that we're in favour of expanding the park, we can have problems at work, at home, conflicts with family and friends. It's very tough, said Joanna Lapinska, from the association Locals For The Forest.
- 'Tough, resistant' -
The forest has other problems too.
It is now divided by a new five-metre-high razor wire fence that Poland has to put up to stop an influx of migrants from Belarus.
When an animal tries to cross it, it gets injured, it starts to panic, it gets stuck, its muscles are torn, its tendons are torn and it bleeds to death in shock, said Rafal Kowalczyk, head of the Polish Academy of Sciences unit in Bialowieza.
He said entire animal populations could be put in danger.
Despite all the threats to its existence, its supporters are hopeful of the forest's ability to survive.
On his walk, Wajrak looked up at his favourite hornbeam trees.
When they get old, wrinkles appear, cracks, they twist. They're like human beings -- tough, resistant.