On the edge of Europe in Białowieża
Exploring Europe's oldest forest with one of its fiercest protectors
In the United States, the National Parks loom large in our collective imagination. Dubbed “America’s Best Idea”, these 63 National Parks (and 360+ other administrative units) collectively cover more than 85 million acres and saw more than 311 million visitors last year. Their allure seems universal; when I strike up conversation with drivers and hosts, they often mention Yosemite / Yellowstone / Grand Canyon as bucket-list destinations.
It’s worth shouting from the rooftops that the U.S. National Parks have a fraught history — visitor numbers remain disproportionately white and to portray these landscapes as untouched is to systematically erase the indigenous tribes that inhabited them long before Teddy Roosevelt executive-ordered his way across the forests of the American West. But nonetheless, I think the National Parks in the United States are pretty great - so I was excited to check out one of their Polish cousins - Białowieża National Park.
Parks in proximity to people
In Europe, the protected lands situation is a bit different from the one in the states. With over 500 National Parks spread across 44 countries in the continent, management is fragmented and standards of protection greatly differ from place to place. And you can’t conveniently buy a $80 annual pass or a faux passport to stamp in each one you visit. But most perhaps the biggest difference between the systems is explained by population density.
What this creates is a system where natural preservation and people are in close proximity. Where a trip to Yosemite or Yellowstone inevitably involves a fossil-fuel intense plane trip or car ride, across Europe many people have National Parklands right in their backyard. Case in point - I’m finishing this post at a friend’s house ten minutes walking distance from the National Forest of Fontainebleau.
It’s against this backdrop that the story of the first climate hotspot of The Green Journey starts. Two weeks into the travel, we kicked off our reporting at Białowieża, Europe’s last temperate primeval forest fragment and the site of some of the oldest untouched nature on the continent. In fact, the heart of the forest, which has been standing for over 800 years, is so strictly protected that you can’t go there without a guide. It’s also known as the home of the European Bison, the largest mammal in Europe, which was brought back from the brink of extinction with a historic reintroduction campaign.
A journey to the edge of Europe
After a few days crashing at a friend’s place in Warsaw — a city that unexpectedly evokes Washington D.C. with its sleek mid-rise apartment buildings, trendy coffee shops, and overabundance of people jostling through the metro in business casual — we board a rickety, three-car train to Hajnówka.
Our original plan had been to then take a bus to the town of Białowieża, but we missed it by five minutes - so we stick our thumbs out to find a ride. After 30 minutes of waiting, we’re rescued Maciej, an off-duty Polish Army officer, and his mom.
Maciej switches between French, English and Polish as he explains to us a bit about the history of the forest - Maciej is very much of the opinion that logging in the forest is a good thing, as a barer forest at the border is more easily policed, and is less prone to infestation or invasive species.
He even goes so far as to describe the people who have fought to stop logging in the forest as ‘ignorant radical eco-terrorists’ - a phrase that we take some umbrage to, as we’re planning to go interview said ignorant radical eco-terrorists in a few hours.
But that’s the beauty of this method of slow, engaged travel - in the same day, we hear both sides of the story and then are able to make our own judgement about the situation.
A forest, not a tree plantation
I first learned about Białowieża National Park when reading The World Without Us, Alan Weisman’s slightly labored exploration of what the world would look like if humanity suddenly disappeared (spoiler alert: nature is probably going to adapt much better to climate change than we are). In the book, Weisman visits Białowieża as an example of “an area where natural life exists with very little human intervention.
Walking underneath the tree canopy, you see why he chose it - the air hums with birdsong, mushrooms and mosses cover the forest floor, and we saw approximately 2 other travelers in the forest when we visited.
There are a ton of trees in Europe - trees cover approximately 40% of the continent’s land space, and the European Commission has pledged to plant another 3 billion trees by 2030. But - and this is key - trees don’t make a forest. And with a >$1T global logging industry that’s only growing amidst recent allowances for wood pellets as a ‘renewable’ fuel source, there’s a lot of pressure across the continent to increase logging even more to fuel the energy transition.
We sat down with Polish journalist and ecologist Adam Wajrak, who’s been living in the forest for over 20 years. With a grizzly beard, camouflage outfit, and a can of beans for dinner, he was definitely one of the ‘radicals’ that Maciej described. Wajrak has been on the front lines of nearly every climate fight in the forest - he’s advocated for protection of biodiversity, the ceasing of logging, and more open borders (for the sake of both human rights and wildlife protection).
As Adam pointed out, the types of forests that cover most of Europe aren’t forests - they’re tree plantations. In fact, 95% of Europe’s forest land is currently disturbed by human intervention - and biodiversity across the continent in all types of environments continues to decline at an alarming rate. Against this backdrop, Białowieża is a rare example of a true, old forest - and its existence was only made possible with significant climate coalition-building to protect its very existence.
Forest protection and a vision of ecological solidarity
When in the Białowieża, we were given the opportunity to spend the night at a local eco-center and learn a bit more about the movement to protect the old-growth forest over the years. Back in 2015, Białowieża was a frequent headline in the environmental movement. When a far-right minister took power in Poland in 2016, he extended logging rights in the forest to three times their previous size - citing a bark beetle infestation.
For the next three years, many different stakeholders worked in tandem to protest the encroachment of logging interests into the area. Things got heated as the pressure grew - and the movement attracted significant international attention as activists chained themselves to logging equipment and scientists published study after study profiling the absolute necessity of the area to biodiversity preservation. In 2018, a major environmental victory was won when the European Court of Justice declared logging in the forest was a violation of EU law.
The eco-center where stayed was historically part of Camp for the Forest, a grassroots resistance camp and hub of activity and activism. Although since the judgement of the ECJ the forest camp is no longer active, the eco-center still stands as a hub for environmental and social discourse. In 2021, the center served as a safe haven for refugees amidst the emergence of hybrid war with Belarus, and today it’s used to host everything from workshops for activists, to Ukrainian refugees, to documentary filmmakers in the area.
The eco-center was a welcoming place to us in a way you just don’t experience from using Airbnb or a hotel - written on the walls were dozens of principles of ecological living, a library full of climate justice texts, and was so close to the forest that wild animals promenaded through the garden at sunset.
What happens to climate victory after the battle is won?
But today, as Adam informed us, the forest is a far lonelier, more fraught place than it was in 2018. The onset of the Covid pandemic destroyed tourism in the area - which, when practiced sustainably, was on the rise and good for the region - the one fact that both he and Maciej seemed to agree on. And while many other global destinations have received a resurgence in interest following the end of lockdown, the forest’s proximity to the border has rendered it a ghost town.
The decline in international attention poses problems for the forest - as recently as 2021, logging quotas increased in the area, despite ECJ judgement. While these areas got less attention as they weren’t the heart of the primeval forest, Adam pointed out it doesn’t count for much if we just protect the symbolic places and leave the rest to die.
Our journey to Białowieża reminded us just how important it is to never let up in the fight for climate justice - whether or not there are cameras and protestors in an area, nature still needs to be left alone to do her thing.
As we rose with the sun the next morning to catch the only bus of the day back to Hajnówka, I noticed a stork preening in its nest. As we approached, the tree where it perched revealed itself as a telephone pole.
And so, as we left the primeval forest, I was left reflecting on Alan Weismann’s words:
Without us, Earth will abide and endure; without her, however, we could not even be.
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it is my world :) My village. These are also growing problems on the border with Belarus. https://youtu.be/CHa4OGcOCuw