During 45 days of public consultation, over 1.7 thousand received the Institute of Environmental Protection. Notes to the management plan of the Polish part of the Białowieża Forest – Ioś informed on Tuesday. Notes concerned, among others Restrictions on forest management in the Forest and a ban on hunting.
“On August 18, 2025, the period of accepting comments to the management plan of the World Heritage Białowieża Forest (part of Poland) has ended. From July 7, for 45 days, each interested person could transfer their opinions via the online form, e-mail or traditional mail. (…) In total, the Institute of Environmental Protection-the State Research Institute (IOŚ-PIB) received over 1,700 applications,” communication.
Notes were obtained from residents, naturalists, social organizations, representatives of local governments, scientific institutions, land managers and scientists, and the vast majority were sent by people living in the Białowieża Forest region. Comments were also sent by people from other regions of Poland and the world.
IOŚ pointed out that your analysis of the comments submitted; Then a consultation report will be created in which IOŚ-PIB experts will respond to all votes and indicate whether they have been taken into account and how or why it was not possible. He noted that due to the significant number of applications, the preparation of the report is planned for the beginning of the fourth quarter of this year.
“The analysis of the received comments takes time. However, there are already topics, which were noticed by the most people. Among such issues, you can indicate the need to limit forest management in the Forest, no hunting, or counteract the fragmentation of the object. Some pointed to the need to ensure fire safety, enabling the socio-economic development of the region, promotion of tourism, “said the head of the” Białowieża Forest “project in IOŚ-PIB Michał Marcinkowski, quoted in a communiqué. He added that many issues indicated by the participants of public consultations are already included in the document.
The development of the final version of the Forest Management Plan will allow you to meet the liabilities of the state resulting from joining the Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972 and the decision of the Inter -Government World Heritage Committee issued as part of this convention – the Institute also pointed out. It will also avoid entering the Białowieża Forest on the UNESCO World Heritage List in danger.
The document is to specify the management of the Białowieża Forest management for the next 25 years, so that “proper care and protection of the forest as a world heritage object, taking into account the needs of sustainable socio-economic development of the region.”
The plan is available on ioś-PiB (ios.edu.pl/aktualnosci/Plan-zarzadzania-obiemmiem-swiatowy-Dziedziwaty-bialowieza-forest-częc-polska/).
Each facility from the UNESCO list must have a management plan, which aims to maintain a unique heritage and values of a given object for future generations. The Białowieża Forest is not yet there, although it was entered on the list in 1979.
Work on the plan of the plan has lasted for several years. In 2017, when the trees were justified by the then struggle with Karknik in the Forest, there were voices that the Forest may lose the status of a world heritage object for heritage in danger.
The draft plan prepared by the PiS government after the change of power in 2023 was supplemented, among others about issues related to the protection of the Polish-Belarusian border, which also runs in the Forest. Since the summer of 2021, the migration crisis has been artificially caused by Belarus.
At the end of June, the draft plan was presented in Białowieża by Deputy Minister Mikołaj Dorożała and director of IOŚ dr hab. Marcin Stoczkiewicz. One of its elements is the so -called Zonaling, i.e. the division of the forest into zones that determine what is allowed in them and what is not. There are to be four zones (Zone IV will be divided into three smaller ones).
Zone I – the area of the strictest protection – is to have approx. 6,000 ha (over 10 % of the forest area), II – approx. 16 thousand ha (28 percent), III – over 32 thousand ha (57 percent), and IV – allowing active protection – over 2,000 ha (over 3.7 percent). In the forest – outside the UNESCO building zone – no hunting economy will be run. For over 90 percent UNESCO will be available for recreational purposes, collect mushrooms, berries, herbs.
The Białowieża Forest is one of the last existing and best preserved natural forest complexes of primary nature in the Lowland of Europe, a refuge of many rare species. The “Białowieża Forest” object has been on the World Heritage List since 1979. At that time, the Polish part of the Forest was inscribed on this list. In 1992, after entering the Belarusian part of the forest, it became a cross -border object. There is currently no cooperation with Belarus. In 2014, the boundaries of the object were changed. It is currently 56.6 thous. ha in Poland and 82.3 thousand ha in Belarus. The total area of the facility is 142 thousand. ha, and his buffer zone 166.7 thousand ha (PAP)
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