The government behind the new National Park. Hennig-Kloska counts with the president's veto
The Council of Ministers adopted a bill on the creation of the Lower Odra Valley Park. “New jobs in the new sector of the Polish economy and faster investments in the Wind Energy in the Baltic Sea and the establishment of the first new National Park in Poland in 24 years! These will be the effects of two draft MKiś law, which the Council of Ministers just adopted”-wrote on the platform X Hennig-Kloska. She added that it is also an opportunity to create areas of accelerated RES development and better protection of international areas.
As indicated in the justification of the bill, the new park is to be Gryfino. It is created for, among others preservation of biological diversity, resources, creations and ingredients of inanimate nature as well as landscape values as well as restoring the proper state of resources and nature components.
Controversy in connection with the container port in Świnoujście
However, the park aroused controversy about plans to build a new container port in Świnoujście. The navigability of the Oder Goods is a guarantee that the port will have economic sense and would be real competition for German ports, creating new transport corridors.
– The terminal in Świnoujście has become a political topic, but from the logistics point of view, this investment makes sense. The condition for her success is, however, the openness of the Odra. In this scenario, the river could be delivered from Świnoujście to Wrocław, where a multimodal terminal could be created. After reloading the loads to trucks, they could reach southern Poland, as well as the Czech Republic, Austria and part of Germany – Łukasz Kurman, Senior Product Manager at DSV explained Business Insider.
It is true that the court in Warsaw dismissed the complaint of German and Polish associations in August, which tried to annul the key document for the construction of the Świnoujście terminal, i.e. an environmental decision issued in February, but the business success of the investment after construction depends largely on the availability of the waterway.
– Odra, which has gained sailing in recent years, is to be mortified today. This will reduce the influx of goods to the Szczecin-Świnoujście port and limit the possibility of creating a container terminal-commented Marek Gróbarczyk, Minister of Water Management and Inland Navigation during PiS rule.
– Limiting access to sea ports on the only river available to the navigation is the liquidation of the possibility of relieving these ports from CongaSenia [korków — red.] on roads and rails. This also applies to large -size loads and heavy pieces. We have a specialized port in Opole to handle such transports that are transported on the shoulders both down and at the top of the river-said Andrzej Podgórski, the editor-in-chief of Zegluga-rzeczna.pl, the editor-in-chief of the infrastructure market.
He explained that about 30 kilometers of the Odrzańska Waterway adheres to the designed park and this is a key section when it comes to access to Szczecin-Świnoujście ports for the Polish inland fleet. At the same time, he pointed out that the national park does not have to limit river transport, because such transport is promoted in the Union as low -emission. This is the case on the German side, where there is also a national park, whose border is based on measles, which does not exclude navigation.
The government prepared for the veto
Minister Hennig-Kloska, when asked at a press conference about the possible veto of the president towards this law, said she had recently been in place and talked to local local governments. – We have developed a common way to achieve our goal, even with the President's verta, but I will leave the details of this plan for myself – said the head of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
– I wanted to promise everyone that this park would be built, regardless of whether the president would cooperate with us or not. For now, I will try to inspire the president with this beautiful nature, this beautiful place, but he would accept arguments and want to protect this area with us-said Hennig-Kloska.
The designed National Park of the Dolna Odra Valley is to cover an area of 3,000. 856.30 ha in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. This area is to be possible to conduct fishing, i.e. amateur fishing and fishing and cultural fishing, understood as fishing, e.g. a traditional way for a given region. Fishing is to be possible on the principles set out in the protection plan, protective tasks or in the ordinance of the Director of the National Park.
Park for PLN 17 million a year
A provision will apply to the fishing and cultural fishing, stipulating that in the National Park Protection Plan, and until its preparation – in protective tasks – places that may be made available, and the maximum number of people who can stay in these places at the same time. The catalog of elements of the park protection plan is to be supplemented with an indication of areas and places made available for the purposes of fishing and cultural fishing.
All provisions of the Act on nature protection on national parks, setting their tasks, including conducting protective activities, sharing the park area and conducting nature education, will apply to the new park.
MKIŚ also assumes that the division of the state budget reserve is also to cover the municipalities, within which the planned park is created, which results from the fact that this provision applies to national parks extended and created in 2025, and the National Park of the Dolna Odra Valley will be created on January 1, 2026. The state budget expenditure limit related to the planned park in 2026-2035 is PLN 167 millionof which it is to be over PLN 19 million in 2026, and in 2027 – PLN 16.6 million.
“Channels overgrow”
The ministry also informed that the borders of the park were agreed with the City Council of Szczecin, the Council of the Widuchowa Commune, Kołbaskowo, the Council of the Police, Gryfiński poviats and the regional council of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. The head of the Kołbaskowo commune Małgorzata Schwarz assessed that this was very good information. – From the very beginning, even before there was information in the public space that there is an initiative group that wants to create such a park, we were for solving the problem with our interdder – she informed.
She explained that Międzyodrze had overwhelmed, degraded, and the local government wanted to preserve the well -being of nature. She indicated that when the channels overgrow, there is a lack of food for the birds that inhabit them.
– There were a lot of institutions that dealt with this inter -district. And we wanted one institution to be created, which would do it from beginning to end, it would have a thoughtful action plan and will implement this plan – Schwarz added.
– We say about Międzyodrz that this is our Amazonia. We often go abroad, admire nature in other countries, and we have it here at our fingertips. We want to save this nature for our future generations – emphasized the head of the Kołbaskowo commune.
In the first stage, the National Park will be created in the communes of Kołbaskowo, Widuchów and the City of Szczecin. The park will cover an area of 3856 ha. Currently, the project does not include the Gryfino commune, but in the next stage the possibility of enlarging the National Park of the Dolna Odra Valley was also included with its area.
– In my opinion, the case of the Lower Odra Valley Park is “pears on the willow”. 13 national parks in Poland 13 have a budget deficit. In this light, the promises about the alleged benefits that the Gryfino commune would have from the creation of the park would have many doubts – commented the mayor of Gryfino Mieczysław Sawaryn.
– The omission of the City Council in Gryfino is scandalous when giving opinions on the park's project. The promise to make the headquarters of the National Park in Gryfino does not disperse the indignation of the City Council in Gryfino, which postulated the Polish government to be included in the procedure of adopting the park's issue – added Sawaryn.
The boundaries of the new park are to be designated to ensure the protection of natural resources and at the same time enable the current use of the area. “Both arms of the Odra River: the West Odra and Eastern Odra will not be included in the park and its buffer zone. Three islands going beyond the main area of Międzyodrza – the Kurowskie Island located between the West Oder and the Kurowski Canal and a complex of two islands located between the Eastern Oder and the Kurowski channel: Ostrów and Ostrówk channel will be included. The islands of Klucki Ostrów and Zaklucki Ostrówek belong to the city of Szczecin ” – indicated in the assessment of the effects of regulation (OSR) of the regulation planned to the Act.
The buffer zone is to be a protective zone bordering on the designed park and be an area that protects it against “external threats resulting from human activities”. “The buffer zone will be mainly guided by plots that are inter -violent – a lane of the area from the river border to the base of the flood embankment, on the outside of the inter -district. If there was no separation of such a plot, i.e. the shaft together with the inter -vein was one plot, it is included in the designed park. The cover is not a coherent and continuous inter -district, but it is in many places. There is no place to the areas where any human activity is carried out – except Międzyodrza itself, “the ministry pointed out.
According to earlier announcements of the Ministry of Climate and the Environment, the park was to be built later this year. At the end of May, councilors of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship agreed.
Deputy Minister of Climate Mikołaj Dorożała in February last year in an interview with PAP announced the creation of a new national park. He noticed that it would be the first park in about 20 years, because the last, i.e. the “Ujście Warta” National Park, was founded in 2001.
According to the law, the National Park in Poland is created by law, and by a regulation the Council of Ministers defines its borders. The creation or change of park borders requires the consent of the competent local government bodies.
There are currently 23 national parks in Poland, which occupy about 1 percent. country surface. The first park that was created in our country was the Pieniński National Park. The largest park is the Biebrza National Park.
