Protesters march for Poland's oldest forest
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
18.01.2016 15:38
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Hundreds protest against tree felling in the Białowieża Forest
A march in defence of the Białowieża Forest took place in Warsaw over the weekend organised by the Green party.
Marchers in Warsaw protest against the prospective felling of trees in the Białowieża Forest. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka
The gathering was held in protest against the planned logging of some 400,000 diseased trees which have been attacked by the European spruce bark beetle.
It was a march of the Ents, as the organisers chose to call it, referring to the Ents Onodrim, Shepherds of the Trees from J.R.R. Tolkien 's ‘Lord of the Rings’.
The hundreds who gathered at the Łazienki Park in Warsaw protested that the oldest forest in Europe, and a national park in Poland, is threatened.
It is not the bark beetle which spells danger to this primeval forest, the protesters argued, but the activities of man. They chanted that the forest is not a business.