On Tuesday 20 February, Advocate General Yves Bot said Poland had failed to ensure that its forestry management operations on the Natura 2000 Puszcza Bialowieska site were in line with the habitats and birds directives and did not deteriorate the breeding sites of protected species (Case C-441/17).
In line with the habitats directive (92/43), the Puszcza Bialowieska site – which is made up of the three forest districts of Bialowieza, Browsk and Hajnowka – has come under Natura 2000 classification since 2007 due to the presence of natural habitats and protected animal and bird species. It is also a “special protection area” for birds, in line with the birds directive (2009/147). The Bialowieza forest is one of the best conserved natural ancient forests in Europe, with a large number of hundred year (or more) old trees.
Given the constant spread of an invasive bark beetle (lps typographus), the Polish minister for the environment authorised, in 2016, a three-fold increase in logging in the forest district of Bialowieza alone between 2012 and 2021, as well as active forest management operations (tree surgery, reafforestation operations, rejuvenation) in areas in which all intervention had hitherto been excluded.
In 2017, the director general of the Polish Forestry Office authorised logging for the three above forestry districts where trees are colonised by the lps typographus beetle and where logging is necessary for public safety or to reduce the fire risk. Thus, the removal of dry trees and trees colonised by the beetle was carried out in an area of around 34,000 hectares, which is equivalent to over twice the surface area of the Natura 2000 listed site.
In July 2017, deeming that the Polish authorities had neglected to ensure that forest management operations would not be detrimental to the integrity of the Puszcza Bialowieska site, the Commission brought action before the Court relating to Poland’s violation of EU law (see EUROPE 11829).
The advocate general shares the view of the Commission. He points out that, by way of the habitats directive, specific requirements must be met when a plan that might significantly affect a listed site is adopted.
Yves Bot believes Poland has not implemented the necessary measures for conservation of the Puszcza Bialowieska site. The measures taken have in fact entailed the loss of part of the forest stock. In his view, such measures cannot be justified by the unprecedented spread of the lps typographus beetle, due to the fact that scientific opinions differ as to such measures being appropriate. Also, Bot observes that the measures are considered as potentially dangerous for the conservation of habitats and protected species in a national management plan (Plan Zadan Ochronnych, PZO), adopted in 2015.
The Polish authorities maintain that the measures in question represented a plan not directly linked to the management of the Natura 2000 site in the sense of the habitats directive. After scrutiny of the chronology of the controversial decisions and of the coherence of evidence, the advocate general notes that such a plan had not been the subject of an appropriate impact assessment on the protected site before being authorised.
Furthermore, Yves Bot notes that different decisions had been taken in 2015 in the Polish plan to manage trees colonised by the destructive beetle. He notes that the 2017 decision by the director general of the Forestry Office does not seek a balance between active management measures and passive management in order to combat the spread of the insect, in so far as the decision authorises logging and the removal of forest stock without restriction.
Greens/EFA Group in Parliament is pleased. “The opinion of the advocate general confirms the concern of scientists opposed to forestry exploitation conducted by the Polish authorities”, said the co-leader of the Greens/EFA Group, Philippe Lambert of Belgium, in a press release. He went on to urge the Polish authorities to “change direction to act in line with the law and the fundamental values of the EU”. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)