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For Love and Freedom on Clean Mother-Earth!
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"ECODEFENSE!inform" environmental inform-bulletin * number 31 *
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...............................................* OCTOBER 1994 *
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"ECODEFENSE!"
Moskovsky prospekt 120-34
236006 Kaliningrad/Koenigsberg
Russia
telephone +7 0112 437286
E-mail: ecodefense@glas.apc.org
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BALTIC SEA REGION ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS BULLETIN
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CONTENT
Attention
THE REMNANS OF NATURAL FORESTS IN FINLAND ARE IN DANGER!
SAVE ALL REMAINING OLD-GROWTH FORESTS
Book
BIESZCZADY MOUNTAIN GUIDE BOOK
Politic
POLAND COUNTS ON GERMAN SUPPORT FOR HER ENTRY TO EU AND
NATO
Agriculture
POLAND'S CONSERVATIVE AGRICULTURE
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ACTION ALERT! URGENT! URGENT! URGENT! A REQUEST FOR HELP!
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THE REMNANTS OF NATURAL FORESTS IN FINLAND ARE IN DANGER!
A programme for the conservation of the last old-growth
forests is under construction in Finland. This programme needs
international support from organizations and activists all
over the world. Especially in those countries which import the
bulk of our forestry products: Germany, England, France,
Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Belgium and United
States among others. The following days are critical. Without
this programme these forests will vanish totally during the
next 5-10 years. National board of forestry tries to minimize
all protection zones.
Please, send a fax to our Goverment as soon as possible!
Now!!! Spread the word to other activists, mailing lists,
newsgroups and NGOs! Act in 24 hours from the moment you read
this.
The fax number for the Finnish Government is +358-0-160 2099.
(That is int. code+three-five-eight-zero-one-six-zero-two-zero
-nine-nine.) You can use the following text or make your own.
Add your personal / national point of view regarding this
issue!
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To the Government of Finland
SAVE ALL REMAINING OLD-GROWTH FORESTS!
The overall forest protection situation in Finland is far from
sufficient. Only 2.1% of forest land is under any kind of
legal protection. In the southern part of Finland the
percentage is even smaller. The proposed Conservation
Programme for Old-Growth Forests on state-owned lands in
southern part of Finland will at its best raise this figure
from 0.38 to only 0.53% in the Programme area
Even this minimal proposal faces a danger of rejection. The
Programme must be immediately implemented at least in its
proposed coverage
Many natural forests were left out purely for political
reasons. They have to become included in the Programme.There
are also large areas which haven't been sufficiently surveyed.
The ecological importance of forests in these areas must be
throughoutly examined before any forestry activities are put
into practice. The Programme area must be extended much
further up north as well.
The Government of Finland has to ensure that sufficient
finance is allocated to the protection of private-owned old-
growth forests. A programme covering these lands must be
formulated immediately. Short sighted cuttings in money used
for buying nature protection areas can not be explained by
depression. Finland has as one of the signatories of the
Rio-treaty on biodiversity an obligation to conserve the
biodiversity within its borders as well as elsewhere.
Signature and organisation
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P.S. Please, let us know when and how you have done your part
for this request, e-mail to us or send a fax. We'll provide
further information.
Jarmo Pyykko and Matti Ikonen Finnish Forest Action
Let the Forests Live!
Fax: +358-0-131 14 216 Tel: +358-0-131 14 220
E-mail: Matti.Ikonen@hut.fi
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BIESZCZADY MOUNTAIN QUIDE BOOK
KROSNO, oct. 17: a guide book to the Bieszczady mountains
for americans written by two u.s. citizens, Kirk Henwood and
Joe Boglino, will come out still this year.
The Bieszczady mountains, the most remote region of this
country, are situated in south-eastern poland. The fauna of
the region includes bison bonasus (aurochs), brown bear,
wildcat, lynx, wild boar and deer. The national park was
established there in 1973 to preserve the wildlife of the
Bieszczady mountains. Shepherding, forestry and tourism are of
importance in the region.
Henwood and Boglino, volunteers of the peace corpse, have
been staying in poland for a few years. Numerous visits paid
to the Bieszczdy mountains made them write the guide book to
present the region to foreign tourists.
PAP
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POLAND COUNTS ON GERMAN SUPPORT FOR HER ENTRY TO EU AND NATO
Warsaw, oct. 17: following the victory of the coalition
of chancellor Helmut Kohl in the german elections, Poland is
eager to continue polish-german cooperation and to receive
further german support for membership of the European Union
and NATO, reads a communique forwarded by the polish foreign
ministry to PAP on monday.
The victory of the coalition of Helmut Kohl means that at
a moment of great significance for both europe and the world,
german will continue to be lead by the same team. "We trust
that this team will continue and further develop the
partnership and the mutually beneficial cooperation between
our countries. We are counting on the further active support
of germany for our efforts to enter into the structures of the
European Union and NATO," reads the communique.
The foreign ministry also expressed the conviction that
"in matters so important for both countries and also for
european unification there will be a consensus among the
ruling coalition and the opposition groupings which have
arisen in result of the elections."
PAP
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POLAND'S CONSERVATIVE AGRICULTURE
by Piotr Andrzejewski
" Poland must not stand still while the world moves ahead. If
it does, it will be pushed to the margin of civilisation.
The prosperity of Polish farmers will be determined by their
competitions, French, Danish or German, not by bureaucrats. It
is the competitors our farmers will have to stand up to",
warned president Lech Walesa during the harvest celebration
ceremony in Czestochowa. The president's statement cannot be
accepted without reservations. The competitors are not missing
their chance, no doubt, but whether our agriculture can
withstand their onslaught depends largely on "bureaucratic
decisions" otherwise known as the agricultural policy.
It would be naive to expect that the pace of structural
changes in our agriculture will be comparable to the pace at
which the EC countries restructured their agricultural
sectors. The pattern of the Polish agriculture is
fundamentally different from those of highly industrialised
West European economies [...]. Farms with less that 10 hectare
holdings account for 57% of the farmland held by private
owners, against Denmark's 18%, France's 30% and Germany's 47%.
Agriculture accounts for more than 25% of the national
employment in Poland, several times more than in Denmark
(5.3%), France (6.7%) or Germany (3.3%). Our agriculture is
overpopulated, with pronounced regional differences in
by-farm-size patterns. In 15 western and northern voivodships,
over 50% of farmland is held by large farms created from the
former PGR state-owned farming enterprises. Overpopulation and
hidden unemployment, far from being the disease of peasant
farms alone, are also troubling state-owned farms. Now that
former PGR enterprises are reducing employment under reform
schemes, farming is incapable of absorbing in full the supply
of rural labour which is several times higher than in the
European Union countries. In fact, over-employment was an
important cause of large state-owned farms' dismal profit
performance and of their collapse in the wake of the
de-regulation of the agricultural sector and the withdrawal of
budget subsidies.
Poland's grain yield per hectare is between 28 and 30 quintals
[100 kg], against France's 60 quintals and Germany's 50
quintals. Low labour productivity on most Polish farms means
low incomes. It is estimated that about 1.5 million farms (70%
of the entire farm population) generate
unemployment-benefit-level incomes.
The state-owned and cooperative farms are not better off. In
1992, only 30% of the PGR enterprises could afford to proceed
with their usual business without major jolts. Last year,
nearly all public-sector farms reported losses. Cooperative
farms are also in severely strained circumstances,
particularly those which have not branched out into non-farm
business.
"Report on Agriculture", a document released early this year,
estimates than only 30% of the Polish farms have adequate
production potentials to adjust to market economy requirements
and that simple replacement of assets is the best the majority
can attempt to achieve. Only one-third of the farms, the
strongest ones, have expanded their production potentials. The
overall condition of the national economy doesn't offer
farmers opportunities for moving into non-farm jobs, or
migrating to towns.
The farming sector's 1993 indebtedness stood at Zl 21
trillion, of which private farmers' debts added up to Zl 9.5
trillion. Interests arrears totalled Zl 400 billion.
This year agriculture will receive Zl 60 trillion of budget
money, nearly 10% of the total budget expenditure. Subsidies
to low-interest farming loans and loan-servicing institutions
(including the Agricultural Market Agency whose performance
has aroused much contro versy and the Agency for Restructuring
and Modernisation of Agriculture) exceed Zl 5 trillion.
(to be concluded in next issue)
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