Greenpeace Criticizes Poland Over Attempt to Exclude its Site From UNESCO List

Poland is consciously seeking to violate international law by trying to change the status of Bialowieza Forest by excluding it from the UNESCO World Natural Heritage list, Mikhail Kreindlin, the Greenpeace Russia Protected Areas Program coordinator, told Sputnik Sunday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Thursday, Polish Environment Minister Jan Szyszko addressed the Prosecutor’s office to remove the Bialowieza Forest from the UNSECO World Natural Heritage list. Poland has also decided to start deforestation of the part of Bialowieza Forest which is not in the heritage list.

"In case Poland will seek the exclusion of Bialowieza Forest from the list of the world heritage sites, this will mean that the country consciously wants to violate international law with regard to the implementation of the convention on heritage," Kreindlin said, recalling that this year Poland is the chair of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

Kreindlin said that Szyszko’s allegation of Bialowieza Forest’s illegal inclusion in the world heritage list did not correspond with reality.

"This is impossible as the world heritage committee can include a territory in the list of the cultural heritage only when asked by the country, this is a strict requirement of the convention on protection of UNESCO world cultural and natural heritage," Kreindlin said.

Kreindlin also said that Shishko’s willingness to attribute a mixed status of natural and cultural heritage to the Bialowieza Forest indicate a lack of competence.

The Bialowieza Forest, located on the Belarus-Polish border, is the greatest remainder of Europe’s original primeval forest.