U.N. urges Poland to preserve forest

WARSAW, Poland — Participants in a UNESCO World Heritage Committee session threatened Wednesday to put the oldest part of Europe’s last pristine forest on a list of endangered heritage sites and called on Poland to stop logging there immediately.

Meeting in Krakow, the United Nations committee called on the government to “maintain the continuity and integrity of protected oldgrowth forest in Bialowieza Forest,” and “halt all logging and wood extraction.

The committee also requested that World Heritage experts visit and evaluate the situation at the site. It obliged Poland to submit by the end of 2018 a report on how it is protecting the forest.

In addition, the panel warned it might put the forest on its List of World Heritage in Danger, a step that would open the path for immediate assistance from the World Heritage Fund.

Polish Deputy Environment Minister Andrzej Konieczny said his country would respect the committee’s call.

Poland’s environment minister, Jan Szyszko, has been criticized by ecology groups and the European Union for having increased logging threefold in the Bialowieza Forest, parts of which are Europe’s last unspoiled woodland.

The EU has threatened sanctions for what it calls a threat to the forest, which is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.

Szyszko says old-growth trees are cut only to control a bark beetle infestation. Ecologists say it is done for profit.

The forest covers hundreds of thousands of acres in Poland and Belarus, and it’s home to hundreds of animal and plant species.