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Danish-Polish Environmental Co-operation 1991-2000
Bialowieza
Forest - Sustainable Management of Nature and Forestry
In the years of the Soviet regime Poland was in a state of environmental disaster
where all attempts to improve the environment were left to the central administration. The
turn of the 1980s and 1990s gave rise to democratisation of public life. Throughout the
last 10 years there has been an increase in the number of citizens feeling personally
responsible for the state of the local environment.
It is evident that Poland has gone through fundamental political, social and economic
changes during the last decades, and that these among other things have led to a higher
environmental awareness among the nation's citizens. Formal education and the informal
education conducted by NGOs and the media, together with the growing public awareness for
the importance of environmental issues as well as individuals' experiences have all helped
change people's perception of the state of environment and the consequences of their own
actions.
At present, there are more than 600 organisations declaring environmental activities in
their statutes. More than 60 organisations take part not only in solving local problems,
but also in the work of Parliament's commissions and in actions to support activities of
state authorities in the implementation of different tasks of environmental policy, often
initiating them on their own.
The public support
It is now an accepted official attitude, that the implementation of objectives related
to the improvement of the condition of the environment in Poland requires approval by the
public. Today, the wish for public involvement is the purpose of environmental education
conducted in schools and universities as well as by independent non-governmental and
church organisations and the mass media.
The independent environmental press and various publishers support the public activity
and with the new legislation providing for general access to environmental information,
the state of affairs has indeed improved substantially.
Also, from central level the importance of environmental education is stressed, as for
example expressed by the official paper entitled "The National Education Strategy.
Through Education to Sustainable Development" adopted by both the Minister of the
Environment and the Minister of National Education.
An example of a project involving environmental awareness raising is "Bialowieza
Forest - Sustainable Management of Nature and Forestry" described in chapter 11.
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