Resolution on Polish Rivers adopted on 23 April 2013 by

International Workshop, Warsaw – Biebrza 21-23 April 2013
AWARE: Approaches in WetlAnd Restoration - focus on fen landscapes
http://www.biol.uw.edu.pl/aware
Resolution on Polish Rivers adopted on 23 April 2013 by participants of the
international workshop “AWARE: Approaches to Wetland Restoration”
This document has been prepared by a group of scientists and practitioners of ecology,
hydrology, hydrochemistry and land use from 11 European countries, who met on April 22 and
23, 2013 in Warsaw. The aim of the meeting was to discuss strategies for restoring wetland
ecosystems and their vital ecosystem services, which were lost on a large scale due to past
unsustainable exploitation of the environment. The workshop was organised by the University of
Warsaw (Faculty of Biology) and the European Chapter of the Society for Ecological
Restoration (SER)1.
While the major objective of the workshop was to discuss approaches to repairing
existing damages in wetland landscapes, discussion of these issues was overshadowed by
information the participants received on current practices of managing riverine systems in
Poland. These largely resemble unsustainable activities from past decades that caused largescale environmental problems all over Europe. We, the participants of the workshop, with the
support of SER-Europe, accordingly wish to express our deepest concern as to the future of
Polish rivers.
According to preliminary estimates, 9000 km of rivers2 and streams in Poland were
treated during the last 3 years through hydro-technical regulation or regulatory-like works,
comprising such measures as river-bottom sediment removal, riverbed deepening and,
frequently, riverbank straightening and stabilisation, but carried out under the labels of
“conservation”, “maintenance”, “river bottoms and banks restoration”, and “riverbed cleaning”.
Many of these works have been financed as part of flood prevention programmes. We want to
stress that all evidence from past projects clearly shows that river regulation enhances the risk of
flooding rather than preventing it. In fact, increased safety against flooding is a major rationale
for the restoration of naturally flowing rivers to enhance water retention in the landscape. As
restoration experts we also warn that once damaged, these systems are not easily repaired.
Restoration incurs huge costs and cannot return well-functioning natural ecosystems within a
reasonable timeframe.
From the European perspective, we want to point to the requirements of the Habitat
Directive (the aim of which is to achieve a favourable conservation status for various aquatic and
wetland habitats and endangered species), considering part of the “river maintenance” works
were implemented in Natura 2000 areas. The Water Framework Directive is also relevant in this
case, since its aim is to implement the sustainable use of all water resources and, specifically, to
1
The Society for Ecological Restoration is a non-profit organisation associating individuals and organisations who
are actively engaged in ecologically-sensitive repair and management of ecosystems through an broad array of
experience, knowledge sets and cultural perspectives. More info: www.ser-europe.org.
2
This estimate is based on a survey of tenders conducted by the Wojewódzkie Zarządy Melioracji i Urządzeń
Wodnych in 2010-2012 in 10 voivodeships, extrapolated to the remaining 6 voivodeships.
achieve a good ecological status for all rivers by 2015. Inadequate transposition of the latter
document into Polish law led the European Commission to refer Poland to the European Court of
Justice in February 2013. We stress that large-scale regulation of rivers and river regulation-like
“maintenance works” are also contrary to the basic principles of this Directive. Moreover,
according to European standards, every river regulation work should be covered by an
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Inadequate naming (“conservation” or “water
maintenance” instead of “regulation”) does not legitimate the ignorance of the EIA procedure.
We stress that any intervention in natural riverine systems must be preceded by an economic and
environmental assessment of the necessity of the proposed measures and their environmental
impact.
In view of the above, the undersigned appeal to the Prime Minister of Poland and to the
Polish Government for the immediate cessation of unsustainable practices of river regulation and
maintenance and to apply existing specialist knowledge to develop sound multi-sectoral
strategies to manage water resources. We also offer our assistance should Poland decide to create
a program of sustainable river management.
Prepared in Warsaw on 23 April 2013, with the inclusion of
participant comments, submitted until 20 May 2013.
Signed by 47 participants.
Attachments:
- list of signatories along with their institutional affiliations;
- hand-written signatures of the signatories present at the closing
session of the workshop.
List of signatories of the Resolution on Polish Rivers adopted on 23 April 2013 by the participants of the
international workshop “AWARE: Approaches to Wetland Restoration”
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Simona Bacchereti, European Association for Information on Local Development, Belgium
Adam Bernatowicz, Biebrza National Park, Poland
Urszula Biereżnoj, Biebrza National Park, Poland
Marek Borkowski, Związek Biebrzański (Biebrza Association), Poland
Valentina Ciccolini, Institute Of Life Sciences -Scuola Superiore Sant'anna-Pisa, Italy
Kris Decleer, Society for Ecological Restoration Europe, Belgium
Paulina Dzierża, Wetland Conservation Centre, Poland
dr. Jörg Gelbrecht, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Germany
Vittoria Giannini, Institute Of Life Sciences -Scuola Superiore Sant'anna-Pisa, Italy
prof. Ab P. Grootjans, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
dr. Mateusz Grygoruk, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland
Pamela Hafner, Naturschutzfonds Brandenburg, Germany
Petter Hedberg, University of Warsaw, Poland
dr. Edyta Hewelke, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland
dr. Michal Horsák, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
dr. Mati Ilomets, Tallinn University, Estonia
dr. Ewa Jabłońska, University of Warsaw, Poland
dr. Agata Klimkowska, adviser in Ecosystem Restoration, the Netherlands - Poland,
Michał Korniluk, Natura International, Poland
dr. Wiktor Kotowski, University of Warsaw, Poland
Natalia Kowalska, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland
Łukasz Kozub, University of Warsaw, Poland
dr. Iwona Łaźniewska, Pracownia Badań Środowiskowych "ACER", Poland
Jerzy Łaźniewski, Pracownia Badań Środowiskowych "ACER", Poland
Piotr Marczakiewicz, Biebrza National Park, Poland
Jaak-Albert Metsoja, University of Tartu, Estonia
Paulina Michalak, student of University of Warsaw, Poland
dr. Dorota Michalska-Hejduk, University of Łódź, Poland
prof. Asbjørn Moen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway
dr. Dorota Okoń, The Silesian Voivodeship Landscape Parks Complex, Poland
dr. Māra Pakalne, University of Latvia, Latvia
Maria Pałzewicz, student of University of Warsaw, Poland
Magda Piątek, student of Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland
dr. Włodzimierz Pisarek, Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Olsztyn, Poland
dr. Wojciech Puchalski, The Nature Laboratory, Poland
Kairi Sepp, Tallinn University and University of Tartu, Estonia
Aivars Slisans, University of Latvia, Latvia
Maja Strychowska, student of Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland
Marcin Sulwiński, University of Warsaw, Poland
dr. Franziska Tanneberger, Greifswald University, Germany
Marlena Tarapata, student of University of Warsaw, Poland
Laimdota Truus, Tallinn University, Estonia
prof. Rudy Van Diggelen, University of Antwerp, Belgium
prof. Lesław Wołejko, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Poland
dr. Dominik Zak, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Germany
Corinna Zick, Naturschutzfonds Brandenburg, Germany
Dorota Zołotucho, student of Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland