Protected areas in Poland

National Parks in Poland constitute the biggest form of nature protection. The parks protect an area distinctive for its unique scientific, natural, cultural and educational values. The main task of national park is to study and preserve the unity of natural systems of the area, as well as to restore the disturbed or extinct elements of a native nature.

We have 24 National Parks in Poland.

The emblem of each park is an animal that is protected in this

Regions in Poland which are protected:

Zachodniopoporskie

National Parks – Drawienski, Woliński

Wetlands of International Importance (RAMSAR) – Lake Swidwie

Pomorskie

National Parks – Slowiński

Wetlands of International Importance (RAMSAR) – Słowiński

UNESCO MAB Biosphere reserves – Słowiński

Warmińsko- Mazurskie

Wetlands of International Importance (RAMSAR) – Lake Karas

UNESCO MAB Biosphere reserves – Lukajno Lake reserve

Lubuskie

National Parks – Drawieński

Kujawsko – pomorskie

National Parks – Bory tucholskie

Mazowieckie

National Parks – Kampinoski

UNESCO MAB Biosphere reserves – Puszcza Kampinoska

Wielkopolskie

National Parks – Drawieński, Wielkopolski

Dolnośląskie

National Parks – Gór Stołowych (mountains), Karkonoski (mountains)

Wetlands of International Importance (RAMSAR) – Stawy Milickie Nature reserve

UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserves – Karkonosze

Łódzkie

National Parks – Kampinoski

Lubelskie

National Parks – Polseki, Roztoczański, Ujście Warty

Wetlands of International Importance (RAMSAR) – Słońsk Reserve

Sląskie

National Parks – Babiogórski (mountains)

UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserves

Świętokrzyskie

National Parks – Świętokrzyski (mountains)

Podlaskie

NAtional Parks – Białowieski, Biebrzański, Narwiański, Wigierski

Wetlands of International Importance (RAMSAR) – Biebrza National Park, Lukajno Lake

Małopolskie

National Parks – Babiogróski, Gorczański, MAgurski, Ojcowski, Pieniński, Tatrzański (all mountains)

UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserves – Tatra Reserve

Podkarpackie

National Parks – Bieszczadzki (mountains)

UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserves – East Carpathian

What is more

-       121 Landscape Parks

-       Over 1300 nature reserves

-       450 protected landscapes areas

-       About 500 Natura2000 sites

-       Geological “documentary sites”

-       Over 6000 ‘ecological sites’

-       ‘nature and landscapes complexes’

-       About 33,000 natural monuments

slide show of natural place

PARADOX
because next to the beautiful yellow flowers, someone threw garbage in a plastic bag, which distract attention from them

BEAUTY

I think I do not need to explain why I consider it a beauty. Just look at the picture.. This is pure The Mother Nature

COOPERATION

Plants provide benefits to each other

SHARING

The sea shares with the birds things which can offer them. The birds are waiting for the fish living in the sea

CREATIVITY

Nature gives us many opportunities for creative leisure, without the interference and destruction of its

EQUILIBRIUM

I understand it as a help to the nature. Because of people help for plants such as undercut (renewal) the old canes, new ones can grow. It means that old parts should be replaced by new

PERSONAL IDENTITY

I’m like the palm tree, which needs sun and good weather, so she could grow. Palm trees live only in warm climates where the sun shines almost every day. I also do  not function without sun

ESSENCE

For me is the beginning of existence. Thing that heralds something more. Like those first leaves on withered branches. They are the essence of the bush, which wakes up to life

ECONOMY

Even in the nature economy occurs. Grass uses a sprinkler, when The Mother Nature fails and does not provide enough rain to life

BUSINESS

Dogs do their business on the grass. Unfortunately grass has nothing to say in this situation. And as sometimes happens in business, one part may feel exploited

AUTENTICY (autenticidade)

What was my surprise when I saw a mantis for the first time in my life. Mantis was always watched only in books. It is nice to see a species live, not only in books. It makes the world more  authentic

MONUMENT

This is a similar situation as with beauty. It is difficult to write anything about it. Just look at it and you know that it is the perfect match for that world

TED ideas worth spreading

TED is a website where you can find talks in every sphere of our life. 
 I chose the one connected with recycling.


The whole of talk you can find here http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_biddle.html
Below is my resume about it.


Mike Biddle: We can recycle plastic
Mike Biddle as he said is a garbage man. He believes that many of us continue toddler rules: it’s my stuff if I saw it first! The more stuff that’s mine, the better, and of course it’s your if it’s broken. Mike after spending 20 years in the recycling industry, is pretty sure that people don’t leave toddlers rules behind, but they develop into adults. Every day people discarded about one million pounds of stuff. The United States estimates that there’s about 85 billion pounds a year of electronics waste that gets discarded around the world every year. And if you throw in other durable goods like automobiles and so far, that number well more than doubles. And of course the more developed the country, the bigger these mountains of trash. For Mike these mountains are not only garbage, but above-ground mine. Why? Because there is a lot of valuable raw materials, which they extract from extremely complicated waste streams. As someone said in TED ‘the world’s getting to be a smaller place with more people in it who want more and more stuff. They want the toys and the tools that many of us take for granted’. To produce those toys and tools we need mostly many types of plastics and many types of metals. To obtain these materials we go to more and more remote locations, and drill deeper or widen mines. These practices have significant economic and environmental implications. In Europe is increasingly beginning to recover materials and recycle end-of-life stuff. Europe has responsible manner in recycling policies. Most of what is extracted from end-of-life stuff, if it makes to a recycler, is the metals. Probably over 90 percent of the metals are going to be recovered and reused for another purpose. Situation with plastics is different: less than 10 percent are recovered and most of it is incinerated or landfilled. That is why because most people think that plastics have very little value. But actually plastics are several times more valuable than steel. Why this is so? Metals are very easy for humans or machines to separate one from another. Plastic because of its properties is difficult to segregate, so the traditional ways of separating materials just simply don’t work for plastics. In the United States where recycling policies is low-cost, people pick through our staff for about dollar a day. They extract what they need – the metals, and leave behind plastics, because they can’t recover it. Or they burn the plastics to get to the metals. This may be low-economic-cost solution, but certainly not the low-environmental or human health-and-safety solution. In Mike opinion “it’s not fair, it’s not safe and it’s not sustainable. Mike describes situations observed during journey to Asia. This is just one example. (…) standing on the rooftops of one of the largest slums in the world in Mumbai, India. They store the plastics on the roofs. They bring them below those roofs into small workshops like these, and people try very hard to separate the plastics, by color, by shape, be feel, by any technique they can. And sometimes they’ll resort to what’s known as the ‘burn and sniff technique where they’ll burn the plastic and smell the fumesto try to determine the type of plastic.

He is telling the story of his life: when and why everything started. About 20 years ago Mike started to figure how to separate very similar materials. More and more his friends got involved in his project. Finally they figured out how to do it, and in the process, they started recreating how the plastics industry makes plastics. The traditional way to make plastics is with oil or petrochemicals. You breakdown the molecules, recombine them in very specific ways. Mike and his friends knew that there should be more sustainable way to make plastics. Sustainable not only for an environmental point, but economic as well. They were using a mining approach to extract the materials. Their plants have lower capital costs, enormous energy savings (about 80-90% than making in traditional way), and can make any type of plastic, not only one like in typical fabrics. They make a drop-in replacement for plastics that’s made from petrochemicals. Because of huge CO2 savings, their customers are really happy.

Mike is describing how their recycling process looks like. First of all metal recyclers shred their stuff into very small bits. Then they recover metals and leave behind shredder residue – a very complex mixture of materials. Later they take out things that aren’t plastics, like metals, carpeting, foam, rubber, wood, glass, paper, even dead animals. The materials are sieved by using magnets or air classification. The first part of the process is more like traditional recycling. At the end of the process there are mixed plastics composite: different types and different grades of plastics. And now is more sophisticated part of process. They grind the plastic down to the size of small fingernail. They use a highly automated process to sort those plastics – by type and grade. At the end of it come little flakes of plastic: one type, one grade. Then they use optical sorting to color sort this materials. They blend it in blending silos. Later the materials are pushed to extruders where they melt it, push it through small die holes, make spaghetti-like plastic strands. At the end they chop strands into pellets. This becomes the currency of the plastics industry. The material is the same that you can get from oil. This whole process turns our old stuff into our new stuff.

Mike wants to show that our old stuff do not have to end on a hillside or go up in smoke, but we can find them in new products, which have been recycled.

His goal in this ‘talk’ is to stop looking at themselves as a consumer and think as just using resources in on form, until it can be transformed to another form, for another use. 

He reminds us that Mother Nature wastes very little, reuses practically everything. We should implanter the wisdom of Mother nature in our life’s..

Translation of the article about Polish Protection of the Baltic Sea Shore

Protection of the Baltic Sea shore

In 2009-2013 will be accomplished project of protecting Baltic Sea shore, which belongs to administration of Municipal Office in Gdynia. This undertaking includes four parts of South Baltic Sea shore: Ostrowo, Rozewie, Hel cape and Westerplatte. Total cost of this project will amount to 69 371 175 zl (around 16 000 000 euro), including 57 937 185 zl share that  European Union gave to Poland, within the scope of Operation Program – Infrastructure and Environment (POIiŚ). The Environmental Protection Fund and Water Economy in Gdańsk play a role of Institution that implements this Operation Program (POIiŚ). Fortifying seashores  is one of the 14 projects which are being accomplishing within a scope  (POIiŚ) program.

-               These projects are investment which refer to environment and people and this is what we need. This (POIiŚ) program is intended for being implemented in big cities, but in the Pomerania region, a lot of rural areas got a bailout. Thanks to it , finally sewage  can be installed there. Projects are being implemented on the Kashubia Region.  Septic tanks very often  were not hermetic properly. When the investment is accomplished, environment will be cleaner and safer for surrounding- says Danuta Drozd, Director of The Environmental Protection Fund and Water Economy in Gdańsk. In the Pomerania region all of these investments are being accomplished according to plan. – she adds.

With a group of journalists  invited by The Environmental Protection Fund and Water Economy in Gdańsk  we had an opportunity to observe works of fortifying seashore  near Ostrowo city.

-               In the Ostrowo area we we were fortifying a 2600 m seashore with the aid of the system invented by Italians. It consists in building artificial dune, the constructions consists of 6 floors. The  ground floor is based on mattress  on which they are layers of “big cages baskets”, in which at the beginning lay down a land, soil and then cages- says Ryszard Dudziak from WMW Company.

They will plant a special type of grass on this built fortification. This type of grass is found in the centre and north parts of Europe, mainly on sea dunes. It produces very long rootstock, what contributes to consolidate dunes. Sea Buckthorn will be also planted, because expands very well and has spikes and provides additional protection against penetration of the area.

-               The strengthening  will be not seen – emphasizes Jacek Adamski from Maritime Department in Gdańsk – This strengthening should hold for about a hundred years, even very strong 12 scale storms. It is formed just to protect against flooding and leaching the only road leading to The Hel Peninsula.

The Hel Peninsula is a special place, of still growing interest in tourists who are attracted by clean air, beautiful sea and the only one Seal Centre in Poland. Another advantage of Hel is undoubtedly access to the most southern tip of the Polish Baltic coast. For the past several decades The Hel Peninsula used by the military was unavailable for tourists. For tens of hectares are military buildings, lo-cating batteries, tank destroyers even before the Second World War, but first and foremost there are great forests and valuable natural areas.

            We are on one of the most unusual places in Europe, a few yards away in the sea is 60-meters fault built only with sand without rocks and stones – in Krzysztof Skóra opinion, from University of Gdańsk this is ingenious natural-geomorphological form.

Unfortunately the cost on southeast of the entrance to the port of Hel is more like a landfill debris and stones after a general renovation.

-               Over a distance of 400m of the shore work will induce reconstruction of seawall. Wall will be built airtight, reinforced bottom and also will be taken strengthening of stones, with the edges of the Gabion rollers – said Roman Kołodziejski from Maritime Department in Gdańsk, and added: Part of the debris will be selected,  some crushed and in addition secured by a stone. It will be a permanent part of strengthening the bank, which in the first place will be effective and secondly look nice.

The area in which will be made the strengthening of the shore is exceptionally natural valuable and belongs, like the Hel Peninsula to the Natura 2000 network.

-               It is an area where we see enormous pressure for redevelopment of the banks, risk is also disordered tourist penetration. This land had previosuly been inaccessible for people as soon as military withdrawn and made this place available, began treading paths in the dunes – said Iwona Pabiś-Beszczyńska, head of Team for Nature Conservation, Environmental Education and Information from Gdańsk. Last year there was a meeting of all interested groups: Wejherowo Forest District, the Regional Directorate of Environment Protection in Gdańsk, representatives of local government from Hel and Gdańsk, scientists and associations. It has been developed a model of tourism, whose element is boardwalk, hiking trails and footbridges over sensitive sand dunes. At first the municipality of Hel has requested Coordination Centre Environmental Projects for funding such a project, but it was rejected.

- Fortunately, Maritime Department wants not only to consolidate the seashore but  protect sand dunes against falling apart, therefore they accepted the improved project of strengthening seashore by building there pathways and a boardwalk. It is possible to accomplish, because we managed to save up the time and parts of means which were allocated to implement the right one project. Currently is taking place a process of gaining licence - Danuta Drozd says.

The realization of the Baltic Seashore Protection Project which are in competence of  Maritime Department in Gdynia would enable on the one hand to consolidate the seashore and improving it esthetic, and to get into order touristic movements on the other hand. It would be able to realize by creating the attractive touristic area, what may reduce investment pressure on that area.

- We want to protect natural values. The cheapest way would be fencing that area, all the more, that exists there the white sand dune and the grey sand dune, which is the priority environmental complex of European Union. Unfortunately, sand dunes play a role and serves as public convenience, ‘dressing room’, and meeting place. The cape is a place of a rest of bird, and besides that spreads over there a beautiful view during the storm. – prof. Skóra says. She mentioned as well that they successfully designed the humanocentric boulevard, where would be located descents to water and space to sit down.

Mrs. Skórka indicate how crucial is to regulate the touristic movement on the cape, cause this place is visited by 370.000people annualy. Those data are delivered by control tower with camcorder which enable to count people and animals. Besides that building of the boardwalk would make possible to display the Laskowski Battery as called “the cape battery”. In 1939 mentioned battery was a crucial element of protecting Polish Seacoast. As was emphasized by Roman Kołodziejski, Maritime Department in Gdynia is counting on collaboration with Association of the Friends of Hel City.

The Sand Dune Park, one of the touristic attraction of Hel, arose on the place where formerly has been  located  seaside dune.

-               We want to present here typical for dunes plant cover of Baltic seashore, with specific for them flora and fauna complexes and other elements of abiotic environment. It enables to present succession stages, and depicts problems connected with protection of seaside dunes against destruction – prof. Skórka says.

 Within the sand dune park has built chain of overdunes bridges (gangways), which will provide tourists and observers with superiority over exposition objects from the one side, while from the other will protect the flora of dunes against trample them. The gangway was built from recycling material. During a stroll we are passing by Sea holly (Eryngium maritimum)

-               Out of this area we collected and removed 600 ton of rubbish including 4 tracks of bottles. Afterwards we planted indigenous species of plants, thanks to that there are already growing and flourishing Sea hollies (Eryngium maritimum) and other protected species. We built particular arbours where are located solar cells which provide lamps located under the gateway with energy. They turn on at the night and compensate shade during the day for plants, they are main source of light and allow plant to photosynthesis. – prof. Skórka says

Just for a while we are visiting marine seal aquarium, where we watching how qualified  medical trainers  are building a relationship between them and seals, in order to have a chance to carry out variety medical tests for instance: how big impact has a noise on sales.

Prof. Skórka is giving to us fish cans simultaneously stressing that we need to watch out and buying only those fish cans which are specially labeled, cause they informed us that fishes were being catched in secure way for porpoise and sales.

Translation of Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria

A. Prezentacja efektywnego stabilnego zarządzania:

· A.1. Firma wdrożyła długoterminowy system stabilnego zarządzania, który jest adekwatny do rzeczywistości i skali oraz bierze pod uwagę środowiskowe, kulturowe, jakościowe i zdrowotne  czynniki.

· A.2. Firma spełnia wszystkie wymogi narodowego oraz lokalnego prawa oraz regulacji ( wliczając w to oprócz innych czynników, także czynniki zdrowia, bezpieczeństwa oraz środowiska)

·   A.3. Wszyscy pracownicy uczestniczą w okresowym szkoleniu, biorące pod uwagę ich rolę w zarządzaniu środowiskiem, kulturową, zdrowiem oraz bezpieczeństwem.

·  A.4. Satysfakcja klienta jest mierzona w odpowiedni sposób i koryguje podjęte akcje, tam , gdzie zachodzi taka potrzeba.

·  A.5. Materiały promocyjne są kompletne i dokładne. Nie obiecują więcej niż jest w stanie zapewnić.

·   A.6. Projekt i konstrukcja budynków i infrastruktury:

·                  A.6. 1. Przestrzega lokalny podział stref oraz wymogi chronionych terenów.

·            A.6.2. Respektuje naturalne oraz kulturowe dziedzictwo okolicy pod względem lokalizacji, projektu, wpływu oceny, prawa ziemi, nabycia.

·                  A.6.3. Używa lokalnych adekwatnych reguł zrównoważonej konstrukcji.

·                  A.6.4. Zapewnia dostęp dla osób o szczególnych potrzebach.

· A.7. Informacje na temat interpretacji naturalnego otoczenia, lokalnego, kulturowego dziedzictwa, konsumenci mają zapewnione, tak samo jak wyjaśnienie adekwatnego zachowania podczas zwiedzania naturalnych obszarów oraz obszarów kulturowego dziedzictwa.

B.  Maksymalizacja społecznych i ekonomicznych korzyści dla lokalnych jednostek społecznych przy jednoczesnym najmniejszym wywieraniu wpływów negatywnych .

· B.1. Przedsiębiorstwo wspiera aktywnie inicjowanie rozwoju infrastruktury społecznej i zaplecza dla zamieszkałej wspólnoty w obrębie edukacji, ochrony zdrowia i higieny.

· B.2. Społeczność lokalna jest zatrudniona, jak również na stanowiskach kierujących. Szkolenia są organizowane po potrzebie.

·  B.3. Przedsiębiorstwo wykupuje lokalne usługi i towary, które są dostępne do nabycia na targach.

·  B.4. Przedsiębiorstwo oferują mniejszym lokalnym przedsiębiorstwom środki do rozwoju i sprzedaży produktów zrównoważonych, które są oparte na naturalnym środowisku oraz historii i kulturze danego kraju (wliczając jedzenie i picie, wyroby rzemieślnicze, dzieła sztuki, produkty rolne)

· B.5. Poprowadzono kodeks prawny dotyczący działań prowadzących w miejscowych i lokalnych społecznościach, przy współpracy i za zgodą z wspólnoty.

·  B.6. Przedsiębiorstwo wprowadziło w życie sposób postępowania  przeciwko komercyjnemu wyzyskowi, w szczególności dzieci i młodzieży, w tym wykorzystywaniu seksualnym. 

·  B.7. Przedsiębiorstwo zatrudnia kobiety i mniejszości lokalne na zasadzie równouprawnienia, w tym na pozycjach kierujących, przy jednoczesnym sprzeciwie zatrudnianiu dzieci i osób niepełnoletnich.

· B.8.  Respektuje się i postępuje zgodnie z międzynarodowym i krajowym prawem  dotyczącym ochrony praw osób zatrudnionych, a zatrudnieniu zostają wynagrodzeni płacą minimalną, zapewniającą środki na utrzymanie.

·  B.9. Działania prowadzone przez przedsiębiorstwo nie zagrażają zaopatrywaniu sąsiednich wspólnot w podstawowe potrzeby, jak dostęp do wody, energii elektryczna, urządzeń sanitarnych.

C. Osiągnięcie maksymalnych korzyści dla dziedzictwa kulturalnego przy jednoczesnej minimalizacji wpływów negatywnych

· C.1. Przedsiębiorstwo kieruje się ustalonymi wytycznymi oraz prawnym kodeksem postępowania dotyczącego odwiedzania miejsc o znaczeniu historycznym lub kulturalnym, w celu zmniejszenia negatywnego wpływu związanego z wizytą, nie umniejszając przyjemności odwiedzającego w związku z jego wizytą. 

·    C.2. Historyczne i archeologiczne artefakty nie podlegają sprzedaży, wymianie, prezentacji, chyba, że jest to dozwolone przez prawo.

·  C.3. Przedsiębiorstwo przyczynia się do ochrony mienia i miejsc ważnych pod względem historycznym, kulturowym, archeologicznym i duchowym oraz nie utrudnia lokalnej społeczności dostępu do niego

· C.4. Przedsiębiorstwo wykorzystuje elementy sztuki miejscowej, architektury oraz dziedzictwa kulturowego podczas projektowania, dekorowania, w sklepach, przy jednoczesnym respektowaniu intelektualnego mienia wspólnoty lokalnej.

D. Osiągniecie maksymalnych korzyści dla środowiska przy jednoczesnej minimalizacji wpływów negatywnych

·    D.1. Ochrona zasobów

o    D.1.1. Polityka nabywcza faworyzuje produkty i dobra przyjazne dla środowiska, takie jak materiały budowlane, środki produkcji, jedzenie i produkty zaopatrzenia oraz dobra masowej konsumpcji

o  D.1.2. Nabywanie produktów jednorazowego użytku i dóbr konsumpcyjnych jest mierzalne, a przedsiębiorstwo poszukuje aktywnie sposobów ograniczenia ich używania.

o  D.1.3. Wielkość zużywania energii elektrycznej powinna być mierzalna, źródła ich pochodzenia wskazane oraz należy podjąć działania w celu ograniczenia całkowitego zużycia energii, zachęcając jednocześnie do korzystania z odnawialnych źródeł energii.

o  D.1.4. Zużycie wody powinno być mierzone, wskazane źródła jej pochodzenia oraz powinny zostać przyjęte środki i podjęte działania  w celu obniżenia całkowitego jej zużycia.

·    D.2. Ograniczanie zanieczyszczeń

o  D.2.1. Kontrola emisji gazów cieplarnianych ze wszystkich źródeł jest mierzona poprzez zakres. Procedury są realizowane w celu zmniejszenia i wynagrodzenia, jako sposób na osiągnięcie neutralności klimatycznej.

o  D.2.2. Ścieki, wliczając szarą wodę, należy uzdatniać i używać ponownie w miarę możliwości.

oD.2.3. Solidny plan gospodarki odpadami jest realizowany poprzez wyznaczenie sobie ograniczeń ilościowych odpadów, które nie nadają się do ponownego wykorzystania lub recyklingu.

o  D.2.4. Stosowanie szkodliwych substancji takich jak pestycydy, farby, środki dezynfekujące do basenu i środki czyszczące, jest ograniczone do minimum i zastąpione przez nieszkodliwe produkty, jeśli są akurat dostępne. Używanie substancji chemicznych jest odpowiednio zagospodarowane i przemyślane.

o  D.2.5. Działalność wykonuje czynności mające na celu zmniejszenie zanieczyszczeń pochodzących z hałasu, światła, odpływów, erozji, związków chemicznych niszczących warstwę ozonową, glebę oraz powietrze.

·    D.3.  Ochrona różnorodności biologicznej, ekosystemów i krajobrazów

o    D.3.1.  Gatunki dzikiej przyrody są zabierane ze środowiska naturalnego, używane, wystawiane lub sprzedawane na rynki międzynarodowe, w ramach działalności, która zapewnia, że ich wykorzystanie jest zrównoważone.

o    D.3.2. Dziko żyjące gatunki zwierząt nie mogą być przechwycone, chyba że są posiadane tylko przez osoby upoważnione i odpowiednio wyposażone do trzymania ich w domu i opieki nad nimi, za wyjątkiem uregulowanych działań dotyczących życia chronionych okazów dzikich zwierząt.

o    D.3.3. Działalność wykorzystuje rodzime gatunki dla dobra krajobrazu i renowacji, podejmuje również działania, które mają na celu chronienie przed pojawieniem się obcych, inwazyjnych gatunków.

o    D.3.4. Działalność przyczynia się do wspierania ochrony różnorodności biologicznej, w tym wspieranie naturalnych obszarów chronionych oraz obszarów o wysokiej różnorodności biologicznej.

o    D.3.5. Interakcje z dziką przyrodą nie mogą wpływać negatywnie na żywotność populacji pozostającej na wolności. Zakłócenia naturalnych ekosystemów są zminimalizowane i odnowione, jak również istnieje wyrównawczy wkład zarządzania ochroną.