Via Baltica - Poland's nature under threat

What is the problem?

Current situation

In October 2007 there was a change of Polish Government and the new Environment and Infrastructure Ministers established a ‘Round Table’ to seek a compromise solution for Augustow Bypass, in which the Polish NGOs participated. As an outcome of the Round Table a new environmental assessment was carried out looking at three different routes – two going around rather than through the valley. Based on the results of this new study, in March 2009 the Polish Prime Minister announced that his Government would avoid building a highway through the Rospuda Valley Natura 2000 site. Instead, they will solve the traffic problems by building the road on an alternative route that avoids the Valley. 
This decision is a great victory for Europe’s natural heritage and for all who care for it! It clearly shows how infrastructure development and Natura 2000 can go together, provided that there is political will and respect for the EU legislation. In recognition of this decision in April 2009 the European Commission closed its legal case against Poland on the Rospuda Valley. 

However the Via Baltica campaign did not stop here. Unfortunately, Rospuda Valley was only one of the Natura 2000 sites threatened by the Polish authorities’ preferred ‘Bialystok route’ for the Via Baltica road corridor. Others still under threat included the world famous Biebrza Marshes.  In summer 2008 the Polish authorities presented a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report to inform the choice of the Via Baltica route corridor for consultation. This SEA strongly recommended an alternative western route for Via Baltica via Lomza which would be much less damaging to Natura 2000 sites than the eastern route via Bialystok and is also shorter, cheaper and technically simpler. In October 2009 the Polish Council of Ministers took the strategic decision to route the Via Baltic via Lomza based on the SEA results.  This is great news and BirdLife is now urging the Polish authorities to implement this decision as a matter of urgency and include the new route in the upcoming revision of the TEN-T in Poland.

In December 2009 there was more good news when the Polish authorities released the new consent for Augustow Bypass which confirms that the road will bypass Augustow Primeval Forest and the magnificent Rospuda Valley.  This will be the first section of the Via Baltica corridor built on the new (less damaging) route!

We applaud these recent decisions – there is already much we can celebrate!  But the case is not quite over yet. 
There are concerns that Poland is still going to proceed with the other upgrade projects on the old Bialystok route for Via Baltica. With the new route for this  corridor settled there is a need to reconsider the scale of the projects on the old route to avoid damage to Natura 2000 sites.
Furthermore, the Polish Government is now attempting to include in the Polish TEN-T network a new road corridor that partially overlaps with the old ‘Via Baltica’ route – the 'Via Carpatia'.The 620 km planned Via Carpatia international road corridor in Poland would affect 18 existing and planned Natura 2000 sites. Given the strategic importance of the Via Baltica case - potential impacts on the individual sites and the precedent it sets - BirdLife will continue to follow it closely.

In April 2010 Malgorzata Górska from OTOP (BirdLife in Poland) was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize - the world’s top prize for grassroots activists - for her leadership of the successful campaign which stopped a road being built through Poland’s precious Rospuda Valley.  We are delighted that Malgorzata has won this prize.  Her determination to protect the area’s vast tracts of primeval forests, ancient peat bogs and valuable wetlands should serve as an inspiration to fellow conservationists across the world and demonstrate that it is possible to find win-win solutions which reconcile nature and economic interests.