During a break at the conference "Sustainable Management of Natural Resources – A Driver of Economic Development in the Baltic Sea Region", held on 25 October at Daugavpils University, I invited Professor Piotr Mederski from the Poznań University of Life Sciences for a brief conversation.
His short message on forests and current events in Poland.

In my opinion, we should start talking about and informing people about forests while they are still in school. However, school children and young people should not just be taken to a beautiful, clean, well-tended forest or a National Park to show them what a forest is. A forest is nature, wood, recreation, the use of the forest, felling, and a bird's nest or a tree hollow. For children and young people, a field trip should start in the forest and continue to a felling site, a sawmill, and further on to a furniture factory or another wood processing workshop. Because furniture, wooden floors, chairs, tables, and benches all come from the forest; they are connected to the forest. Wood finishing and processing is also forestry – the use of the forest.

In Poland, forests cover just over 29% of the territory. We have 20 National Parks. As far as I know, the experience and situation in Latvia and Poland are similar – people forget that the use of the forest is a significant part of the national economy. This is true in Poland, and it is true in Latvia.

For some time now, the topical issue for us regarding the Białowieża Forest has remained unchanged. The spruce bark beetle is active. Moreover, people hear stories and tales about the Białowieża Forest and do not know that the vast area we call by this name consists of both a protected area and a working forest. No forest management takes place in the protected area. The beetle, of course, knows no borders – protected or working forest, to the beetle, they are just spruces! The beetle is feeding with delight! Naturally, the bark beetles spread outside the protected area and cause damage. Nature lovers do not allow us to limit or stop the spread and gluttony of the beetles. People are in the grip of stereotypes. An actress or a pretty face from TV appears on the screen, wailing or warning about the dire situation in the forests. But they forget what a forest really is!