The government is conducting consultations on a strategy to protect wetlands. The extensive document contains numerous contentious provisions. Farmers from the Podlasie region are protesting, fearing the flooding of their fields and the collapse of cattle breeding. Concern has also been raised about clauses that would allow non-governmental organizations to purchase land for nature conservation. The costs of restoring peatlands and marshes are estimated in the document at PLN 24 billion.
The first “Wetlands Protection Strategy” was drafted during the rule of Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość). The right-wing government ultimately chose not to implement the strategy, concluding that other matters were more urgent. However, environmental activists continue to press for the restoration of marshes and peatlands, arguing that this is one of the most effective ways to combat greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that drained peatlands account for approximately 5 percent of global human-caused emissions. In Poland, the figures are even more striking, as an estimated 85 percent of peatlands and marshes have been drained. Their total area is estimated at up to 5.7 million hectares (comprehensive data are lacking). Many of these areas were drained for agricultural use. The total length of drainage ditches across Poland is estimated at 350,000 kilometers.
Farmers’ Concerns
The government has presented a strategy whose main objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent and improve biodiversity. This also aligns with the requirements of the European Commission, which seeks to see 50 percent of peatlands restored by 2050 and one-third of these areas re-wetted. This is expected to generate conflicts with farmers. According to the government document, farmers currently use 906,000 hectares of former peatlands. It is therefore unsurprising that concern has arisen immediately among farmers, particularly those in Podlasie.
“According to activists from Podlasie, the ‘Wetlands Protection Strategy in Poland’ in its current draft form fails to provide a reliable analysis of the catastrophic economic consequences. A hectare of grassland generates fodder worth PLN 8,000-12,000 annually. Blocking mowing and grazing would reduce milk production by 30-40 percent. This could mean the liquidation of herds, the collapse of dairy plants, and mass unemployment,”
writes the AgroPolska.pl portal, citing the position of the Podlaskie Agricultural Agreement.
It is Eastern Poland that will feel the effects of this strategy most acutely. The pilot program includes the creation of the so-called Green Shield East. The project envisions flooding areas within a 15-kilometer strip along the Polish-Belarusian border and has been lobbied for months by a group of scientists who organized a global protest concerning the border fence. At the turn of 2021 and 2022, they compiled a list of 1,833 scientists, and their arguments were echoed at the United Nations forum by the Belarusian regime. In any case, the Ministry of Climate emphasizes that, from an emissions perspective, agriculture bears significant costs. “Assuming the price of CO₂ emissions on the European emissions market, the current costs of agriculture resulting from greenhouse gas emissions amount to PLN 8.08 billion annually,” the strategy states.
The strategy also envisages a range of legislative amendments. One of the proposed changes would allow non-governmental organizations, in addition to the state, to purchase agricultural land.