          For Love and Freedom on Clean Mother-Earth!
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"ECODEFENSE!inform" environmental inform-bulletin * number 31 *
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...............................................* OCTOBER 1994 *
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 "ECODEFENSE!"
 Moskovsky prospekt 120-34
 236006 Kaliningrad/Koenigsberg
 Russia
 telephone +7 0112 437286
 E-mail: ecodefense@glas.apc.org

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         BALTIC SEA REGION ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS BULLETIN
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 CONTENT
      
Attention
     THE REMNANS OF NATURAL FORESTS IN FINLAND ARE IN DANGER!
     SAVE ALL REMAINING OLD-GROWTH FORESTS
     
Book
     BIESZCZADY MOUNTAIN GUIDE BOOK
    
Politic
     POLAND COUNTS ON GERMAN SUPPORT FOR HER ENTRY TO EU AND
                                                         NATO
     
Agriculture
     POLAND'S CONSERVATIVE AGRICULTURE
     
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   ACTION ALERT! URGENT! URGENT! URGENT! A REQUEST FOR HELP!
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   THE REMNANTS OF NATURAL FORESTS IN FINLAND ARE IN DANGER!

A programme  for  the  conservation  of  the  last  old-growth
forests is under construction in Finland. This programme needs
international support from  organizations  and  activists  all
over the world. Especially in those countries which import the
bulk of  our  forestry  products:  Germany,  England,  France,
Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Belgium and United
States among others.  The following days are critical. Without
this  programme  these  forests will vanish totally during the
next 5-10 years.  National board of forestry tries to minimize
all protection zones.
Please, send  a  fax  to  our  Goverment  as soon as possible!
Now!!!  Spread the word to  other  activists,  mailing  lists,
newsgroups and NGOs!  Act in 24 hours from the moment you read
this.
The fax number for the Finnish Government is +358-0-160 2099.
(That is int. code+three-five-eight-zero-one-six-zero-two-zero
-nine-nine.) You can use the following text or make your own.
Add your personal / national  point  of  view  regarding  this
issue!
===============================================================
To the Government of Finland

SAVE ALL REMAINING OLD-GROWTH FORESTS!

The overall forest protection situation in Finland is far from
sufficient.  Only 2.1%  of forest land is under  any  kind  of
legal   protection.  In  the  southern  part  of  Finland  the
percentage  is  even  smaller.   The   proposed   Conservation
Programme  for  Old-Growth  Forests  on  state-owned  lands in
southern part of Finland will at its best  raise  this  figure
from 0.38 to only 0.53% in the Programme area
Even this  minimal  proposal faces a danger of rejection.  The
Programme must be immediately  implemented  at  least  in  its
proposed coverage
Many natural  forests  were  left  out  purely  for  political
reasons.  They have to become included in the  Programme.There
are also large areas which haven't been sufficiently surveyed.
The ecological importance of forests in these  areas  must  be
throughoutly  examined  before any forestry activities are put
into practice.  The  Programme  area  must  be  extended  much
further up north as well.
The Government  of  Finland  has  to  ensure  that  sufficient
finance is allocated to the protection of  private-owned  old-
growth  forests.  A  programme  covering  these  lands must be
formulated immediately.  Short sighted cuttings in money  used
for  buying  nature  protection  areas can not be explained by
depression.  Finland has as one  of  the  signatories  of  the
Rio-treaty  on  biodiversity  an  obligation  to  conserve the
biodiversity within its borders as well as elsewhere.
Signature and organisation
---------------------------------------------------------------
P.S. Please,  let us know when and how you have done your part
for this request,  e-mail to us or send a fax.  We'll  provide
further information.
Jarmo Pyykko and Matti Ikonen Finnish Forest Action
Let the Forests Live!
Fax: +358-0-131  14  216  Tel:  +358-0-131  14   220
E-mail: Matti.Ikonen@hut.fi
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               BIESZCZADY MOUNTAIN QUIDE BOOK

     KROSNO, oct. 17: a guide book to the Bieszczady mountains
for americans written by two u.s.  citizens,  Kirk Henwood and
Joe Boglino, will come out still this year.
     The Bieszczady mountains,  the most remote region of this
country,  are  situated in south-eastern poland.  The fauna of
the region  includes  bison  bonasus  (aurochs),  brown  bear,
wildcat,  lynx,  wild  boar  and  deer.  The national park was
established there in 1973 to  preserve  the  wildlife  of  the
Bieszczady mountains. Shepherding, forestry and tourism are of
importance in the region.
     Henwood and Boglino, volunteers of the peace corpse, have
been staying in poland for a few years.  Numerous visits  paid
to  the  Bieszczdy mountains made them write the guide book to
present the region  to  foreign  tourists.
                                                            PAP
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  POLAND COUNTS ON GERMAN SUPPORT FOR HER ENTRY TO EU AND NATO

     Warsaw, oct.  17:  following the victory of the coalition
of chancellor Helmut Kohl in the german elections,  Poland  is
eager  to  continue  polish-german  cooperation and to receive
further german support for membership of  the  European  Union
and  NATO,  reads a communique forwarded by the polish foreign
ministry to PAP on monday.
     The victory of the coalition of Helmut Kohl means that at
a moment of great significance for both europe and the  world,
german  will  continue to be lead by the same team.  "We trust
that  this  team  will  continue  and  further   develop   the
partnership  and  the  mutually beneficial cooperation between
our countries.  We are counting on the further active  support
of germany for our efforts to enter into the structures of the
European Union and NATO," reads the communique.
     The foreign  ministry  also expressed the conviction that
"in matters so important  for  both  countries  and  also  for
european  unification  there  will  be  a  consensus among the
ruling coalition  and  the  opposition  groupings  which  have
arisen       in       result      of      the      elections."
                                                            PAP
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              POLAND'S CONSERVATIVE AGRICULTURE
     
by Piotr Andrzejewski
" Poland must not stand still while the world moves ahead.  If
it does, it will be pushed to the margin of civilisation.
The prosperity  of  Polish farmers will be determined by their
competitions, French, Danish or German, not by bureaucrats. It
is the  competitors  our  farmers  will  have to stand up to",
warned president Lech Walesa during  the  harvest  celebration
ceremony in  Czestochowa.  The president's statement cannot be
accepted without reservations. The competitors are not missing
their chance,  no  doubt,  but  whether  our  agriculture  can
withstand their onslaught  depends  largely  on  "bureaucratic
decisions" otherwise known as the agricultural policy.
It would  be  naive  to  expect  that  the  pace of structural
changes in our agriculture will be comparable to the  pace  at
which the   EC   countries   restructured  their  agricultural
sectors. The   pattern   of   the   Polish   agriculture    is
fundamentally different  from  those  of highly industrialised
West European economies [...]. Farms with less that 10 hectare
holdings account  for  57%  of  the  farmland  held by private
owners, against Denmark's 18%, France's 30% and Germany's 47%.
Agriculture accounts   for  more  than  25%  of  the  national
employment in Poland,  several  times  more  than  in  Denmark
(5.3%), France  (6.7%)  or Germany (3.3%).  Our agriculture is
overpopulated, with   pronounced   regional   differences   in
by-farm-size patterns. In 15 western and northern voivodships,
over 50%  of farmland is held by large farms created from  the
former PGR state-owned farming enterprises. Overpopulation and
hidden unemployment,  far from being the  disease  of  peasant
farms alone,  are  also troubling state-owned farms.  Now that
former PGR enterprises are reducing  employment  under  reform
schemes, farming  is incapable of absorbing in full the supply
of rural labour which is several  times  higher  than  in  the
European Union  countries.  In  fact,  over-employment  was an
important cause of  large  state-owned  farms'  dismal  profit
performance and   of   their  collapse  in  the  wake  of  the
de-regulation of the agricultural sector and the withdrawal of
budget subsidies.
Poland's grain yield per hectare is between 28 and 30 quintals
[100 kg],  against  France's  60  quintals  and  Germany's  50
quintals. Low  labour  productivity on most Polish farms means
low incomes. It is estimated that about 1.5 million farms (70%
of the       entire       farm       population)      generate
unemployment-benefit-level incomes.
The state-owned and cooperative farms are not better  off.  In
1992, only 30%  of the PGR enterprises could afford to proceed
with their usual business  without  major  jolts.  Last  year,
nearly all  public-sector  farms reported losses.  Cooperative
farms are   also   in   severely    strained    circumstances,
particularly those  which  have not branched out into non-farm
business.
"Report on Agriculture",  a document released early this year,
estimates than  only  30%  of  the  Polish farms have adequate
production potentials to adjust to market economy requirements
and that simple replacement of assets is the best the majority
can attempt to achieve.  Only  one-third  of  the  farms,  the
strongest ones, have expanded their production potentials. The
overall condition  of  the  national  economy  doesn't   offer
farmers opportunities   for  moving  into  non-farm  jobs,  or
migrating to towns.
The farming  sector's  1993  indebtedness  stood  at   Zl   21
trillion, of  which  private farmers' debts added up to Zl 9.5
trillion. Interests arrears totalled Zl 400 billion.
This year agriculture will receive Zl 60  trillion  of  budget
money, nearly 10%  of the total budget expenditure.  Subsidies
to low-interest farming loans and loan-servicing  institutions
(including the  Agricultural  Market  Agency whose performance
has aroused much contro versy and the Agency for Restructuring
and Modernisation of Agriculture) exceed Zl 5 trillion.
             (to be concluded in next issue)
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ECODEFENSE!inform bulletins get more than 150 env.NGOs of EARTH
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Editorial Board thanks for financial  help  from  "Sowing  the
Seeds  of Democracy:  A project for Environmental Grant-Making
in   tha   NIS"    program,    which    realize    by    ISAR.
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The reprint are welcome (with  the  reference,  if  possible).
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Editorial  Board:   Alexandra   Koroleva,   Vladimir   Sliviak
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