A report of an eight week Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship
General Farming Context
Poland is located in central Europe; bordered by the Baltic Sea to the north, Germany to the west, the Czech and Slovak Republics to the south; and Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Russia to the east. The southern edge of the country is mountainous and the rest is gently undulating low-country, with predominantly sandy soils underlying the higher ground, and peat and clays on the lower ground. It is well forested and has thousands of post-glacial lakes and several long and large rivers which drain north into the Baltic.
Though Polish cultural history is long, it is actually a young country and this has much bearing on the socio-economics and agriculture. One key point that I did not consider properly prior to my visit, was the number of wars and trans-migrations that have occurred over what is now Polish soil. At the end of WWII, probably the most turbulent time in Polish history, there was a transmigration of over 10 million people from the east side to the west side of Poland. This was brought about as Stalin shifted eastern European borders to the west, in order to annex a significant part of Germany.
On the new west side of Poland, many of those refugees moved directly into state run farms, under the newly imposed communist regime. Conversely, on the new east side of Poland, the people did not move significantly and only land holdings in excess of 50 hectares were nationalised. From what I understand, very few land holdings were larger than 50 hectares and so many farmers were able to continue provided that they could work within a communist economic framework. Forty-five years of farming under state supervision or direct control came to an abrupt end in the early 1990s, with the end of communism, and recently economic commentators have described Poland's agriculture industry as 'antiquated, inefficient, and... in need of drastic overhaul'.
In the west side of the country farming is now almost non-existent since the state farms closed. I drove from Warsaw to the western border and saw little more that 10 cows on the whole 6 hour journey. On the east side of the country there are many small, 'subsistence', dairy units with between 5 and 25 cattle although I did come across one or two farms with in excess of 40 cattle. Maize is not widespread and has only really been grown in the last 5 years or so. It is usually grown in plots of up to 1 hectare, close to the farm house, often with measures taken to protect it from wild boar. Barley and oats are commonly grown as fodder along with the maize. Fertilizer and pesticides are not used extensively due to cost.
The most common types of animal used are cross bred Polish Red cattle, although there were quite a number of farmers who seem to be using Friesian or Holstein cattle, again, often cross bred. The Polish people do not seem to eat beef, preferring pork or chicken, and so there is little or no beef farming to speak of. Most farms will have some chickens and a couple pigs. There is very little fencing in the Polish landscape, with most herds being small enough to individually tether or shackle in order to restrict movement.
Environmentally aware Poles are right to point out that Polish farming is, in the main, organic, and that this could be an asset if they can tap into the wealthier markets of western Europe. There is no specific market for organic produce within Poland.
With entry into the EU imminent, restructuring well is underway; but this is a very politically sensitive issue. According to Polish statistics, 25% of the population work in agriculture, generating only 6% of the country's GDP. Large areas are currently abandoned but under state ownership (post communism), and most rural Poles have very little money. To rationalise agriculture in Poland to the extent that it would be competitive with the rest of Europe in the long term would require an enormous reduction in the number of people employed in agriculture. One key concern is that rural Poles will not be able to afford to purchase land and will be disenfranchised within their own country; as city-based investors and farmers from wealthier EU countries move in.
The political scene is Poland is very complex too. It's a young democracy with many political parties and people vote with some passion. The electoral system is proportional representation and the individual parties focus on specific issues. For example, there is an 'Agrarian Party' which focuses on agrarian reform.
Government Agriculture and Environment Structure
The government has separate ministries of 'The Environment' and 'Agriculture and Rural Development' under which there are a number of implementation bodies.
A key implementation body is the 'Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture', which comes under the 'Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development'. This is the agency that is likely to play a key role in developing sustainable wetland farming systems to protect the conservation interest of important grazed wetlands, as it will probably be administering agri-environment payments. Central to the delivery of sustainable wetland farming and biodiversity in Poland is the capability of the two ministries and their associated policy development and implementation agencies to integrate and work in partnership.
Prior to the implementation of a national agri-environment scheme for Poland a pilot scheme has been proposed under the Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (SAPARD). SAPARD aims to help candidate countries deal with the problems of the structural adjustment in their agricultural sectors and rural areas, as well as in the implementation of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) and related legislation - including the requirement to develop an agri-environment programme.
Conservation Legislation
The most important nature conservation legislation in Poland is the Nature Conservation Act 1991. Up until now, nature conservation has been focussed on four special forms of protected areas: national parks, nature reserves, landscape parks, and areas of protected landscape. However, now there is a need to update and adapt Poland's nature conservation policy and legislation in order to come into line with the European Union 'Habitats' (92/43/EEC) and 'Birds' (79/409/EEC) Directives (Click for more info).
Designations
The highest form of nature conservation protection is the national park. According the Nature Conservation Act 1991 "A national park shall include a protected area distinguishable through particular natural, social, and educational values, covering an area of at least 1,000 hectares, in which the entire nature and all landscape features shall be protected."
There are 23 national parks, covering about 1% of the geographical area and taking in examples of the majority of landscape types and ecosystems to be found in Poland. National parks are funded through the 'Ministry of Environment' and they employ over 1,600 staff. 'Nature Reserves' are areas consisting of ecosystems preserved in a natural or 'hardly changed' state established by a decision of a regional administrator or a Minister, where the establishment of such a site is required under Poland's international commitments. 'Landscape Parks' are areas protected because of their natural, historical and cultural, as well as tourist values. 'Protected Landscape Areas' consist of areas with different types of ecosystems which are distinguished by their landscape - Their management should ensure a state of relative ecological equilibrium between natural systems. Landscape Parks and Protected Landscape Areas are not well resourced and have limited protection.
The traditional approach to nature conservation in Poland's National Parks and Nature Reserves was that of non-intervention, study and observation. With some of the earlier designations, people were removed from the parks and it is still the case that any management operations, including the reintroduction of grazing within nature reserves, needs the permission of central committees before they can be undertaken.
Together, these designations account for approximately 30% of the Polish Land area. However, strong protection is really only afforded to 'National Parks' and 'Nature Reserves'. There are proposals to designate 17% of Polish territory as internationally important wildlife sites under the Habitats Directive, much of which will require some kind of grazing management. Only a small fraction of this is protected in National Parks or Nature Reserves. Both National Parks and Landscape Parks are not able to manage grazing stock and they seem to have limited resources for land owner liaison. Often, Park staff members will involve themselves with, or even initiate, NGO's to undertake grazing on behalf of the Park. Funding to date has come predominantly through the department of the Environment's 'National Fund for Environmental Protection' or 'Ecofund'. Ecofund was set up by the Polish government and five crediting governments (USA, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Norway) in order to commute Polish debts in return for environmental protection. Approximately 571 million US dollars have been spent on environmental protection projects as a result of Ecofund.
Both the Polish government and farmers are aware that, with accession to the EU next year, there comes an opportunity to support managers who farm wetlands to maintain their wildlife interest. However, as well as concerns about land ownership, there are worries that subsidies will encourage over intensification with limited regulation to protect the environment. Agri-environment schemes are ambitious but in the early stages of development.