Władysław Szafer i Józef Próchnik w debacie o przyszłości poleskiej przyrody

Abstrakt

Shortly after Poland regained its independence in 1918, a law was proposed that would comprehensively protect the environment. The idea was, however, considered somewhat premature, as there was no existing expertise on how it would affect different aspects of social and economic life. The leaders of the environmental movement in the country believed that such a law should not be determined at a negotiating table but arise from everyday practice. How it actually worked out can be seen in the dispute between the State Council for Nature Protection (established in 1925) and the Bureau of Amelioration of Polesia (established in 1928) over the amelioration of Polesian marshes. This was sparked off in early 1929 when the Council began warning of possible negative effects of extensive drainage and demanded that environmental concerns be taken into account by the amelioration engineers. Józef Próchnik, the director of the Bureau, considered this an illegitimate critique of his activities and angrily attacked the Council’s president, Władysław Szafer. Próchnik accused him of misleading the public and creating an unnecessary alarm. This conflict showed the limits of the Council’s own independence and the real position of the environmentalists in the kaleidoscope of power in interwar Poland.