On 9-12th September 2009 representatives of the European Environment Agency stayed at Białowieża Forest in north-eastern corner of Poland where they collected materials for projects developed by the Agency:
- Gordon McInnes - EEA Deputy Executive Director; for biodiversity stories which describes precious natural areas and stories of people related to a given area;
- Bert Jansen: for the European atlas of environmental changes and community action - carried out jointly by EEA, ESA and UNEP (in 12 selected locations in Europe).
The delegation was assisted by a camera operator and two employees of the Department of Monitoring and Environmental Information at CIEP (GIOŚ), where the EEA National Focal Point, co-organizing the visit, is located.
Many hours of work in the field allowed the participants to film some high nature value resources of the Forest. Agency representatives, assisted by a tour-guide, could admire the secrets of natural processes occurring in one of the world's most precious Biosphere Reserves. They also took advantage of a unique opportunity to observe free Polish bisons at dawn in the Natural Forests Reserve at Białowieża Forest. Conversations with the management and employees of the Białowieża National Park allowed the guests to get to know the aspects of Park management. The culmination of the stay was an international conference „Heritage obliges - 600 years of Białowieża Forest protection" organized by the Ministry of Environment in Poland. The European Environment Agency expressed its thanks for organization of the visit and pointed out that the unique footage, hundreds of incredible pictures and collected information will allow to develope a fascinating, in the opinion of the Agency, story in the series Our Natural Europe - making connections, which is prepared in cooperation with the European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET). After completion of projects, the results of work, as well as all EEA studies will be disseminated by the European Environment Agency among others via its portal.
