Let's create a National Park
Lower Odra Valley
within the borders of the current landscape park – Międzyodrze
Unique Nature - Opportunity for residents - Safety of people and the river - An opportunity for cooperation
phot. Piotr Chara
Unique Nature
Our European Amazonia: Międzyodrze lying in the heart of the Lower Odra Valley! A great variety of fauna and flora, a long list of protected species, birds alone, there are over 200 species (125 breeding ones), including many threatened with extinction. It is an almost completely wild land of peat bogs, wet meadows, a tangle of canals, backwaters and even lakes, mostly completely inaccessible to humans. An area with an extraordinary history with several dozen historic hydrotechnical structures. Still an undiscovered land for many! This isolation is conducive to natural wealth, which in this part of Europe is something unique and therefore requires protection.
phot. Piotr Piznal
Opportunity for residents
The national park is also - we want to emphasize it clearly - people who are as important as nature. Residents of communes located in the Lower Odra Valley can only benefit from establishing a national park. Nature, unique on a European scale, can be an extremely important element of the local economy, because the status of a national park is a stimulator of economic development, especially in the sector related to tourism. In the case of Międzyodrze, within the borders of the current landscape park, there is no conflict with forestry, because no wood is harvested in this area, recreational and commercial fishing will still be possible here. We want to take care of the active protection of the canals so that they do not overgrow.
phot. Piotr Piznal
Safety of people and the river
The national park in the Lower Oder Valley is also a better protection against ecological disasters. Such as the one from the summer of 2022. If it wasn't for Międzyodrze, the fish would have nowhere to escape from the wave of poisoned water and even more of them would die, and the disaster would spread further to the waters of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Baltic Sea. Międzyodrze is a natural reservoir of water that can receive it during floods, protecting the cities along the Odra River, and give it back during droughts. Międzyodrze is a wonderful refuge from which nature in the Oder can recreate itself.
“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living”
Sir David Attenborough
An opportunity for cooperation
Let us not forget that the Lower Odra Valley is a cross-border land that we share with our neighbors, Germany. And they already in the 90s of the last century established a national park on their part of this area. Creating a national park on the Polish side is an opportunity for better cooperation with our western neighbors. Their part of the valley is not as wild as ours, so they will be happy to visit it.
phot. Piotr Piznal
Have a question?
If you have any questions, doubts, would like to join us or help in any way, please contact us.