Petition to save Polesia from E40 waterway construction
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Swimways
The Save Polesia coalition has launched a petition calling on the European Commission and the governments of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus to save the region referred to as “Europe’s Amazon” and stop the construction of the E40 waterway.
Polesia is a gigantic labyrinth of bogs, swamps and streams. It is a major hotspot for biodiversity in Europe, also often referred to as the lungs of the continent.
The planned E40 waterway, a giant shipping channel aiming to connect the Black and Baltic seas, would cut through a large part of the region, affecting its network of natural rivers and wetlands. It would would convert 500 km of the largely natural Vistula river in Poland into a regulated channel.
The construction of the waterway would also affect nearly 200 protected areas and impact heavily on the region’s biodiversity, potentially endangering the survival of already threatened European bison, wolves and lynxes.
The petition, launched in collaboration with WeMove Europe, asks the Commission, Poland, Ukraine and Belarus:
- Not to allocate TEN-T, recovery or any other EU funding for the E40 waterway;
- To abandon the idea to construct E40 waterway given this will impact almost 200 internationally protected areas in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine;
- To protect Polesia’s world class nature and other valuable landscapes along the wild rivers threatened by proposed E40 waterway, including the Natura 2000 sites on the Vistula river in Poland.
More information and a link to sign can be found on the You Move Europe website.