New Vision of the Role of Land Reclamation Systems in Nature Protection and Water Management - Wetlands and Water Framework Directive: Protection, Management and Climate Change - page 88

humans as a privileged species. On the contrary, nature protection sees human
activity as the main source of disturbance in the natural environment. It seems that
this statement is hardly acceptable by man since we are inclined to believe in the
superiority of human interests by our child-rearing, school education, religion and
any disturbance of these beliefs raises conscious or subconscious protest. Irre-
spective of various de nitions, nature protection in its practical aspect focuses on

these elements of biodiversity (species, genes, ecosystems or landscapes) which are
presently endangered. In practice, a common species seldom becomes the object of
interest from representatives of nature protection. If, however, this species faces a
threat, then it becomes the object of their activity, proportional to the scale of
endangerment. So, the author does not see a greater interest in the protection of the
rook in Poland, of the raven recently increasing in number or of poor fox blamed for
posing a threat to many species. Instead, the object of concern is once common
species which are now endangered like the partridge, the black grouse, the northern
lapwing, wolf etc. It thus appears that man cannot be the object of interest of nature
protection specialists since our species is not endangered, especially in the global
scale. It also appears that sometimes objectionable thesis that “ a frog is more

”

important than man is most justi ed since it re fl ects the sense of nature protection

— —

activity. All amphibians in our country are on the list of

protected species, many of them are threatened and so refusing the frog its priority
would negate the message every nature “ protector ” is guided by.
Laborious explanation of the above-mentioned priorities of current nature pro-
tection should be a base of each programme of ecological education since our society
is permanently fed with inconsistent information on this protection by various
groups of interest. Meanwhile, the most important paradigm of currently understood
nature protection is to prevent the domination of any of these groups whose interests
may be contradictory and may lead to the preference or extermination of various
species. For example, dead wood

and probably will be

— an important condition of preserving biodiver-

sity in forest ecosystem is a source of threat for a forester because some xylobionts

(organisms living in wood) may pose a deadly threat to tree stands. The hare craved
by hunters is hated by orchard owners, as is the starling for which we otherwise hang
nesting boxes in parks. Anglers are eager to stock Polish waters with carp

—

— an alien

and invasive species which replaces native benthic-feeding fish species. Hunters are

happy to see the mou fl on and the fallow deer in our forests — both alien to Polish

fauna and competitive for the European red deer.

6.2 Environmental Role of Land Reclamation

There are no such land reclamations that would be favourable for nature in the wild.
Though it now seems obvious, several years ago one could find slogans on positive

role of land reclamation without explaining the environmental context. Neverthe-
less, one had to agree that there are no really natural places in Poland. This may be a