Between domestic politics and ecological crises: (De)legitimization of Polish environmentalism

Abstract

While political environmentalism played an important role in social mobilization against communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe before 1989, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s conservationism appeared to be in decline across the region, and external pressure from European institutions and Western donors influenced environmental policy. What explains the effectiveness of protest since the environmental movement emerged in the 1980s? We trace the emergence and evolution of Polish political environmentalism, looking at three levels of the environmental movement's legitimacy: the level of practices, societal support, and discourse. Each phase identified between 1980s and 2017 saw shifts on different levels of legitimacy, and each ended with a spectacular environmental protest or a decision, bearing implications for the following phase. Since 2010, we see a deep polarization of Polish politics, limiting the effectiveness of environmental protest despite the movement's regained triple legitimacy in large parts of the society.

What makes a major change of wildlife management policy possible? Institutional analysis of Polish wolf governance

“…Unlike in the developed world, where environmental concerns expressed since the 1960 translated into a quick growth of the environmental movement and implementation of the new environmental legislation, in Poland they found its effect mainly after the collapse of the communist regime. Favourable conditions in the decade after the democratisation contributed to the heyday of environmental NGOs (particularly those centred on nature protection), adoption of new laws regulating nature conservation and environmental protection, and the proliferation of the initiatives aimed at the protection of natural areas and endangered species, including the wolf [90,91]. Socio-political transition in the early 1990s also contributed to the legal protection of wolves in Slovenia [92] and Romania [93].…”

Congruence between the prioritisation of conservation problems at the local and national scale: an evaluation by environmental scientists in Poland

“…The conflict arose as Polish state forests started cutting protected Białowieża Forests, violating environmental policy and law (Schiermeier 2016;Żmihorski et al 2018). The conflict then spread because intensive and uncontrolled logging encompassed other forest complexes (Szulecka and Szulecki 2019). Intensive forestry was also identified in our scanning as a prevalent national problem.…”

“…The above problems relate to general environmental policy, which is a challenge for both the Polish government and non-governmental organisations. Furthermore, the effectiveness of environmental policy appears to decline across the region of Eastern and Central Europe (Szulecka and Szulecki 2019). The shortcomings of policy were identified in our horizon scanning as belonging to major problems at the national scale.…”

Comparative Renewables Policy

“…Poland's democratization in the 1990s emphasized representation over participation (Szulecka and Szulecki 2019). Seeking to tame the strong social movements that had brought down the Communist regime, the new political elites hesitated to develop systematic procedures for consultation and dialogue with societal groups.…”

“…The period 1990-1991 saw an eruption of environmental legislation in all domains, including energy (Szulecka and Szulecki 2019). In 1990, the Sejm passed the bill 'Foundations for Poland's energy policy until 2010', stating that 'environmental protection should be the main factor influencing the choice of energy sources' and indicating renewables as the preferred solution (Marszałek Sejmu 1990).…”