The aim of the Movement for Defence of Polish Forests (Ruch Obrony Lasów Polskich) association is to maintain the current ownership structure of Polish forests, to prevent the partition of the State Forests districts, to increase afforestation in the country and to act on behalf of balanced forests’ development- the guarantor of ecological country security.

The formation of the Movement for Defence of Polish Forests was the answer to the governmental (AWS-UW) re-privatisation project which was not only aimed at giving back nationalised after the II WW forests to their former owners but also at treating forests as compensation for other properties.

The initiative to organise a meeting on the 6 of January 1998 came from a group of foresters guided by Stefan Arbatowski. This event created the opportunity to form an association called the Movement for Defence of Polish Forests (ROLP). The 31 March 1998 the first conference of ROLP took place, its administration was organised and the action plan was created. Polish Forest Associaton seconded willingly this social initiative. They shared and have still been sharing their offices with ROLP.

The Movement for Defence of Polish Forests has the protection of polish nature, especially of Polish forests, of national parks in their postulates. They guard also the ethics and the ethos of the forester job. The movement protects the balanced, multifunction model of forest management and of the State Forests National Forest Holding (the State Forests). Thanks to the 100-year protection of nature, guaranteed by mentioned institution, the Poles have rich forest ecosystems well preserved for them and their future generations.

While its existence, the ROLP every time protested the privatization of state forests and went against presenting to public opinion false, scientifically unconfirmed information about the condition of forest ecosystems in Poland and the Polish Foresters’ works. The ROLP objected to the government’s conception of transforming the State Forests into a public limited-liability company. For example, in the winter of 1999, together with „Left-wing Alternative” they organised a demonstration against the privatization of the state forest proprieties in front of the Polish parliament building. Other protests of the ROLP association were organised against the changes in pieces of legislation adverse to The State Forests. For example, the members of ROLP protested against the 22% VAT tax on timber (October 2003) and against the 6% VAT tax that the State Forests were supposed to pay on their timber revenue (July 2003). The ROLP presented their critical assessments of the Natura 2000 network, the unstable human resource policies of the State Forests, and the unfavourable for State Forests’ wording of public auction law. The association not only objected to the project of the compensation law (CP 2008) or took part in a protest against reoccurring attempts to privatise the State Forests, but in 2010, they also were against the law that would allow the Minister of Finance to reach for a budget surplus of the State Forests company. The ROLP wasn’t indifferent to the misleading statement about the Białowieża Forest being called the ancient forest which resulted in adverse to Białowieża Forest’s districts judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The ROLP association will always fight for the well-being of our common heritage which is the Polish State Forests. It will always object to false statements and socially unsupported
attempts to change or manipulate the law to administrate the forests through the agency of the European Commission.